Time to ditch the pint?

Clare_Culchie

It just crossed my mind, and don't crucify me here, that perhaps with the pubs shut this might be a very good time to make the switch of our drinks measures from imperial to metric, and more closely align ourselves with our EU brethren.

It would mean a decrease in the standard serving size from 568ml (1 pint) to 500ml.

There is a positive correlation between reduction of serving size and the reduction in alcohol consumption and, ergo, improvement in health.
https://europepmc.org/article/med/29756262

Eoinbmw

Clare_Culchie wrote: »

It just crossed my mind, and don't crucify me here, that perhaps with the pubs shut this might be a very good time to make the switch of our drinks measures from imperial to metric, and more closely align ourselves with our EU brethren.

It would mean a decrease in the standard serving size from 568ml (1 pint) to 500ml.

There is a positive correlation between reduction of serving size and the reduction in alcohol consumption and, ergo, improvement in health.
https://europepmc.org/article/med/29756262

Sounds like a big expense to an already crippled industry?

Chivito550

Eoinbmw wrote: »

Sounds like a big expense to an already crippled industry?

In Qatar they serve 500ml in a pint glass. Every time I got a beer there, I felt cheated. I even went back a few times to ask for it to be filled to the top before I realised the reason. At 14 quid a beer, I felt the least they could do was fill it up.

Would love to see them try to serve 500ml in a pint glass here!!

Tec Diver

If it means that more people are drinking less alcohol then I'm in agreement. Alcohol abuse in this country has a massive effect on families etc.

Eoinbmw

Tec Diver wrote: »

If it means that more people are drinking less alcohol then I'm in agreement. Alcohol abuse in this country has a massive effect on families etc.

Deal with the abuser then!

gctest50

https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/page/alcohol-daily

ShyMets

Na. The metric system is overrated

Wanderer78

Tec Diver wrote:

If it means that more people are drinking less alcohol then I'm in agreement. Alcohol abuse in this country has a massive effect on families etc.

To be honest, I'd put the money into our mental health and support services for such things, as I suspect, changing glass sizes, won't make the blindest bit of difference here

SEPT 23 1989

Heresy!

WrenBoy

Not to be overly dramatic, but I would engage in domestic terrorism if this happened.

biko

And change "1/4 pound cheese" to "100 gram cheese"?

No, just no.

Chivito550

Tec Diver wrote: »

If it means that more people are drinking less alcohol then I'm in agreement. Alcohol abuse in this country has a massive effect on families etc.

In much of Australia they drink a ridiculous measure called a schooner (three quarters of a pint) and they are still the worst I've ever seen for alcohol-induced violence. Fights are common place over there, to a much more noticeable extent to here. I've even noticed bouncers getting in on the act!

sydthebeat

No because there is no tangible positive from going from a pint to a litre.

Lots of negatives

How could you pull the "prefect pint"??

RandRuns

Why?

Beasty

Thread moved from the Coronavirus Forum

JasonStatham

Just close the pubs permanently.

corks finest

Clare_Culchie wrote: »

It just crossed my mind, and don't crucify me here, that perhaps with the pubs shut this might be a very good time to make the switch of our drinks measures from imperial to metric, and more closely align ourselves with our EU brethren.

It would mean a decrease in the standard serving size from 568ml (1 pint) to 500ml.

There is a positive correlation between reduction of serving size and the reduction in alcohol consumption and, ergo, improvement in health.
https://europepmc.org/article/med/29756262

Better off ditching it all altogether, thought I loved it but after slowly getting fed up with the weekly hangover etc, realise that as one gets older the Beamish was a killer, used go out once a week then once a month then at Xmas time, wasn't for me used have a hangover after 4/5 pints, social side I missed terribly for a while.
My own personal view point as I can see the positives of alcohol but the negatives far outweigh them.
Worked as a doorman for nearly 30 years so saw both sides, and worked and travelled all over the world and can say hand on heart that us Irish have a vv bad relationship with the booze, daughter in oz cringes at the weekly fighting, hassle and general mayhem caused by young Irish in Perth

Donegal Overlanding

WrenBoy wrote: »

Not to be overly dramatic, but I would engage in domestic terrorism if this happened.

You probably said that, along with thousands of others, when they were talking about introducing a smoking ban. Yet Ireland was the first and took it amazingly well.

ohnonotgmail

if they did change from a pint to 500ml you can guarantee that the publicans wouldn't change the price charged

corks finest

gctest50 wrote: »

https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/page/alcohol-daily

Yet the Irish and brits are the only gangs that cause mayhem on the streets weekly after booze

Wanderer78

JasonStatham wrote: »

Just close the pubs permanently.

why?

corks finest

Chivito550 wrote: »

In much of Australia they drink a ridiculous measure called a schooner (three quarters of a pint) and they are still the worst I've ever seen for alcohol-induced violence. Fights are common place over there, to a much more noticeable extent to here. I've even noticed bouncers getting in on the act!

Amazing that it's the young Irish getting the bad rap in Perth as the stand out messers and troublemakers then?

Chivito550

Chivito550 wrote: »

In much of Australia they drink a ridiculous measure called a schooner (three quarters of a pint) and they are still the worst I've ever seen for alcohol-induced violence. Fights are common place over there, to a much more noticeable extent to here. I've even noticed bouncers getting in on the act!

That's in the breeding IMO... Nothing to do with drink.

Renault 5

biko wrote: »

And change "1/4 pound cheese" to "100 gram cheese"?

No, just no.

Vincent:
And you know what they call a... a... a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?

Jules:
They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese?

Vincent:
No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the f*** a Quarter Pounder is.

Jules:
Then what do they call it?

Vincent:
They call it a Royale with cheese.

Jules:
A Royale with cheese. What do they call a Big Mac?

Vincent:
Well, a Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it le Big-Mac.

Jules:
Le Big-Mac. Ha ha ha ha. What do they call a Whopper?

Vincent:
I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King.

seamus

corks finest wrote: »

Yet the Irish and brits are the only gangs that cause mayhem on the streets weekly after booze

Seems unnecessary. Nobody gains anything. You get to say, "we do metric pints" now, but what's the point in that?

The argument that it reduces alcohol intake and would have any knock-on effect on abuse is nonsense. Alcohol abusers don't go out for two pints. They drink until they can't fit in any more.

Cans have been 500ml for decades, and it hasn't affected alcohol abuse.

hi5

They did have half litres here in Ireland back in the 1980's.
They brought them in when the price of the pint went over 1 punt.

suicide_circus

Yes. More generic sameness, standardisation and uniformity, thats what we need.

From my cold dead pickled hand!

DellyBelly

Actually think this is a great idea.

beauf

Spend a bit of time in Germany with Mass glass...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%C3%9F

... And when you come back a pint feels like a half glass.

partyguinness

Well if you think about it...at what other time does anyone consume a full pint of any liquid..and 5 or 6 in the space of a few hours?

Pint of tea/coffee/Mint tea anyone?

CrazyFather1

Why would we need to ditch the pint?
The size of the glass is not the problem. Even if you got rid of it then people would just drink more bottles. If people want to get stupid drunk they will do it.

seamus

beauf wrote: »

Spend a bit of time in Germany with Mass glass...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%C3%9F

... And when you come back a pint feels like a half glass.

Ten lads on our first German beer festival, barely 3 hours off the plane and we stupidly started drinking these like pints.

It wasn't long until we were only fit for bed. Paced ourselves the rest of the weekend!

Dr Turk Turkelton

"Half litres with the lads" doesn't have the same ring to it so it's a no from me.

Fake Scores

The Irish spirit measure is ​1⁄4 gill(35ml)

Maybe it's time to change it to 100ml.


Whilst a packet of manhatten salted peanuts is 50g which is fine, the packet of scampi fries is 27g and this is an unacceptably irregular number.

KungPao

I quite like the imperial system. It has tradition and character, unlike metric which feels so clinical.

I do a lot of DIY at home, and naturally measuring stuff has to be done. Practically always measure in metric, but the other day it was handier to use the old fashioned inches...It made me feel like a real man.

“Can I have 500mls of Guinness and 2 500mls of Heineken”. Never gonna work.

For Forks Sake

banie01

Augeo wrote: »

That's in the breeding IMO... Nothing to do with drink.

I fully support this theory and indeed have previously undertaken research into the hypothesis that people from locales that start and end with "A"

Are endemically thick!

Athlacca sparked this theory, it quickly expanded to cover Australia, Austria, Argentina, and then grew to Asia, America and Africa before the hypothesis collapsed.

I may undertake further work to see if it can be reconciled to a function of Population Vs Area Vs Educational spend....

Donegal Overlanding

KungPao wrote: »

I quite like the imperial system. It has tradition and character, unlike metric which feels so clinical.

I do a lot of DIY at home, and naturally measuring stuff has to be done. Practically always measure in metric, but the other day it was handier to use the old fashioned inches...It made me feel like a real man.

“Can I have 500mls of Guinness and 2 500mls of Heineken”. Never gonna work.

It drives me mental. I'm building a project, and despite dealing with everything in metric, we have so many people answering in imperial, or even worse, mix and matching the two mid-conversation.

nolivesmatter

seamus wrote: »

Seems unnecessary. Nobody gains anything. You get to say, "we do metric pints" now, but what's the point in that?

The argument that it reduces alcohol intake and would have any knock-on effect on abuse is nonsense. Alcohol abusers don't go out for two pints. They drink until they can't fit in any more.

Cans have been 500ml for decades, and it hasn't affected alcohol abuse.

Which has always made it a disappointment emptying them into pint glasses at home. If anything lets convert the 500ml cans to pints.

Mrs OBumble

Augeo wrote: »

That's in the breeding IMO... Nothing to do with drink.

Convict stock. Wonder where they came from ....

Sorcha Dhuisigh _She_Her_

I really think this would be a good idea. Our reliance on Imperial measurements is a post colonial hangover (pardon the pun).

banie01

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Convict stock. Wonder where they came from ....

True, but they were the "bad" convicts in that were caught, convicted and transported

You don't breed thoroughbreds from lame stock :P

Eoinbmw

Eoinbmw wrote: »

Deal with the abuser then!

Deal with the abuser? Are you mad? That's a bit confrontational for us little 'ol Irish people. Easier to just take it away from everyone.

randd1

How about we reduce the size of a standard pint glass to a 500ml glass? It'll look the same, just a tiny bit smaller. And going with the Pulp Fiction theme, we could then just call the new glass a Royale?

"What'll you have?"
"A Heineken Royale and two Royale's of Guinness, please"

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Tom O Neil wrote: »

Ditch the pint? Sure why not become vegan and wear your wife's panties while you're at it?

Can't see that working outside of Drogheda.

duffman3833

Clare_Culchie wrote: »

It would mean a decrease in the standard serving size from 568ml (1 pint) to 500ml.
https://europepmc.org/article/med/29756262

But the prices of a "pint" will not go down to reflect this, they will more than likely go up to cover the cost of replacement glasses.
Keep it the way it is, its expensive enough and id like to get as much as i can for my €

Apiarist

Tom O Neil wrote: »

Ditch the pint? Sure why not become vegan and wear your wife's panties while you're at it?

Nothing wrong with being vegan, or wearing pretty lace panties if you are so inclined.

But the pint is sacred! And the premise that we will drink less in 500ml portions is preposterous. Surely, if you are used to have 3 pints at a time, you won't be satisfied with 3x500ml, you will have to get another sub-par measure of beer, making you drink more, not less.

El_Duderino 09

ShyMets wrote: »

Na. The metric system is overrated

The metric system isn’t overrated. It’s the system that tells the world that you’re willing to speak a common language in measurement.

But I can’t see much point changing making the unit of drink in the domestic pub. They could change it to the “568ml glass of beer - formerly known as a pint” but I wouldn’t use it and a way to get pepper to drink less. The metric system and alcohol consumption are totally separate issues.

I’m a big fan of the metric system but I don’t see the point in this change. We don’t measure anything else in pints anymore so it makes no difference.

Fredinho

They may take our lives... But they'll never take our pints...

You can flip off if you think we're going metric.

Imagine saying I'm off out for a metric drink....

Going for a pint is a part of the furniture and long may it continue

ShyMets

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

The metric system isn’t overrated. It’s the system that tells the world that you’re willing to speak a common language in measurement.

But I can’t see much point changing making the unit of drink in the domestic pub. They could change it to the “568ml glass of beer - formerly known as a pint” but I wouldn’t use it and a way to get pepper to drink less. The metric system and alcohol consumption are totally separate issues.

I’m a big fan of the metric system but I don’t see the point in this change. We don’t measure anything else in pints anymore so it makes no difference.

Call me old fashioned. Just don't Shirley. But I'll stick with the Imperial system. There is something to cold and calculated about the metric system. And if it means I'm not speaking a common language, I'm ok with that

Captcha

Isn't the smaller glasses in hotter countries used simply so you dont end up drinking warm beer half way through your drink?