Dodgy Pub practices!!

In "little" Malta, when I lived there. There is a huge area set aside for 24 hour vodka bars, clubs etc. All tastes catered for. It's called Paceville. In one of the vodka bars we went in and got comfortable. It was quite late (4am). Noticed a strong bleaching smell coupled with white spirits emanating from all around us. Went over (covertly) and noticed a few girls topping up the vodka/bacardi bottles with what smelled very like white spirits. It cought them by surprise and I asked them what were doing to the bottles at 4am. "topping up" one replied. Suffice to say we all ran out of the bar screaming (well the girls did and I kinda went along with it), never to go in there again. Don't trust late bars at really really late hours. Be very careful. :eek::eek::eek:

Statso wrote: »

Mine doesn't try any fast ones. Theres still good pubs around. I imagine its more of a problem in Dublin.

See! He's pulling a fast on us right now!

I don't drink shorts myself, but I wonder would many people notice if a cheaper version of vodka / gin / whatever was used rather than a branded name?

I saw this on 'Mythbusters' so it must be true

If you get a cheap generic vodka and pass it through an ordinary filter seven times (like the Brita filters you use for water) it finishes up tasting like premium vodka. They tested it with this guy who was a vodka 'sommelier' and he was able to blind test and say how many times each glass had been through the filter. At the end he wasn't able to tell the difference between the 7 times filtered stuff and the premium brand. True!

My sister only drinks Smirnoff and can tell when it's not the real deal, must try the filtering trick on her.

ROCKMAN wrote: »

Here's one I have seen in London ,but never in Ireland.
It would be done to Regulars as a joke or if they where pissed and the staff thought they had enough and did not want them getting any drunker, it was not done to cheat anyone.

Get the end of a pint of Guinness with a the head and a small bit of colour (the black stuff) left in the end of the class. Fill the pint back up with tap water , let it settle (may need a small touch of lager from the tap , for head effect) IT WILL LOOK LIKE PINT OF LAGER
If there is a lot of colour in the end of glass ,it will look like ale.

I heard about that in Galway years ago. The Kings Head had problems with the amount of pints getting sent back.The brewery and reps tried everything but still loads and loads of pints were still getting sent back. They realised this was only happening on student nights :rolleyes: so the brewery sent down a youngfella to drink and watch what was going on. He saw lads filling the ends of Guinness with water and then exchanging it for another pint.

I think most places are wide to that one now though.

ashyle wrote: »

how do they re-cap??

All you have to do is put the cap back on and give it a good whack. Then put it back in the fridge.

Hauk

Done most of these. Re-cappin and topping up brand name with others are fairly common.

Best ever was a drink called "Spritz" (essentially sparkling rose wine like w.c.c. only muck) we got 10 cases free for promotion. Couldnt ship them even at special €3 bottle prices. Eventually had a brainstorm glasses of pink champagne at €4 a glass, got 2 glasses out of a bottle and shipped them at €8 a bottle. I was a cnut of a barman

Have worked in 2 bars in my student days and never saw anything dodgy (and I would have been around enough to know!).

On the recapping thing. That's done in pretty much every pub. Most of the time (and again, down to how legit the pub is), it's fine.

It's necessary due to the amount of drunken people who change their minds half way through their order. You'd love to tell them to **** off and pay for it, but it's not worth the hassle.

In both places I worked, the recapped bottle would be put to the front of the fridge and typically sold within 10 minutes anyway. once it's recapped right, it wouldn't really lose it's fizz for a few hours.

Any that were in the fridge for a while or at the end of the night were graciously consumed by the staff!

IRISH RAIL wrote: »

They dont test every one its just which ones they bother to drain into a bottle cap and send down to the lab roughly one in 5, and even if shennanigans was called by diageo the bar owner would say " are you calling me a liar ill get beamish in here instead" to which diageo would say" of course not our lab must be wrong have a free keg on us" funny because its true :eek:

Somehow I doubt that. One little pub won't make a difference to Diageo. Diageo is a massive drinks company. I would imagine the bar would suffer from not having Guinness, Smithwicks, Harp, Smirnoff and Goldshlager.

kraggy wrote: »

How so?

It's made by Guinness.

Guinness was a protestant...

ShooterSF wrote: »

Add to that Carlsberg and Budweiser.

and baileys and archers

Ive worked in a few pubs and seen a few dodgy pracises already outlined above, but this one I personally experienced was the worst ever.

I was in Liverpool about 2years ago, one Sunday we went to do the anfield tour. When we were finished we stopped into a pub literally a stones throw from the ground for an early pint. So in we went about 1pm to this horrible little smokey boozer. The auld dear behind the bar was a wheezing shuffling heart attack no younger than 70 still wearing her slippers with a permanent woodbine hanging from her lips. So up I go to the bar and order 4pints, pay for them etc then drop them down to the table and went to the jax. I came back and picked up my pint to have a drink and just as I put the pint to my lips I notice something silver-y moving in the bottom of my glass. I looked at the lads and said here what did yis do and knew from their reaction that they were innnocent.

So up I went to the bar to your one and showed her the unidentified object in the bottom of the glass, after a bit of staring she goes :- "oh its only the bottom bit off the tap that must have screwed off" "fair enough, any chance of a new pint" says I, "not at all" says she and proceeds to putting her yellow,hairy hand complete with manky fingernails into the full pint trying to claw the object out. As the pint is full she has to put her hand right in and I cant help but notice that her sleeve (covered in snot marks) is also dunked in my pint. After trying for about a minute to get it out, she then gets an empty pint glass and pours the full pint into the empty one, using her horrible hairy hand as a sieve.

Moonwhile im standing there like a goldfish cant believing what im seeing, she then takes the pint which is half full of suds and god knows what else, gives it a top up and hands it back. I go "ah no seriously love with all due respect there is no chance im drinking that can I please have a fresh pint" After much grumbling and muttering about being a pansy-boy under her breath she eventually pours me a new pint. I sat back down still in utter shock and proceeded to tell the lads about what just happened. About 5mins later a punter walks in and asks for a pint of the same beer we were on, what does the old dear do, hands him a previously poured pint. Needless to say we didnt stay for another one....