Dodgy Pub practices!!

carchaeologist · 06-09-2008 11:27AM

ShooterSF wrote: »

Doing open toasts at a wedding we were using pepsi bottles with wonderfully old plain labels that had been out of date since 2001 (this was only last year) Some kids were younger than the bottles.

:D I shouldnt laugh,but that is funny!!

rstans · 06-09-2008 07:56PM

In a studenty bar in Limerick years ago. Ordered a heineken and when it arrived it was flatter than hammered **** so I asked the barman to do something with it, i.e. change it.
He proceeded to pour it from the glass it was in to one of those ones with the sandblasted bit at the bottom and topped it up from the tap. Pint looked lovely so he took a mouthful to make sure it tasted ok and was surprised when I refused to accept it. When asked why I didn't want it I said "I don't know where your gob has been."
Fresh pint and grovelling apology followed.

JIZZLORD · 06-09-2008 11:49PM

watna wrote: »

I was in a big sports bar in Wellington last night and we asked for the cocktail list. The barman gave us the sheet he used to make them because he didn't have a menu. We had a look through the sheet and we noticed one of the cocktails recipes said "if the customer is in front of you use cointreau, if the customer is not in front of you use triple sec". We said this to the barman who wasn't as all perturbed by it. He just shrugged and says the boss tells us t do that. We decided against ordering cocktails after that!

Cointreau is a type of triple sec, shouldnt matter what brand is used in the cocktail

Hanley · 07-09-2008 12:19AM

dotsman wrote: »

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!

Lol I don't see what the fuss is either..... In a busy bar/club you'd have resold the capped bottle almost as soon as it's back on the shelf.

I worked for two nights in a prominent live music venue at the top of Harcourt Street earlier this summer, we were specifically told NOT to pour full measures because "you'll only end up spilling it as your pour it into the glass".

Each bar in the place was clearing 20-30k a night and we were getting €10ph. Needless to say I quit pretty sharpish.

norrie rugger · 07-09-2008 10:17AM

IRISH RAIL wrote: »

The Brewery would call shennigans now
They test every return keg

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:

right

mikemac · 07-09-2008 10:36AM

IRISH RAIL wrote: »

The Brewery would call shennigans now
They test every return keg

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:

I realy doubt that. If Diageo called their bluff and pulled Guinness, Bud, Carlsberg and the other drinks they supply, the pub wouldn't last long. Losing one pub as an account means nothing to Diageo but the pub cannot afford for Diageo to cut their supply. Sure they'd have Heineken, Beamish and Murphys but they aren't the top sellers in their market

Sure Beamish is only a "poor mans" drink. Some places called it a pint of Social Welfare.

Hanley · 07-09-2008 11:21AM

micmclo wrote: »

I realy doubt that. If Diageo called their bluff and pulled Guinness, Bud, Carlsberg and the other drinks they supply, the pub wouldn't last long. Losing one pub as an account means nothing to Diageo but the pub cannot afford for Diageo to cut their supply. Sure they'd have Heineken, Beamish and Murphys but they aren't the top sellers in their market

Sure Beamish is only a "poor mans" drink. Some places called it a pint of Social Welfare.

Yeah but a lot of the larger, more popular pubs are owned by the same person now. Losing "one" pub might also result in losing a chain of 10-15. Which I think would concern Diageo.

Jay P · 07-09-2008 01:28PM

Hanley wrote: »

Yeah but a lot of the larger, more popular pubs are owned by the same person now. Losing "one" pub might also result in losing a chain of 10-15. Which I think would concern Diageo.

I think you're missing the point. Diageo is a multi-million euro company. The pubs could not afford to not sell the drinks. There's a list of the drinks owned by Diageo in the thread. People would just stop going to those pubs.

HouseHippo · 07-09-2008 07:53PM

micmclo wrote: »

I realy doubt that. If Diageo called their bluff and pulled Guinness, Bud, Carlsberg and the other drinks they supply, the pub wouldn't last long. Losing one pub as an account means nothing to Diageo but the pub cannot afford for Diageo to cut their supply. Sure they'd have Heineken, Beamish and Murphys but they aren't the top sellers in their market

Sure Beamish is only a "poor mans" drink. Some places called it a pint of Social Welfare.

Pint of Social Welfare, that's great

paconnors · 08-09-2008 01:22AM

I used to do bar work and one night I was training in a new lad. customer asked him for a hot whiskey, young lad proceeds to empty kettle and throw half one in and boil.

civis_liberalis · 08-09-2008 01:50AM

CreepingDeath wrote: »

I used to work part-time in a well known pub in South Dublin in the early 90's.

At the end of every night the drip trays were poured into a plastic bucket.
All the slops, Guinness, Smithwicks, Carlsburg, Bulmers etc... all ended up in the one bucket. That bucket was brought outside and poured into an empty keg via a funnel. That keg was tapped and we all knew which "Guinness" tap it was connected too.

I worked in a place in the early 00's and used to get regular custom from the owner's brother. As a younger man, among other jobs, he was sometimes brought into pubs where money was going missing and it was up to him to try to figure out who the culprit was.

In one of the establishments he "worked" in, they had a rather genius yet infuriating system.

There were 2 Guinness taps in the busier of the 2 bars. The drip tray of the right hand tap was connected to the line going into the left-hand tap. The left-hand tap was also "doubled back" on itself. The practice was to first fill the pint from the good tap and then to top it off with the dodgy one.

civis_liberalis · 08-09-2008 02:12AM

Jay P wrote: »

Diageo is a multi-million euro company.

Multi-billion Euro business. Their revenues last year nearly topped 9 billion.

08-09-2008 11:17AM

CreepingDeath wrote: »

I used to work part-time in a well known pub in South Dublin in the early 90's.

At the end of every night the drip trays were poured into a plastic bucket.
All the slops, Guinness, Smithwicks, Carlsburg, Bulmers etc... all ended up in the one bucket. That bucket was brought outside and poured into an empty keg via a funnel. That keg was tapped and we all knew which "Guinness" tap it was connected too.

If someone ordered a Guinness, it was filled up 3/4 full as normal, allowed to settle, then the remaining 1/4 was topped up with the slops from another tap.

Some people would taste the sweetness if there was too much cider, and we'd get the odd pint handed back in which case we'd give them a proper pint. It happened in the lounge but not the bar area.

Now I can't say whether that practice still goes on today, but it went on every single night of the 5 years I worked there.

And I definitely won't name and shame, so don't even attempt to guess and expect a yes/no answer.

How do you get the beer into the keg again?The keg is pressurised.
To be honest.That is absolutely ****ty of the bar to do that(if possible).Its publicans like that that give all publicans bad names.

anonymous_joe · 08-09-2008 11:28AM

Most people I know who've worked in pubs only drink bottles.

Femelade · 08-09-2008 11:43AM

I know of a restaurant in cork that sells their own brew..but its actually tennants.

ShooterSF · 08-09-2008 11:44AM

anonymous_joe wrote: »

Most people I know who've worked in pubs only drink bottles.

Do they drink FROM the bottles though?

constitutionus · 08-09-2008 11:53AM

well dont know if its a dodgy practice but ive got pints "accidently" sent down to me that werent what i ordered i.e ordered a coors, got a fosters.

happend three times in one night.

luckily no matter how hammerd i get i know me beers . if this is widespread it makes the pub a fortune in the price difference.

jtbub15 · 08-09-2008 11:56AM

eoin_s wrote: »

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?

Oh its definately easy to taste the difference! I know in my local disco they serve boru stuff not smirnoff...if your drunk enough to drink it you will be very VERY sorry in the morning!!! :eek::eek:

John Mason · 08-09-2008 12:00PM

i know of a pub who sells coors light, as heinken because they are getting it at a special rate from the brewery

Degsy · 08-09-2008 12:10PM

Quinn's in drumcondra have replaced the dublin dry Gin with Larios spanish-5 euro-a litre-muck.
The smirnoff optic no longer has smirnoff either,but some crappy-looking generic vodka that actually smells liek methylated spirits.
Of course they're charging full price for this stuff too.

Sposs · 08-09-2008 12:49PM

Jay P wrote: »

I think you're missing the point. Diageo is a multi-million euro company. The pubs could not afford to not sell the drinks. There's a list of the drinks owned by Diageo in the thread. People would just stop going to those pubs.

The porter house does great business without any of the traditional diageo booze.

Eoin · 08-09-2008 01:29PM

Sposs wrote: »

The porter house does great business without any of the traditional diageo booze.

That's their speciality though; it's a bit different to a pub that has dropped half of its selection.

norrie rugger · 08-09-2008 01:58PM

Every Keg sent back is analysed anyway.

Outlets are not given kegs if they analysis comes back showing a different make up in the keg that what should be in there, so if slops are sent back then they will not get credit

carlybabe1 · 08-09-2008 02:26PM

I once got thrown out of a local nightclub for ordering a pint of drip tray

Its since closed down. And I worked in a pub where the bottles were recapped but there was worse, at night you could hear the rats scratchin along the floor, they were only short of hoppin up on the bar stool an askin for a guinness

nomorebadtown · 08-09-2008 02:50PM

Hanley wrote: »

I worked for two nights in a prominent live music venue at the top of Harcourt Street earlier this summer, we were specifically told NOT to pour full measures because "you'll only end up spilling it as your pour it into the glass".

Each bar in the place was clearing 20-30k a night and we were getting €10ph. Needless to say I quit pretty sharpish.

I wonder what venue that could be.....duly noted:D

Dodgy Pub practices!!

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