An Asheville beer columnist’s search for local establishments selling less than 16 fluid ounces, or one full pint, of beer came up during the course of Thursday morning’s meeting of the Asheville Brewers Alliance, a source tells Ashvegas. The source didn’t want to be identified, so I’ll just call ’em “Deep Pint.”
Deep Pint says the alliance, which consists of 10 founding Asheville-based members and representatives from regional brewers, talked over an upcoming story-and-or-blog-post by Anne Fitten Glenn, who writes a beer column for the Mountain Xpress and recently launched her own beer blog, Brewgasm.
Glenn has been going around town with a measuring cup and testing whether beer sellers offering up a pint of beer are delivering a full 16 fluid ounces. It’s unclear whether Glenn found any offenders among local tasting rooms and restaurants.
Glenn was apparently inspired to put local pint glasses to the test by the Honest Pint Project. Glenn recently tweeted about the project, which started in Portland. From the Honest Pint Project website:
In 2007, Jeff Alworth wrote about the cheater pint on his blog, Beervana, sparking a new round of indignation. He posted an online petition that garnered over 300 signatures in a matter of days demanding an honest pint. Members of the media picked up on the idea, and articles and stories have appeared on National Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal as well as a number of regional papers. Honestpintproject.org was born in December 2008 as a way of bringing the project to a national audience.
That’s about all the intel Deep Pint had to offer. We’ll wait and see Glenn’s findings. In the meantime, do any of you loyal readers know of any flagrantly dishonest pint sellers around Asheville? I’ve never taken close notice, but it seems to me that few establishments expressly advertise pints of beer, though most everybody serves in pint-sized glasses. Do you notice? Thoughts?
8 Comments
Mellow mushroom is improving. 6 months ago I poured a 12 oz bottle of beer with no head into one of their glasses and filled it up to the top. 12oz glass. I questioned the server about this and was boughtmy beer. Soon after beer prices went up,probably due to them switching to a larger glass. Thirsty Monk is also suspect on pint glass night on wednesdays b/c many breweries will give away 12oz glasses for promotion since they are cheaper.
It was my understanding after reading her article that the purpose was not to determine who is pouring less than the volume of the glass. It's about the actual glass of beer and how it is represented on the menu. If it was about how the beer is poured then that could change drastically from bartender to bartender and would not be any kind of scientific study.
Without a doubt, the most shameless ounce-shifting is experienced at Thirsty Monk. "Half Pours" which are the standard pours (though at an 8 oz price) are rarely more than 6 ounces. "Full Pours" are 12 oz, and they cost the same (if not more) than full pints at other establishments.
In the EU, selling beer in glasses which do not have measure markings is illegal. Selling a pint as less than a pint will get you punched in your lying face by an already drunk hooligan. Now that's civilization.
Most glasses I saw not only had PINT marks, but had "reasonable head" marks to boot ('bout and inch, inch/half or whatever in metric).
The wild west is still catching up.
I am most concerned about the quality of the beer, and a good beer should have a head on it…so a pint glass you typically see is going to give you < 16 ounces.
Personally, I feel like I've been ripped off every time at Thirsty Monk. Half a glass (or goblet) of beer and half a glass of foam. They claim it's the "authentic" way to serve Belgian beer, but to me that's just a fancy way of saying it's an authentic way to waste money.
If given the choice between 16 ounces of still beer and 15 ounces with a great head, I'll take the latter. Glenn's concept is pretty wrongheaded. Quality over quantity is what separates craft beer from macro, and having a local "beer writer" griping about short pours in the absence of a visible offender is pretty embarrassing.
With a standard "pint glass" a full, true pint is hard to pour because the glass holds 16 ounces (or maybe 16.5-17 to overflowing all the way to the top) and usually you have to allow for some head space. I've been more than satisfied with the pours at the local breweries and taprooms because when I order "a pint" I expect it will be a 16 ounce glass as full as they can get it with reasonable care (with respect to the carbonation/foaming of the particular beer).
It might bother me a bit more if I were paying west coast prices (around $6+ a "pint" for brewpub/craft beer based on my last trip) but the brewpubs and taprooms around here charge far less for their average-gravity beers.
That being said, I have had some extremely short, expensive pours at a few restaurants (not necessarily noted for their beer selections/knowledge) and of course we never went back again!