Short Measure

Virtually every pub that  I go into nowadays serves beer up with about 15mm of head on it. I always ask them to top it up and some are not that keen to do so, no wonder the pubs are losing trade.

I know that, in Yorkshire, (and probably elsewhere in the North) there is a line on the glass that is the pint measure. The top part of the glass is for the head. In the South, the pint is the brim of the glass. You need a very steady hand and walk to get the glass to a table or the lips without spilling any beer.

Landlords and bar staff probably know that a glass filled to the very top with beer likely means that some beer ends up on the carpet, so they nearly always serve up a slightly short measure. I suppose they think the profit is better in their pockets than on the carpet.

I suggested to our landlord that he ought to have glasses like they have in the North and fill up to the line. He said he once tried it but customers kept on asking him to top up the glass to the brim, which is more than a pint of course.

I reckon he could have overcome that by having a few notices with diagrams around the place ..but he just reverted to the southern glasses instead. A pity.

Years ago some pubs down here, did indeed have glasses with a line on them, and used electric pumps that only dispensed half a pint at a time but they went out of fashion.

When our friends from Yorkshire come to stay and we go for a pint, he always asks for a head on the beer. I have said it means he doesn't get a full pint but the head is so important to him that he'd rather have the head than the beer.

Good bitter does not have to have a head on it but people seem to think it is flat if it doesn't have one.

Very true.

I just say to them -you would sell more if you filled em up.