Ah, the 26-ouncer (the famous “fifth”), the mickey, and the forty-pounder bring back memories of my youth! However I would point out that the replacement for the 40 is standardly 1.14 L, not 1.15, unless things are strangely different where you are.
Someone mentioned that the colloquial “fifth” comes from it being approximately a fifth of a US gallon. AFAICT this is probably correct, but I was always under the impression it came from it being four-fifths of a US quart. I suppose it amounts to the same thing.
ETA: Forgot to add the main point: I have only ever seen “proof” on bottles of booze I’ve brought back from the US, never on Canadian bottles, even in the old days.
The US gallon is based off of the British wine gallon, defined in 1707. The imperial gallon wasn’t adopted until 1826 which was after we won that war
So like your postvocalic /r/-less pronunciation; it is you who changed
US doesn’t use base 2, it was based off of factorability.
Factors of 12: 1,2,3,4,6,12
Factors of 16: 1,2,4,8,16
5280 has 46 Factors, including 2,3,4,5,6,8,10,12,16
Factors of 10: 1,2,5,10
There are mathematical advantages and beauty that may not directly translate to the average modern user, but in the 1700’s there were large advantages to having units with lots of factors (same reason for 360 degrees etc…)
On the subject of legal requirements for alcohol labeling:
My recollection is that by California law circa 1980, it was required to state the percentage alcohol content on wine, and forbidden to state the percentage on beer. Is this correct? Is that still the law?
Correct me if I’m wrong here: when Brits say “let me buy you a pint,” that measurement, even given the obviously loose standards of filling a glass by eye, is that still rationally expected to equal more or less a pint in volume?
FWIW, older Brit cookbooks routinely use “wine-glass” and “demitasse cup” as liquid volume measurements.
And just the other day I read and now can’t remember some strange word Brits use or have used for “half a pint of beer”–what in America is simply called “a short beer.”
A British “pint” is 20 imperial oz /568 ml, and IIRC the beer glasses/mugs all have a fill line on them, so that everyone is clear that the pint is full, unlike here in the US where the normal variation is maybe up to a couple of ounces.
In my British travels, I’ve only seen half-pints ordered in pubs as such; apparently according to Wikipedia, there’s a 1/3 pint measure called a “nip” that is 6 2/3 imperial oz and has primarily been used as the bottle size for barleywines.
They can’t be sold in the US (without a hard to get exemption)
Containers other than Cans
1.75 Liters
1 Liter
750 ml
375 ml
200 ml
100 ml
50 ml
Cans
355 ml
200 ml
100 ml
50 ml
This is a legal requirement for standards of fill, which is related to taxes and consumer protection. But a lot of it is to avoid the candybar effect where people sell deceiving bottles with less contents (big bunts) While they still play games with shapes you always know you are buying in one of those quantities for distilled spirits in the US.
I once considered opening a distillery a while back but oddly enough I haven’t purchased a bottle of liquor in years. But I had to spend a lot of time looking into the COLA requirements and it is very specific.
Well, binary progression if you prefer:
1 cup = 8 oz
1 pint = 16 oz
1 quart = 32 oz
1 gallon = 128 oz
all powers of 2.
vs.
1 Imperial cup = 10 oz (really obsolete)
1 Imperial pint = 20 oz
1 Imperial quart = 40 oz
1 Imperial gallon = 160 oz
The relationships between the units is the same, but the US math is easier.
Well, many California beers have the alcohol content listed, so it’s not current, can’t say about the past. But while liquor will always state the content in percentage, and sometimes the proof, beer doesn’t always include the percentage (usually ABV though ABW was historically used), though most do these days. I would like to say that Sam Adams/Boston Beer is a big one that often doesn’t put the % on there?
5280 = 2^5 * 3 * 5 * 11 and has 48 factors. The only numbers with 46 factors are 2^45 and 2^22 * p where p is an odd prime.
As noted above, the US fl oz is about 4% larger than the imperial oz. That explains why, when I fist came to Canada, I saw gas stations with signs explaining that six of our gallons are the same as five of yours (rather than the 5:4 ratio I would have expected). And whiskey was generally sold in 40 oz sizes, which are imperial quarts. But I don’t recall whether it was labeled with proof.
But you are correct that a Gallon was defined as 231 cubic inches, and a fluid oz was 1/128 of a gallon. But that is by happenstance.
Before the 1706 date I mentioned a gallon was defined as 8 merchant pounds of wine, and this ended up being 128oz at the time because they used a 6 inch tall and 7 inch diameter cylinder and used a historical approximation of Pi which was 22/7. While I have no doubt that being a highly factorable number was viewed as a negative but I don’t think the intent was to use powers of 2.
That 1/8 merchant pounds is why a pint is 16 ounces of volume, while a pound is 16 ounces of weight. And the pint was the same as a common apothecary bottle at the time.
The changes were for taxes IIRC, but I am pretty sure the merchant pound was a remnant from the Hanseatic League and the London pound that was base 16 for an ounce from a pint, which is 1/8 of a gallon.
But anyway, it was a way for tax collectors to Tare goods and calculate the taxes on the net weight.
The Imperial standards really seem based around the pain of 1/8 being two shillings and sixpence. With 20 shillings per pound and 12 pence per shilling they moved to 20 Imperial fluid ounces in an imperial pint to simplify the tax system.
Despite being an independent country there would have been no reason for the US to change to the Imperial system as our money system went metric way before the units of measure did.
So, in England, if you order a pint, do you get a full pint (UK pint of 19 US oz.) or is it a pint glass? Here in the US, I’ve found that nearly every bar serves a “pint” in a pint glass, but you don’t actually get a full pint in a pint (16 US oz.) glass. You get about 12 to 14 oz. due to the head and space at the top of the glass, so you’re simply not getting a full pint.
I never was a drinker at bars, and haven’t been in one in ages, but: “nearly every bar” means “nearly every one of the very few bars, kind of affected or distinctly catering to Brits (in NYC we have a few “soccer bars,” eg) which serve ‘pints’”?
FTR, there is a bar staffed and openly (:)) catering to Canadians.
In Germany or Austria do they serve “steins of beer,” ie can you order a standard amount by that name? /true question, not a rhetorical one replying to Orwell
Looking online, it seems that the legal standard is that the foam can be no more than 5% of the pint. I thought they had little line markers on their glasses, but I must be thinking of continental countries where they have lines with volume markings on them (like 0.3L, 0.4L, 0.5L) and the liquid must reach that line. (It’s been about a dozen years since I’ve been in the UK.)
