# Did saloons in the wild west serve beer collected from overflow trays? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-saloons-in-the-wild-west-serve-beer-collected-from-overflow-trays/953850 "2021-11-05T18:37:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-saloons-in-the-wild-west-serve-beer-collected-from-overflow-trays/953850/1 "2021-11-05T18:37:10Z")
In western films sometimes you see them serving a cheap ‘all sorts’ beer which appears to be beer collected from the overflow/drips trays, or possibly collected from the dregs at bottom of the barrels. Did this really occur or is this a movie trope? ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-saloons-in-the-wild-west-serve-beer-collected-from-overflow-trays/953850/2 "2021-11-05T18:43:33Z")
It still happens in the UK, sometimes. A few, a very few, pubs in Yorkshire and elsewhere use an ‘autovac’ system which feed the drips back into the beer feed. > **[Autovacs](http://tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/auotvacs.html)** > > Or economisers as they are otherwise known, are still in use in some parts of the country, mainly Yorkshire. What are they and how do they ... I am fairly sure this arrangement was more commonplace in the olden days, quite possibly in the Wild West (which might explain exactly what they were wild about). ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-saloons-in-the-wild-west-serve-beer-collected-from-overflow-trays/953850/3 "2021-11-06T01:41:10Z")
The law in Australia was to have potassium permanganate or other dyes in the drip tray to prevent that sort of recycling. According to [this](https://timegents.com/2016/11/07/serving-up-beer-slops/) it became law on the eve of WWII, so may have been a long-standing issue. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-saloons-in-the-wild-west-serve-beer-collected-from-overflow-trays/953850/4 "2021-11-06T04:19:00Z")
I always heard the story sometimes a bar will take all the leftover alcohol from almost done bottles, mix it up, and then call it a “House Cocktail” or something similar. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-saloons-in-the-wild-west-serve-beer-collected-from-overflow-trays/953850/5 "2021-11-06T11:05:16Z")
When I worked in a London pub, back in the 1960s, we used to put the ullage back into a barrel. Ullage is what’s in the drip trays, not what people might leave in their glasses, so it was fairly hygienic. We also added anything left in bottles - Guinness bottles (and we sold a lot of them - 300 dozen a week) and due to frothing, quite a lot was left at the bottom. The bottles never left the bar btw. In the cellar, we had a pin (Draught beer came in hogsheads [432 pints] but strong beers came in pins [36 pints]) of draught stout and I would put a funnel with a filter into the airhole and filter the ullage into that. We had a small number of regulars who drank that brew, and whenever I had to put a new pin on the tap, they would complain that it was too weak. I imagine the ullage noticeably raised the ABV. None of this would be permitted under the regulations today. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-saloons-in-the-wild-west-serve-beer-collected-from-overflow-trays/953850/6 "2021-11-06T14:08:23Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > We also added anything left in bottles - I was at a friend’s party decades ago and his cute-as-a-button five year old daughter was acting like a hostess, taking empty beer bottles into the kitchen to discard them. Turns out once in the kitchen she’d drink any dregs left in the bottles before putting them in the garbage. Eventually it became obvious the kid was drunk. Poison Control was called, there was some vomiting involved. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-saloons-in-the-wild-west-serve-beer-collected-from-overflow-trays/953850/7 "2021-11-06T20:59:56Z")
eeeewwww considering the likely number of smokers also jamming their butts and ashes into the bottles as well eeeeewwww ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-saloons-in-the-wild-west-serve-beer-collected-from-overflow-trays/953850/8 "2021-11-08T16:37:13Z")
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