Yeah duh, in a glass or bottle. But semi-seriously, I was wondering if in other countries you can drop into the bar and ask for a pint of your favourite beer? Do Continental European’s have to ask for a litre? Don’t know why its bugging me, its not like I travel abroad :rolleyes:
USA here.
Depends on the bar. At lots of bars you can ask for a pint. Usually it’s more like 14 OZs however. Some bars use mugs (10 - 12 OZs) and some offer several sizes (22 or really big 28 OZ sizes for example). Then some bars have no draft beers at all, only bottles. But there are a few bars that have between 100 - 150 beers on tap.
Come to Dallas and I’ll buy you a pint.
Pretty unusual in the US to order a “pint”.
You order a glass, mug, bottle or pitcher.
My WAG is this is because a pint is a real measurement. A glass, mug, or pitcher is any size the bar wants it to be.
Several years ago, I was pleased to find that one of my neighborhood bars in Brooklyn still knew what a “short beer” was.
(It’s a small glass of beer generally used to chase a shot of liquor. Back in the olden days when people ordered shots of booze in bars.)
I was picking up a pizza and it wasn’t quite ready, so I went to the bar next door…thirsty, but with only a minute of two to kill…and asked for a short beer. The barkeep didn’t bat an eye, just filled a wineglass at the tap and pushed it over to me. Only charged me fifty cents, too.
yojimboguy ,
I can’t speak for the rest of the US, but pints are pretty much standard here in the Pacific Northwest and in California. I think it’s become a lot more common everywhere in the last 10 years or so (the “microbrew revolution”).
Here in Sydney, it’s served very cold, and the most common glass is the “schooner” which is 15 ounces or 425ml. The other common measure is a “middy” which is 10 ounces or 285ml. Pints are available in some places.
How’s beer served? Depends on the beer, depends on the bar. Order anything in a bottle, you get the bottle. Ask nice and they might give you a glass.
Order anything on draft and you get a glass, usually a pint, but very few places outside of Irish/British pubs have the proper glasses with the finger curve. They usually get the tulip glasses for Guinness right , though. Shame the beer’s no good.
( Sorry, but once I lived two blocks from the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, I’m spoiled for life).
And usually it’s too cold for me, although I like my lager ice cold and in a glass.
In my part of the US Southeast, the 12oz (mug size, I guess) seems to be the standard. Locally, you can’t serve draft beer, so when you order a beer you get a bottle.
Montana, USA checking in.
Most bars, you just ask for (brand name) tap or draft and you get whatever size glass the bar uses. Most of the time it’s a pint, a few places use a smaller 12 ounce glass. Brewpubs will also usually have a 22 oz size. A pint runs $2.50-$3.50 for a microbrew, $2-3 for a domestic.
Almost all bars in Montana have beer on tap- usually Bud, Bud Light, Rainier, Miller Genuine Draft or Coors Light. Blessedly, even in the hinterlands, they now have one or two microbrews on tap (Moose Drool or Fat Tire).
The bar where I usually drink uses pint Mason jars. They are cheaper than buying regular glasses. And they lose a lot - I just realized I’m sitting at home and drinking from one now.
(hijack)
It seems to me like pitchers of beer aren’t as commonly available as they once were. Have others noticed this?
My theory is that with the proliferation of beer brands, its harder to find 3-5 people who all want the same beer.(end hijack)
Whistlepig, who’s decided to nip out for a pint.
In Melbourne, there are glasses (200mL), pots (285mL) and jugs (1140mL). Pots are the most common and pints are becoming easier to find too. I think you can also occasionally find schooners of the size TheLoadedDog mentioned.
If we’re watching a band, sometimes all the guys will just drink out of jugs instead of risking your spot up the front to get refills. It depends on the crowd and the security though. Some bouncers will take it as us being loutish and a precursor to trouble so then it’s back to pots.
In Germany, they use the Halb Liter and in Bayern, they also have the Maß which is one litre and commonly referred to as a stein by the tourists. I usually only saw other tourists drinking these though. Probably because of the novelty factor.
And let’s not forget, in the UK a pint = 20oz, rather than the lame US 16oz (which is almost the same as a half-liter, IIRC). In this ex-British colony we have beer in 20oz pints, mostly, though some bars call a large glass a “pint” even when it contains less than a pint.
Also - in some HK bars - if you ask for a pint of beer, the bar staff ask “a big pint or a small pint?”
In Japan you usually ask for a joki (big mug). A medium (chuu-joki) is about 350ml, a large (dai-joki) is about 500ml. Sizes can vary widely.
If it’s a British/Irish-themed bar, though, you ask for a pint.
India here… i’m not a drinker so i can’t get technical on the terms… i’m sure my friends would know…
but here’s what i think it is :
a pint is fine, a mug or glass of draught beer, and a pitcher that generally serves 6. these are the terms i hear going around.
i know, i know, i’m irish, but did you know that here if you ask for a “glass” of guinness or beer you’ll get a half-pint?
as you were gentlemen, do carry on.
I’m not a beer drinker, but my friends who are around these parts generally talk about beer in half-liters. Some places serve beer in 0.4 or even 0.3 liter glasses instead. These are usually the more expensive places, draw your own conclusions.
By law, if a restaurant serves a drink in a glass as opposed to a bottle, there’s supposed to be a mark on it showing how much the glass holds when filled up to a certain line. That applies to any drink the customer is charged for, so you’ll see those lines on the paper cups at your local fast food emporium as well as the beer mugs at the corner sports bar.
a “half” of guinness is usually a glass, which is nowhere near half of 568ml.
and a pint is a 20oz pint!! nothing less!
Somthing that’s come up a few times when I’ve talked about this with people from mainland Europe is the point that in Britain youcan’t go into a pub and ask simply for “a beer”. I always find that it’s OK to do just that when I’m abroad, but as my friends point out, it would be very embarassing to do it here;
draught, bottled, pint, half, foreign lager, cheap British lager, 70 shilling, 80 shilling, bitter, IPA, Guinness or what?
Here (in Chicago) it is generally a given that when I order a beer I will get a Pint, as many of you have pointed out, a 16oz Pint.
In my experience in Europe, and if I remember correctly, it is generally either a 250ml, 500ml, or a liter of beer that you get. Although I don’t think you can get a liter everywhere.
Coming to you live from Saskatchewan, Canada.
Seems that “pint” is acceptable most everywhere here, and that’s the term my friends and I regularly use. Asking for a litre would get you a furrowed brow. And I always thought that asking for a generic “beer” was something that happened only in movies.