Glass/mug size is fairly uniform in most places in the USA. If you order a beer that comes in cans/bottles, they’re 12 ounces. Beer mugs and glasses generally contain roughly that much as well. So the key variable is the brand.
Bud, Miller, and Coors are the brands you can find pretty much everywhere, although Coors is still more of a Western beer. And they each come in regular (“A Bud, please”) and light (“A Bud light, please”). These three brands are lowest-common-denominator beers, and differ mostly in their advertising. But if you order one of them, you’ll fit in anywhere that isn’t a brewpub.
Another approach is to just ask, “What do you have on tap?” and when they tell you, just pick one. Unless you’re in Montgomery, Alabama, of course.
Oh. My. God. That is the worst thing I have ever heard. I can’t believe places that backward are allowed to exist on earth. I think we should invade Montgomery next, cause any place the makes Draft beer illiegal is in clear need of ‘regime change’
That kind of confused me, if you don’t say a brand name how do they know what you want?. Do people just ask for a draft there? Even a dive bar here has 4-5 on tap on 10 in cans or bottles. Most popular bars have 20-30 on tap and 45-50 in bottle or cans. Old Chicago is popular here they have 30 on tap, and 110 others, and I believe Falling Rock has 60 on tap and 250 others(or at least they used to).
Most places have a default size that is a pint or damn close. Which is assumed. Most also have shorties(1/2 pintish) if you ask for it. Some also have bombers(24 ounces) which you can ask for, or might be suggested if it is a better deal. A draft is assumed unless you specify bottle for the ones that have both.
So if you were a coors drinker for example.
Gimme a Coors= a pint of draft Coors.
gimme a Coors shortie= half pint of draft Coors.
Gimme a Coors bomber/gimme a big Coors= 24 ounce draft Coors
gimme a Coors bottle= 12 ounce bottle
gimme a Coors can = 12 ounce Coors can
Gimme a Coors Longneck = 12 ounce longneck bottle.
Swedish (a big strong one). Provides you with a half-liter of whatever “strong beer” is on tap, most likely one of the two most common domestic brands Pripps or Spendrups. Otherwise just ask for “En XXX” where XXX is your brand of choice, you will most likely get a bottle. Don’t worry about “please”, there is no Swedish word for please
Sorry, I should have clarified this. The way you order a beer varies wildly from city to city in Australia, but this is due to different names for glasses, and different local brews. However, it almost always boils down to: “A [glass size] of [brand], please”, or sometimes, “A [glass size] of [brand][variant], please”.
Australian beer history is too complex to explain here, but I’ll give you a brief rundown of my home city. Traditionally, there were two types of beer, “New” and “Old”. New is a lager which only became viable to brew after refrigeration technology became good enough in the late Nineteenth Century, and Old is a dark ale which was the standard drink before that. Also, there are two (main) glass sizes: a “Schooner” (15oz), and a “Middy” (10oz). To confuse things, there are others a “Pint”, a “Pony” (7oz), and a “Shetland Pony (rare)” (5oz). Cross the border to another state, and they will have a whole different set of weird names for glasses.
Up until about twenty or thirty years ago, many pubs only had these two on tap, so you could only ask for “a middy/schooner of New/Old”. These pubs were brewery owned, and this is why the choice was limited. There were several breweries each turning out New and Old beers, and you’d not need to ask for the brand name because there was only one brand in each pub.
These days, the breweries have almost completely left the pub business, and most pubs are freehold. They will have many beers on tap. The other main development is that beers now tend to cross state borders much more than they did in the past. There is still some parochialism in the Aussie beer-drinking community, but it is nothing compared to what it was.
It’s interesting that in Brisbane, the 'standard" size beer is the pot (10oz), while Sydney seems to favour the schooner as the standard. I think that the pot is standard in Melbourne as well.
You can get a schooner, but you have to ask for it.
You can also order a ‘stubbie’, which is the bottled form, or a jug (1125ml), if you have mates with you to share.
First, I’ll get straight to the point and answer the OP.
For here in Chicago (and most everywhere that isn’t overrun with beer snobbery) you’ll simply want to say:
“Gimme a bottle of Bud” or “Bud Draft” depending on your preference. Like has been previously mentioned you can pretty safely replace that with Bud Light or Miller Lite, the latter usually just “a Lite”. But, if you ask for Coors of any kind you’ll get a goofy look in Chicago.
Yes, as a bartender and well seasoned professional drinker, I’ll say that asking for “a beer” will frequently get you a healthy roll of the eyes. So, its expected that everyone will be ordering by brand name. Also, I get the impression that you’re refering to the typical bar and neighborhood pub. In which case I’d suggest you overlook the previous descriptions of schooners, shorties, bombers, mugs, tall boys, etc. The typical bar (not a brewpub, microbrewery, or trendy beer palace) has bottles and pints, thats it, and occasionally if its really off the beaten path some cans.
A bottle is the typical 12 oz, the pint is usually 14 oz. Yes, we realize that a pint is actually 16 oz, but the bar owners like to try and squeeze a few extra dollars from you. Thats not to say that there aren;t plenty of places that don’t have true pints, but you won’t usually know unless you’re really paying attention.
One more thing, I would recommend not asking “what do you have on tap?” They put all the big brightly colored tappers up on the bar for a reason. If you’re ordering from a waitress its one thing, but I get the impression that the OP is envisioning walking up to the bar and placing a order like a real man ;). I compare the idea of asking the bartender “whats on tap” to the idiot customer sequence from Clerks. I’m not saying these will get you ridiculed or anything, but avoid them if your goal is to blend in unnoticed, or at least unsniggered at.
Thats not to say that there aren’t plenty of places that do have true pints…
Also, to elaborate on the ordering just by brand name in the states. Its very common and accepted. Its usually then bartender’s discretion as to whether you get the bottle or the pint. I’ll typically just give you a bottle since thats the typical default if you don’t specify. However, some bars automatically do the pint as a default, so there’s no hard and fast rule. Therefore my advice for a traveller is to specify (unless you have no preference then its a nice little suprise for yourself). There’s nothing worse than a customer just asking for “a Lite” and then getting miffed that you served him a pint where you apparently should have been psychic enough to know he meant a bottle.
I was in Sydney earlier today, but now I’m back home in Perth (3,500 kilometres away), so I feel qualified to speak on regional differences in Australian beer ordering culture.
**Things are quite different over here. Unlike NSW or Victoria, there’s no quinessential Western Australian beer. We don’t have an “obvious” choice like New or VB. Almost every pub will have the popular eastern states’ brands on tap as well as several Perth brands – mainly Swan, plus one particular microbrewery owned by ALH. On average, the big pubs here have a lot more on tap than pubs in the eastern states – all the local stuff, most of the eastern stuff, and a few European labels (Becks, Guinness, Kilkenny and Stella Artois are ultra common) VB is also quite popular here, but you can’t get Toohey’s New or full-strength XXXX on tap (Old is available in a several places, however).
If I had to make a typical beer order though, it’d be, “A middy of EB, please”.
EB is Emu Bitter, which is quite different to the standard eastern states lagers (VB, incidentally, hardly qualifies as a bitter).
Another common one would be, “A pint of (Swan) Draft, please”. Middys (270 mL) - Pint (540 mL) - Jug (1140 mL) are the accepted beer sizes. Bartenders will understand you if you order a schooner, but you’ll stand out like dogs’ balls.
“Pivo, prosim.” Here in the Czech Republic, but it should also work in Slovakia, Poland and maybe a few other slavik countries.
However, if you go into a true Czech pub, just sit down and grab a beer coaster and toss it down in front of you. They’ll probably just come and drop a beer there without further prompting.
To expand on the analysis my fellow contryman Tusculan and honourary cloggy capybara have already made, the following.
First off, when Tusculan was talking about an “ilsje”, he probably meant to say “pilsje”. You’ll get a horribly small (0.2 liters) glass of pilsener for that. If you’re in Amsterdam, chances are it will be Heineken. If you don’t like that, shop around: most bars blatantly advertise their main pilsener brand outside. Heineken and Amstel are the most common in Amsterdam, and they’re both mediocre. Grolsch, Brand, Dommelsch are also quite common, and of good quality. Avoid Bavaria and especially Oranjeboom like the plague: it’s tripe.
The “vaasje” he also referred to is known as an “Amsterdammertje” (‘little Amsterdammer’) as well, although oddly enough only OUTSIDE Amsterdam. We’re horribly sorry for those truly small glasses: even the “vaasje” is only 0.25 liters. You can order a “halve liter”, but chances are it’s more expensive than two vaasjes, so beware. The Dutch are cunning bastards.
The “pils” versus “bier” thing is roughly a South vs. North thing. Below the main rivers, people will generally call a pilsener “pils”, above them the generic term “bier” will be used. Which can turn confusing when crossing the border to Belgium: order a “bier” in Antwerp, and the barkeep will just look at you funny, as he usually has at least 10 draft beers to choose from, and not seldomly another 75 bottled versions. So, when in Belgium, order a “pils” if that’s what you want. And trust me, you don’t: it’s impossible to instruct a tourist in how to properly order a beer in Belgium (there’s far too many options), but don’t let that stop you. Just tell them you’re new in town, tell them where you’re from, and tell them you want to flavour those awesome Belgian beers you’ve been hearing about. The Belgians take their beer seriously, and are very hospitable: they’ll gladly help you out, in perfect English. It helps to speak negatively about Dutchmen, to gain the barkeep’s favours. Then when he gets too harsh about the Dutch, tell him at least they speak better English than him.
capybara, the white beer you’re referring to… I’ve never heard of Witte Kerk. Perhaps Witte Raaf? Wieckse Witte? Korenwolf?
It’s really simple here in Canada. Basically you just ask “what’s on tap?” and pick. This will work anywhere in Canada (at least where I have been). If you order a draught you will usually get the large glass or pint, but some places have “schooners” (sp?) as well which is close to two pints so it doesn’t hurt to ask what sizes they have. Also, you can order pitchers are well and save a few dollars…
Small town pubs generally will only have the 2-3 kinds of beer on tap, mostly lagers such as Labatt Blue and Molson Canadian, where pubs in larger cities or specialty pubs usually have a decent selection including Guinness and Rickards Red (an amber ale made by Molson).
Reeb (which is “beer” spelled backwards) is pretty popular here in Shanghai, and a locally brewed beer. Otherwise, you can’t go wrong saying “yi ping qing dao” (a bottle of Tsingtao).
hmm - I’d think asking what’s on tap would be a good idea here (Scotland) although depending on the pub, theymight/might not have much of a selection. Picks a place that does! Probably nicer bar with better staff!
Belhaven would be a pretty common brand name
Likewise, Caledonian 80, MacLays, and I stop there so as not to add confusion. Oh and every pub is going to have a Tennents beer or two - not my preference, but pretty ubiquitous.
I’d say, however, that any good real-ale type pub might let you have a little taste of a beer so you don’t order something terrible without meaning to. It being in their interests to have happy customers etc.
LOL… I remember visiting a penpal in Rijswijk some years back and being told, “You Americans have it all wrong with the Polish jokes. Everyone in Europe knows it’s the Belgians that are stupid.”
I’m not a beer drinker, but most of my friends are so I can tell you that here in Boston the taps do generally have the little things on top that tell you what’s on draft. There will also be a display of bottled beers behind most bars. If you order something that can be served either way, you’ll have to specify draft if that’s what you want, otherwise you’ll automatically receive a bottle. I know some people mentioned cans but I have never seen them in a bar, except for Foster’s. I personally prefer cider, which is becoming more common here but not quickly enough for me.
D’oh! Right, Coldfire, Wieckse Witte.
Huh. “Wittekerk.” Wonder where that came from in my head?
Honourary cloggy! I’m so flattered! Do I get a sticker or something?
