Comments on It's Pub Night: Honest Pints

You should take this concept to Paris where barown...

2009-08-04T05:43:57.652-07:00

You should take this concept to Paris where barowners seen to think a pint(implied a brittish pint,since most europeans are unaware there is such thing as an american pint)is half a liter.

No, quibbles are cool. The worry would be if peopl...

2009-08-01T11:29:39.420-07:00

No, quibbles are cool. The worry would be if people weren't engaging it at all. Engaging and quibbling I heartily welcome. And, of course, such quibbles invite discussion, which I can rarely resist.

Jeff: I hope my love for the HPP shines through, d...

2009-07-31T17:45:42.978-07:00

Jeff: I hope my love for the HPP shines through, despite my one minor quibble. You had to make a choice, and you chose slightly differently than I would have, but your choice is still good.

I was tickled today to notice that the Portland De...

2009-07-31T17:23:24.263-07:00

I was tickled today to notice that the Portland Deschutes Pub now has a 0.5 liter fill line -- 16.9 ounces -- on their Irish-style pint glasses.

Good find! Although there are no grades of honesty, I have tried to highlight those pubs offering honest pints that have lines. That's the gold standard for transparency.

As to this, I plead simplicity:

What I mean is, you'll rarely get 16 ounces of beer in a serving at Hopworks, but you'll know that you got at least 0.4 liters (13.5 ounces) if the beer is up to the fill line. On the other hand, a place might get certified by the HPP based on a picture of one instance of 16 ounces of beer, but how can you know how much you got in the glass you just ordered?

No solution is perfect. If we demanded that pubs use glassware that have an accurate line indicating volume--the gold standard, clearly the preferable solution--very few pubs could qualify. That solution is elegant, but not much use to patrons who, 98% of the time, would find themselves in pubs we ignore. And that would be the case even in pubs serving honest pints. All solutions have downsides.

Ideally, the HPP won't be a final solution. It's a stepping stone to the gold standard Deschutes, Belmont Station, and a couple others use--honest pints in clearly marked glassware. You have to start somewhere, and I hope the HPP's starting place is useful, even if imperfect.