A pint of numbers

Down the pub this evening, one of my colleagues referred to the beer Kronenbourg as 'numbers' - presumably because its full name is 'Kronenbourg 1664'. That's a new one on me.



And Googling 'Kronenbourg' and 'pint of numbers' threw up this nice little anecdote (which I have very gently subbed):

I once worked as a barman and this lad ordered a pint of "numbers" with a male colleague of mine. The barman who was working with me didn't respond to this chap's request. The customer, thinking he had a cool way of ordering his preferred tipple, said: "Haven't you heard of a pint numbers before, pal, what sort of barman are you?" The barman replied: "Yes I have, but we sell 80 Bob as well." Needless to say, the smile was wiped right off his face.

Apparently, 80 Bob a Scottish beer also called 80 Shilling, or sometimes 'Caley 80'. There you go.

1 comment:

garicgymro said...

It's worth adding that "Caley 80" (pronounced /kali/) is only used for the 80 shilling beer made by the Caledonian brewery. There are a couple of 80 /- beers in Scotland, and there used to be a lot more. You sometimes see 70 /- beers too and, very rarely, a 90/-.