Nuts 4 Beer

I didn't blog yesterday because I was at the Great British Beer Festival.

Talking of which, you'd have to be desperate for a pint to take up this offer:

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.

Photo from Flickr

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.

Timothy Taylor steak and ale pie

This afternoon I found myself in one of my favourite London pubs, the Black Friar in Blackfriars.

On the menu was 'Timothy Taylor steak and ale pie'. Very tasty, no doubt, but as Timothy Taylor referred to the ale (Timothy Taylor Landlord) rather than to the steak, surely 'steak and Timothy Taylor ale pie' would have been more accurate?

On the other hand, 'steak and ale pie' is such a well known phrase (and dish) that I can see why the menu-writer chose not to shoehorn a 'Timothy Taylor' into the middle of it.

Another option would have been something along the lines of 'steak and ale pie made with Timothy Taylor Landlord', but then that's a little unwieldy.

You know you've been subbing too hard...

...when you start hallucinating a giant glass of beer whenever you walk past a pub.



I saw this one lunchtime in the street near my office. I was with one of my colleagues at the time, and he told the beer: "I've drunk your babies."

Journalists can be strange.

Photo special: this week special large beer

I spotted this sign outside a cafe in Funchal, Madeira last year. Down by the harbour, as I recall.



(If you can't see the photo, the sign reads: "THIS WEEK SPECIAL LARGE BEER".)

It makes me wonder. Is the large beer special because it is being offered at a special low price, or because it is something that the cafe doesn't normally offer? Or perhaps there's another explanation entirely - suggestions welcome.

A pint and a half, or a pint in a half

I was in a busy pub in central London last night and went up to the bar to buy a couple of drinks.

"A pint and a half of Coors*, please," I said to the barman.

He went off to start pouring the drinks and then came back to ask me: "Was that a pint and a half, or a pint in a half?"

A pint in a half? A half in a pint (glass), possibly, but not the other way round. I would have liked to see him try, though.


*Just to clarify - I don't normally drink this watery, bland lager.

Packs of Skol contain 440ml of alcohol. Really?

From yesterday's Metro, page 2:

Supermarket Asda has been accused of encouraging underage binge-drinking by selling four cans of lager for 90p.

Its packs of Skol, each containing 440ml of alcohol, work out at just 51p a litre.

So each pack contains 440ml of alcohol. Does 'pack' here mean a can, or does it mean the four-pack? If the former, then Metro is claiming that Skol is pure alcohol, or near enough (depending on the size of the can). If the latter, then it would still be around 20-25% alcohol.

I suspect that, actually, Metro is confusing 'pack' with 'can' and 'alcohol' with beer', and that each can contains 440ml of beer.

Here's The Sun's version of the story - and Brand Republic's. Interestingly, neither mentions the alcoholic strength of Skol. Would pointing that out have watered down the power of the story?

And does anyone know off-hand exactly how strong Skol is? I mean regular Skol, not Skol Super or Skol International or anything like that. Cheers!

The £4 pint of beer is here. Maybe

Not for the first time recently, I've been reading about the soaring price of a pint of beer here in the capital. This time it was on the front page of today's Metro free paper:

In London the average price of a pint – at £4.06 – is dearer than a hit of heroin

I don't know much about the price of heroin, but neither do I know any pubs in London that charge £4 a pint. The pubs near where I live (a fairly nice bit of Zone 3) charge around the £3 mark; you might pay £3.30 in a gastropub.

Ah, but what about all those expensive bars – surely they push the price up? Possibly, but many of the swanky ones sell bottles, not pints, and the ones that do sell expensive pints will be more than compensated for by cheapo chains such as JD Wetherspoon (no relation) that charge nearer the £2 mark. And for every pub that sells a £2 pint, there must be another that sells a £6 pint to make the average £4.

So my question to any Londoners out there is: where are these £4-a-pint (or more) pubs? Or is the Metro article just shoddy journalism? Sorry, I know that's two questions...

What price a pint?

PS I can imagine that many of our American readers will respond to this post with shock and/or smugness...