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06-12-2008 08:20 AM |
Beer drinkers howl as some chains use smaller glasses
Screw everything else, this is a real crime!!!!
Quote:
Beer drinkers howl as some chains use smaller glasses
By Nancy Keates
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
06/10/2008
Four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline may be a cause for outrage. But it pales next to the fury provoked by $5-a-pint beer.
Beer prices at bars and restaurants have risen over the last few months, as prices of hops and barley have skyrocketed and retail business has slowed alongside the economy.
Some restaurants have replaced 16-ounce pint glasses with 14 ouncers — a type of glassware one bartender called a "falsie."
And customers are complaining that bartenders are increasingly putting less than 16 ounces of beer in a pint glass, filling up the extra space with foam.
Two of the world's biggest glassware makers, Libbey and Cardinal International, say orders of smaller beer glasses have risen over the last year.
Restaurateurs "want more of a perceived value," said Mike Schuster, Libbey's marketing manager for glassware in the U.S.
Glasses with a thicker bottom or a thicker shaft help create the perception. "You can increase the thickness of the bottom part but still retain the overall profile," he said.
Dedicated beer drinkers are fighting back, with extra vigilance about exactly how much beer they get for their buck. They are protesting "cheater pints" and "profit pours" by outing alleged offenders on Web discussion boards and plugging bars that maintain 16-ounce pints, in hopes peer pressure will prevail. And they are spreading the word about how to spot the smaller glass (the bottom is thicker).
Jason Alstrom, who founded the magazine BeerAdvocate last year, calls it the "Less for More" phenomenon. "It's happening everywhere," he says. He is urging readers and users of his website, www.beeradvocate.com, to "raise a fist and refuse to pay" when served a skimpy pint.
Evidence of short-pouring is hard to nail down, but there are signs the practice is common. Romano's Macaroni Grill, a national chain, uses the thick-bottomed 14 ouncers in at least some of its locations; a Romano's bartender in Portland, Ore., volunteered the nickname "falsies." (A corporate spokesman for Romano's declined to comment.)
Jeff Alworth, a Portland, Ore., beer blogger, university researcher and a founder of the Honest Pint Project, has been testing suspected short-pouring bars, in some cases measuring his beer-glass capacity by the men's room sink. His group collected more than 400 names in two weeks for an online petition urging state regulators to enforce a 16-ounce rule.
Some restaurants make no apology for reducing their beer-glass size.
The Hooters chain serves draft beer in 14-ounce glasses at franchised locations in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, and 16-ounce glasses in other states. "We can get 20 more beers out of a keg that way," said Archie Gleason, director of marketing for the franchisee, RMD Corp.
The shape of the glass apparently can distort bar patrons' perception of how much beer they have been served. The British Medical Journal published a 2005 study that concluded restaurants and bars might increase profitability and reduce waste by switching to taller, narrower glasses and cups — without sacrificing customer satisfaction. If people think they are getting more, they will be willing to pay more but won't necessarily drink more, the independent study concluded.
In the U.K., the Imperial Pint (equivalent to 19.2 U.S. ounces) has been a government-regulated standard for several centuries. The standard requires use of official pint glasses — with the word "Pint" and the European "CE" marking — etched onto each glass. The glasses actually hold more than an Imperial Pint, so there's room for the foam.
But the regulations haven't quieted debate. In England, a group called Campaign for Real Ale has been alleging for years that bars pinch pence by pouring short. In March, the British government energized the movement by slapping a new tax on alcohol. About 23,000 people have signed a petition in favor of government regulation of the size of the foam head on a pint of beer.
Pubs that don't scrimp are undercut by pubs that do, said Nick Laver-Vincent, who owns The Royal Oak in Big Bury, England, and who signed the petition. "It is cutthroat," he said.
Beer drinkers feeling shortchanged can take immediate action: They can ask for a "top-off" after the foam on the profit pour settles. That's what George Collentine did when he was served a beer with almost 2 inches of foam at an Italian restaurant this month. "I just waited," said the 38-year-old chemical-company manager from Danbury, Conn. The bartender gave it to him.
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