Hi! Blod here.

Well, we’re into another New Year and I am still eating Turkey. It is saving me a fortune on my food bills. We’ve had the New Year Honours farce again, and what about Sir Elton John? Chuffing 'ell, the rate their going I reckon I should be Sir Blod by the year 2005 because they will have run out of tossers to give it to.

Back to the beer. In this issue I would like to enlighten your good selves to the issue of full measures. This is an issue very close to my heart, or my wallet to be more precise, basically cause I'm a tight git.

Seriously though, many people do not even realise that this is a problem. In fact, some people are making a tidy profit by deliberately ripping off the customer. The next time you go for a pint, just check what glass your beer is served in.

Most pubs serve beer in unlined glasses. These glasses are a pint when full right to the very brim. This means a pint of liquid, not an inch of froth on the top. This is where the unscrupulous landlord does his biz. The landlord and his staff will pull hard on the hand pump to introduce the maximum amount of air into the beer, which creates a large a mount of froth on the top of your pint.

This froth is just air when all said and done, and you, the customer, are paying for this. The landlord can make a nice profit from this exercise, since 12mm on the top of a £1.60 pint of beer can equate to 20p. Say 100 pints are sold in an evening, that’s £20 in his back pocket. Not a bad little earner.

Most landlords if questioned will state that you only have to ask and you can have a top-up, but why should you have to ask? It naturally makes the customer feel uncomfortable, as though you are actually asking for something you are not entitled to.

Also putting too much air into the pint actually affects the flavour. Only beers that are brewed specifically to have a tight creamy head should be pulled in this manner. When they are not, the beer becomes bland.

CAMRA have been campaigning for several years now for full measures. The way to ensure that you are getting a full pint of beer is to use oversized glasses. These can be easily be spotted by the line about 15mm from the top of the glass. This allows a full pint of liquid and accommodates the head.

Of course there is a down side to this exercise - well isn't there always? The breweries will tell you that if oversized glasses are made law, it will cost the drinker money, so expect the cost of your pint to increase.

The breweries, and no doubt the landlords will also use this as an opportunity to hike up their prices, which is really annoying when they whinge on about the affects on their business from cheap foreign imports and the unfair tax on alcohol and expect sympathy from us drinkers.

Now, I am not suggesting that all landlords and brewers be tarred with the same brush, but could it be that those who are making the most noise against lined glasses are those with the most to lose?

I must sign off now or our editor will be having kittens. My column is getting so long he will have to go through his usual slashing exercise... well I think that's what he meant when he said he was going for a quick slash!

Blod out.

Feb. '98

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Part 7
Blod's plod aroond Aberdeen