The beer victim of the crisis and the "pint" becomes smaller

LONDON - "A pint." There was never need to say more in an English pub, ordering a drink: it was clear to us what he meant. At best, the bartender behind the counter asked to specify the type of beer you want: light, dark, bitter, frothy. But now things change: the British government decided to put an end to 300 years of history and tradition, which authorizes the public places to reduce the size of the jars, which served the most popular alcoholic drink, and drank more, the subjects of His Majesty.

No longer necessarily a pint, equal to 568 milliliters, the standard established by an act in Parliament as far back as 1698 for the sale of beer and cider in public places. The new glasses, already popular in Australia where they are called schooner, will be 400 milliliters; so in pubs where the beer is served in this new measure, you can not simply order "a pint, a pint, but we must say something 'Another, perhaps a schooner, or by copying the Australians need to specify, ask for a glass of beer "small".

The places that serve alcohol until then were only allowed to sell beer in pint glasses or sub, as the "half pint", but is ordered by few, especially among men, being considered an amount not very manly, in addition that enough to make a quick drunk (for which, of course, must swallow pints of well more than one).

"The mandatory sizes of glasses and mugs are exactly the kind of unnecessary bureaucratic rules that our government wants to eliminate," said Secretary David Willetts, a member of the executive headed by Conservative leader David Cameron by announcing the initiative. "We heard the views of operators and consumers.

Pub owners agree to maintain the old standard sizes, but they call for more flexibility." Everyone, in short, is free to do as he pleases: some pubs will continue to serve only pints, pints and the other will be smaller jars, others offer only a limited extent. The reform also provides news for wine, which until now could only be served in glasses from 125 ml up, but now even those will be from 75 milliliters.

Apart from granting more freedom for local government, the measure is likely to have contradictory consequences. On the one hand, aims to cater to consumers at a time of crisis or economic difficulty, however, it is clear that a glass of 400 milliltri will cost less than a 568. Secondly, it also reduce the consumption of alcohol, alcoholism, diseases resulting from them, such as obesity, linked to drunkenness and antisocial behavior: the UK alcohol consumption per capita has increased by 40 percent by seventy years now, while it decreased in the rest of Europe.

But the result could be that lowering prices and diversifying the offer, the English drink more beer and spirits more than ever, continuing to pump money into a business worth 28 billion pounds a year.

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