Hacker News Reader

Comment by BashiBazouk | Hacker News Reader

Reminds me of backpacking up and down the east coast of Australia. I learned that Fosters is only northern New South Wales for beer. Every place had their own preferred beer, but maddeningly they all had their own glass. A tenner, a schooner. Each a slightly different size. I made friends with a guy in Hobart that was staying in the hostel as he was doing research there, I think he was a biologist. He took me to his favorite pub as they served imperial pints. I think who ever is behind this site needs to do some serious research in Australia as they could, at least, double the "know your glass" section...

View on HN

You might enjoy the matrix of regional sizes and names on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Australia#Beer_glasses

No, us locals don't know them all either!

As someone heavily involved in the hospitality (read: beer) area, this doesn't really line up with reality in Australia: there's only one state (South Australia) that doesn't agree on the major standard sizes: Pints are 470ml, schooners are 425ml, a half pint is 285ml, and a pony is 140ml.

There's colloquialisms for a half: pot, or middy, mostly. Hobart will call a half pint a ten, because it's 10oz, but they also know what you're talking about when you ask for a pot or a half pint.

Then there's South Australia, which will serve you a pint at 425ml, a schooner at 285ml, no one there outside of specialty craft beer bars have any idea what a half pint is, and if you want a proper pint you need to ask for an imperial pint. I have never seen an 'imperial pint' advertised in Hobart - it's just called a pint there.

Source: I have pretty extensive drinking experience in pretty much all of the Australian capital cities, except Perth.

Maybe not today, but in the summer of 1990 every pub I went to seemed to have a different glass and I was somehow expected to know what they were called...

I was decidedly not old enough to drink in 1990 and culture in general in Australia was much less homogeneous back then, so you're probably right for the times.

> there's only one state (South Australia) that doesn't agree on the major standard sizes: Pints are 470ml, schooners are 425ml, a half pint is 285ml, and a pony is 140ml.

> Source: I have pretty extensive drinking experience in pretty much all of the Australian capital cities, except Perth.

I don't drink as much as I used to so this might be a little outdated, but in Perth "Pints" are 570ml. It was rare, but becoming less so, for some places to serve you a 470ml schooner when you ordered a pint. We avoided those places.

...Embarrassingly, I have typo'd in my original post, and it's too late to edit. Pints are 570ml (not 470ml) everywhere on the East coast - hence why a half pint in Tassie is often called a ten - because it's 10oz, or half a 20oz/568ml pint.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com