It’s a pub pint.
There are a lot of beer can sizes.
Imperial, the common ones are
24oz (usually only VERY cheap beer)
19.2 oz “imperial” pints (often called stovepipes/smokestacks)
16oz pints (usually called tallboys, though larger sizes are ALSO often called tallboys)
12oz “classic”/standard cans
and nips (8.4oz) which I don’t know the reason they’re the size they are.
However, in bar tradition, a “pub” pint is a typical size, which is what this can is – about 14oz. These happen a lot since they’re served in a shaker pint glass that LOOKS like a typical pint glass but has an extra thick bottom that makes those 2oz disappear. The commonness of this style of glass is why so much EU glassware has the mandatory 40cl line.
Metric cans come in a lot more sizes, but as I understand it the standard ones are 330ml, 440ml, and those same 568ml (19.2oz) stovepipes.
The point is, this ridiculous number is a pub pint. Why that can size exists I do not know.
Excuse the dumb question, but what kind of ounce are we talking about?
There’s apparently an “imperial fluid ounce”, which is 28.4130625 mL.
There’s a “US customary fluid ounce”, which is 29.5735295625 mL and certainly sounds like it might be customary in the US.
But then there’s also the “US food labeling fluid ounce”, which is exactly 30 mL, and I guess, would be even more customary in US food labeling, but if it’s an even mL number, then I’m confused how we end up with such a crooked number as 404.
Or is it just that there’s some regulation which says a pub-pint-sized can must be 14 oz, but for some reason, you’re allowed to be half an ounce below that (404 / 30 mL = 13.466)…?
It’s not a dumb question, but you’re presuming standards and exactness that do not exist in practice.
A pub pint is a pint glass that is deceptively smaller than a full pint, usually about 14oz. That’s all it is. This can is the same as a pub pint – both in spirit and practice – as far as I can tell.
Yeah, I am German, so we definitely take measuring (and beer) a bit too serious.
When I was younger, I learned that there was a tolerated margin of error, something like the package may say 200 mL, but it actually only contains 195 mL at times.
This absolutely makes sense in retrospect, but at the time, I was genuinely surprised that this was not something we measured at mL precision. They need to provide that whole ingredients list and nutrition table, so just measuring how much is in the package felt like the easy part.
Does any of that explain the 404? An even 400ml is very close to 14 imperial ounces. 14.078. 404 makes it further off and a weird number in any units I’ve tried coverting it to.
Nope. The 4ml diff from 400 is within a margin of error I’m sure, so this size really seems arbitrary to me. Wolfram’s language model doesn’t recognize it as some obscure unit either.
Not directly relevant to your post I thought your post was culturally interesting. I live in the UK, and a pub pint will ALWAYS be what you listed as imperial pints. I believe it is illegal to call it a pint and it not be that size. I’m surprised how small the American pub pints are in comparison.
Certainly people must ask for “pints” though and if the server brings them a drink, I would take that as confirmation that they are tacitly serving pints.
That’s because the UK uses imperial pints, a US pint is only 473 ml, and the “shaker pint” is only 414.
To make it even more fun there are US barr associations trying to claim that a pint is just a glass of beer not of any specific size, so they can use the word with a smaller glass. Fortunately most government weights and measures agencies are not exactly convinced that a pints means something different than the standard measure.
It’s a pub pint.
There are a lot of beer can sizes.
Imperial, the common ones are
However, in bar tradition, a “pub” pint is a typical size, which is what this can is – about 14oz. These happen a lot since they’re served in a shaker pint glass that LOOKS like a typical pint glass but has an extra thick bottom that makes those 2oz disappear. The commonness of this style of glass is why so much EU glassware has the mandatory 40cl line.
Metric cans come in a lot more sizes, but as I understand it the standard ones are 330ml, 440ml, and those same 568ml (19.2oz) stovepipes.
The point is, this ridiculous number is a pub pint. Why that can size exists I do not know.
Metric cans are almost always either 330 ml or 500 ml. Anything else is a novelty
375ml is very common in Australia.
Australia is the land of novelty
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I’ve never understood why Australian cans are unusually large compared to other countries.
A standard Schooner glass is 425ml, which means you can pour a 375ml can into one either with ice or leaving enough room for a beer with a good head.
350mL is common too - less common than 330mL though.
473ml is abundantly common in Canada because it’s the most common size used in the US (16oz)
Excuse the dumb question, but what kind of ounce are we talking about?
There’s apparently an “imperial fluid ounce”, which is 28.4130625 mL.
There’s a “US customary fluid ounce”, which is 29.5735295625 mL and certainly sounds like it might be customary in the US.
But then there’s also the “US food labeling fluid ounce”, which is exactly 30 mL, and I guess, would be even more customary in US food labeling, but if it’s an even mL number, then I’m confused how we end up with such a crooked number as 404.
Or is it just that there’s some regulation which says a pub-pint-sized can must be 14 oz, but for some reason, you’re allowed to be half an ounce below that (404 / 30 mL = 13.466)…?
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_ounce
If we start to bring US units into it, then anything goes.
1/700th of ford 150 gas tank
It’s not a dumb question, but you’re presuming standards and exactness that do not exist in practice.
A pub pint is a pint glass that is deceptively smaller than a full pint, usually about 14oz. That’s all it is. This can is the same as a pub pint – both in spirit and practice – as far as I can tell.
Yeah, I am German, so we definitely take measuring (and beer) a bit too serious.
When I was younger, I learned that there was a tolerated margin of error, something like the package may say 200 mL, but it actually only contains 195 mL at times.
This absolutely makes sense in retrospect, but at the time, I was genuinely surprised that this was not something we measured at mL precision. They need to provide that whole ingredients list and nutrition table, so just measuring how much is in the package felt like the easy part.
Does any of that explain the 404? An even 400ml is very close to 14 imperial ounces. 14.078. 404 makes it further off and a weird number in any units I’ve tried coverting it to.
Nope. The 4ml diff from 400 is within a margin of error I’m sure, so this size really seems arbitrary to me. Wolfram’s language model doesn’t recognize it as some obscure unit either.
Not directly relevant to your post I thought your post was culturally interesting. I live in the UK, and a pub pint will ALWAYS be what you listed as imperial pints. I believe it is illegal to call it a pint and it not be that size. I’m surprised how small the American pub pints are in comparison.
Illegal in Canada too - if it’s not 20 +/- 0.5 oz, you can’t call it a pint.
Can’t say I see the word ‘pint’ at pubs very often anymore, though.
Certainly people must ask for “pints” though and if the server brings them a drink, I would take that as confirmation that they are tacitly serving pints.
And the silly thing is, a pub pint should be 568ml. A pub in the UK selling less than a full pint wouldn’t be a pub very long.
That’s because the UK uses imperial pints, a US pint is only 473 ml, and the “shaker pint” is only 414.
To make it even more fun there are US barr associations trying to claim that a pint is just a glass of beer not of any specific size, so they can use the word with a smaller glass. Fortunately most government weights and measures agencies are not exactly convinced that a pints means something different than the standard measure.