The cost of drinking crisis!: Seven out of ten pints are poured short costing pub goers £114 a year
Underpoured pints plague the capital, but now experts have revealed how to tell if you're being shortchanged on your drinks.
Punters are reportedly being ripped off to the tune of £114 a year because beer glasses aren't filled to the top, a survey by watchdogs has found.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute said its members carried out 137 test purchases of beer and wine nationwide. Some 96 - marginally over 70 per cent of the total - were shorter than the full measure.
When broken down between beer and wine, 86 per cent of beer was short measured while 43 per cent of wine was found to be short measured. The average deficit for short-measured beer found in the survey was 4 per cent, while for wine it was 5 per cent.
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) maintains that the pint measure should not include the head, and that consumers should have a right to a 100 per cent liquid pint.
CAMRA National Chairman Nik Antona said that as a customer you should never be refused a top up by the barman.
Drinkers have hit out at pubs after learning that a whopping seven out of ten pints are poured short
This graphic shows Britain's cheapest and most expensive cities for pints
Instagram page 'upsetting pints' described the above a 'stinking lager' when one of their followers sent in the terribly poured pint
'It has become very alarming that this year in particular, people are being handed pints and are left thinking, 'is that it?'
'Up to 70 per cent of drinks are being short measured according to trading standards and most people won't even realise it.
'You will know if you are being short measured if for example you have ordered a beer, and the beer doesn't include minimum 95 per cent liquid with a head.
'Customers who would like less of a head should always be allowed to ask for a top-up and should never be refused. Measures should always be the size stated and it should never be under the size of measure stated on the price list.'
He recommended that if you are ever worried that you are not being given the correct quantity of beer - you should ask for a pint-to-line glass.
'Many pubs, as well as CAMRA festivals, use oversized pint-to-line glasses to make sure that you can tell you are getting a pint of 100 per cent liquid. Why not politely ask the bar staff if they have any pint-to-line glasses available, or ask if they can order some?
'For anything that is short measured, and particularly anything more than five per cent short, you should ask the bar staff for an immediate top-up.
'You are well within your rights to do this, and the staff should comply and fulfil this request. If you get a negative reaction when you do this, you can get in contact with Trading Standards to report the incident.'
Upsetting pints instagram who have amassed alomst 280k followers posted this with the caption: 'Someday the horrors will subside. This was sent back to the bar, and met with horror by a barman who actually knows what he's doing'
Latest data, gathered by the World Health Organization and compiled by Oxford University-backed platform Our World in Data, shows the UK's wine consumption has soared to 3.3 litres of pure alcohol annually (2019), up on the 0.3 litres recorded almost 60 years earlier in 1961. It now accounts for over a third (33.7 per cent) of all alcohol consumed across the country and sits almost level with beer (36 per cent) which has plummeted from the 5.8 litres logged in 1961 to 3.5 litres today
In the UK, draught beer must be sold by reference to quantity and normally in quantities of half a pint or multiples of a half pint.
Most pint glasses will bear a 'government stamp' to show it is an accurate measure, also called a brim measure, meaning a full pint is to the very top of the glass.
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A few pubs may still use glasses that are called line measures – these are slightly over-sized glasses that have a line near the top to show the level of one pint.
And even fewer pubs may use automatic half-pint meters that accurately dispense beer into a glass in multiples of a half pint.
One of the problems with using a brim measure is that it is virtually impossible to get a full pint of liquid due to the white frothy head that naturally forms on the top.
Experts at Gough Square Chambers said: 'In an ideal world, all pubs would be required by law to use line measures, making it far easier to get a full pint of liquid. However, no such legislation currently exists and pubs can legally use brim measures.'
This comes after it was revealed earlier this month that a pub in Clapham was flogging pints of Diet Coke for £4.60, a figure just fractionally shy of the average cost of a pint of lager, which is £4.80.
An example of a bad pint pour where you are within your legal right to go back and ask the bar tender to top it up to the brim
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) maintains that the pint measure should not include the head, and that consumers should have a right to a 100 per cent liquid pint
Drinkers hit out at pubs after learning that a whopping seven out of ten pints are poured short.
Furious pub-goers in Newcastle have reacted to the news of their short-filled pints and have demanded their money back. Tom Hollands, 21, a business management student, fumed: 'I want my money back. It's a lot of pints I've missed out on.
'How many pints can you get for that? It's a lot of pints I've missed out on.'
Tom and his pal Reuben Mayes, 19, paid £4.50 for their pints of Stella at Wetherspoons.
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Reuben, also a business management student at Newcastle University added: 'You get your pint and you just want to get to your table. You don't complain at the time and you don't notice it.
'I'm shocked at the amount of money it costs customers. You could get a lot of pints for that.'
The standard measure for an imperial pint is 568ml, officially standardised by the 1824 British Weights and Measures Act and the accepted norm dictates it should include roughly 95 per cent liquid and 5 per cent head.
Ellessie Walker, 26, paid £4.50 for her Stella at local Wetherspoons, The Five Swans. The full-time mother said: 'It's shocking because you come to Wetherspoons for a deal and because it's cheap pints.
'But you aren't getting a deal because it's half froth and half drink. It's a lot of money for the drinker to lose, especially because half these people are on the dole.
'Sometimes you just want a nice, cold pint and you go in the pub and are drinking froth.Is that why the head on my pint is massive? A pint is a pint, isn't it? It's still bad because you're drinking froth but half the time you don't even realise because you're drunk
Ciaran Jeffrey, 25, a landscaper from Newcastle, said: 'I'm pure devastated. I'm not going to lie, I feel ripped off. It's a liberty.
'It puts a damper on it, especially now that I know I'm missing out on that much money. It's a lot of money, especially when people have kids and they could spend it on other things. It's going to make have a closer look at my pint.'
Stuart Hughes, 56, a dog walker from Middlesbrough, said: 'I have noticed some of my pints have been pulled short.
'My brother was a landlord and he used to tell the staff to pull pints short as it saves a lot of money over the year.
'If you are in a rush on Friday or Saturday night you would just accept it, so pubs can get away with it. It's a lot of money to lose, everything adds up these days.
'I might have to start asking for my pint to be topped up. You wouldn't buy a packet of biscuits if there was one missing, would you?'
If you unsure if your pint is below the norm of 5 per cent, a top tip is to use a Biro pen.
Hold it to the top of the glass (or line) as a rough measure of what 5 per cent is. If the liquid line is below the penthen it is likely that you have been short measured.
Helen Dewdney a consumer expert at the Complaining Cow said that under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 items must be served with reasonable skill and care.
Adding: 'Items should be as described. So if you are given short measures politely explain that you are entitled to a refund or a replacement and assert the legal position if necessary.'
The Instagram page 'upsettingpints' has managed to amass nearly 280k followers by posting shockingly bad pours.
One post alongside a half liquid, half head pint of Guinness read: 'Someday the horrors will subside. This was sent back to the bar, and met with horror by a barman who actually knows what he's doing.'
When it comes to wine pours, make sure you check the barman is using a measure, in the UK these are typically come in 125ml, 175ml and 250ml quantities.
As wine glasses can vary more significantly in size this is the best way to ensure you are not short measured.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute study found that 43 per cent of wine was being incorrectly measured, which amounted to a loss for the customer of £2.20 a week, or £114.40 a year.
The cost of living crisis that has engulfed the UK in recent years shows no signs of abating with Brits now routinely shelling out absurd amounts of money for necessities we previously took for granted.
Surges in the price of food and energy have been well documented, but a more insidious price inflation across the UK's hospitality sector is now running the risk of doing the unthinkable: pricing Brits out of the pub.
Last week, MailOnline revealed that a pub in Clapham, perhaps emboldened by the economic climate, was flogging pints of Diet Coke for £4.60, a figure just fractionally shy of the average cost of a pint of lager, which is £4.80.
Elsewhere in the capital, the historic riverside boozer the Trafalgar Arms in Greenwich charging £8.80 for a pint whilst Camden's The Dublin Castle pub was caught selling a pint of Cruzcampo lager for £7.80.
But despite justified outrage from punters, many in the hospitality industry have not ruled out further hikes.
To gauge how expensive the average trip to a UK pub has become in 2024, MailOnline visited a collection of venues across the country to see how far £50 would go and produced this graphic here.
In each of the pubs, we measured the price of five common orders including a pint of lager, pint of soft drink and a burger and chips.
The most expensive area of the country was London where the average cost of a pint was £7.20.
At these rates, £50 in the capital would only get you seven pints of lager or four cocktails which were sold for an average price of £11.
In Cardiff however, the cost of a pint was considerably less coming in below the national average at £4.50.
Should they be in the mood, a Cardiff punter would be able to buy £11 pints of lager and have change from a £50 note.
Cardiff was also the cheapest place to purchase a burger and chips with average prices for the hearty combo coming in at £11.
London was once again the most expensive with the average cost of the meal coming in at £17 whilst one pub in Chichester sold the meal for a staggering £24.50.
This burger, sold at the beautiful Crown and Anchor on Chichester harbour comes with a dairy cow patty, brioche bun as well as Cornish cheddar, watercress mayonnaise, chutney and bacon.
Nationally, the average cost of a pint of Coke came in at £3.
At The Auctioneers in Glasgow, a beef burger meal cost £10.25, a pint of Pepsi was £3 and a pint of Carling was £4.25.