A Shot of Beer History #2: The 'Nearly' & Others ...

I am no stranger to the historic - and fiscally prompted - short-serve pint, with terms such as the 'Meejum' or 'Medium,' and 'Small-Pint' appearing here on occasion, but it's nice to come across new geographical variances of names for this size of serve.

Up in the north of Ireland, in Bangor County Down in 1933, a hotel owner was charged with serving something other than the pint or half pint of beer that the law required. In the Marine Hotel a customer called for and was served a 'Nearly' by the barman - an amount which was 'nearly a pint'. The reason being that due to recent taxation, a pint of beer had gone from 6d to 7d, but 'for a few working-men who really could not afford to buy the whole pint' a pint glass was filled to 1 inch of the brim and sold for 6d. This, it was reported, was a common practice in Bangor and this size of pour was also called a 'Blue', a 'Royal' and a 'Schooner,' the latter being a size of pour also familiar to any Australian readers, although not a short pour.

The charge was proven but the case was discharged without a conviction or fine.

Liam K

Here's my long piece on the Meejum and the Loop-Liner - again!

[Image and report from The North Down Herald and County Down Independent - Saturday 28th January 1933]

Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive, who have kindly let me share the above image. DO NOT STEAL THIS CONTENT!