Pint-Sized Beers

What's in a pint? To an Irishman, perhaps, a pint means 16 ounces of honest black beer. But to a barkeeper in San Francisco, a pint may be as little as a dozen sly ounces with a healthy head to top off the glass.

Rumors of this white-collar fraud inspired field research last week, and SF Weekly set out with a basic 16-ounce measuring cup in hand to have a few beers — and hopefully a pint or two, as well. We acknowledge that measurements could be off by a quarter-ounce in either direction, but our results show that pints in S.F. may be less than meets the eye.

At the Fireside on Irving at Eighth Ave., a pint of microbrew measured out to be a paltry 12-ounce pour. At Little Shamrock at Ninth Ave. and Lincoln, a glass carried 13 ounces. At the Rickshaw Stop on Fell, a draft of Speakeasy Hunters Point Porter appeared to be 14 ounces. Underdogs on Irving at 19th Ave. flourishes the word "pints" on the wall, but a Miller was actually 14 ounces of beer posing as a pint.

Griz, proprietor and beer guru at San Francisco Brewcraft Home Brewing Supplies, suggested in a phone interview that "pint" has become a colloquial term meaning simply a "glass" of beer. "A pint at a bar is supposed to be 16 ounces," he said. "If you're getting less, then you're getting ripped off."

However, he added: "When the whole world is going to hell, this seems like a tiny cosmic fart in the universe. If you're seriously worried about getting 14 ounces in a pint of beer, then I think you need to get a life."

Undeterred, we collected more data from the city's beer hotspots. At Toronado on Haight, that famed nest of dirty-haired hipsters and pitbullish employees, the pours fall a tad short. The bar's Web site advertises its beers as pints, but the standard house pint glass carried just 14.5 ounces of frothy-topped fluid. At 21st Amendment on Second St., the beer was served in a glass that could have fit a full pint, though it would have been a tight fit. The beer measured out at 14.5 ounces.

Monk's Kettle on 16th St., famed for its colorful selection of brews, advertises its beers as coming in "20 oz Imperial Pints unless otherwise noted." The Fuller's London Porter-Nitro filled the measuring cup to approximately 18 ounces. Co-owner Nat Cutler explained that listed beer sizes in most bars refer to the capacity of the glass — not to the quantity of beer. Any educated server, he said, will leave a half-inch to an inch of room at the top to accommodate the foamy head. "We would never fill the glass straight to the top," he said. Monk's Kettle does right on the pour for the sake of tradition, but at $7.25 for a glass of porter, those two extra ounces would be nice.