Beer vocabulary and measurements in England, Australia and America

As the world’s most popular alcoholic drink, beer has countless variations of taste, strength, colour, price and ingredients around the globe. In addition, there are thousands of beer brands, numerous sizes and types of container or vessel it’s sold in, and a wealth of beer-related vocabulary. Even among England, Australia and the US – three countries that share a common language and a great many cultural similarities – there are some surprising differences when it comes to ordering a beer.

Beer Vocabulary
In the US beer is ‘beer’, but in Australia it’s called ‘bitter’ while in England it’s commonly known as ‘lager’. Confused? Then maybe I shouldn’t mention stout, ale and bitter (a different drink to the Australian bitter) then, three similar drinks that are also sometimes called ‘beer’ in England.

As well as having different words for beer itself, the places where beer can be bought also go by different names in these three countries. Shops that sell beer and other alcohol for home consumption are called ‘liquor stores’ in the US, ‘bottle shops’ in Australia (or more commonly as ‘bottle-o’s’ in spoken language) and ‘off licences’ (often referred to by the abbreviation ‘offy’ in conversation) in England.

American watering holes are called ‘bars’, Australian ones ‘hotels’(1) while English ones are called ‘pubs’. Confusingly, these words ‘hotel’ and ‘pub’ are usually used to refer to the more traditional kind of establishment where the emphasis is on sitting down and chatting in homely surroundings, with the word ‘bar’ often being adopted to describe the more modern kind of place where the emphasis is on loud music and meeting members of the opposite sex in stylish surroundings.

Beer Measurements
Apart from variations in English language usage in these countries, further confusion can arise from the different systems used to measure servings of beer: the Metric System (in conjunction with size-specific vessel vocabulary) in Australia, Imperial Measurements in England in pubs/bars (the Metric System is used for cans and bottles) and US Customary Units in the US (especially confusing when buying cans or bottles as either of two different measurements, ounces or fluid ounces, can be used).

In Australia, beer is served in ‘schooners’ (425ml) and ‘middies’ (285ml) in New South Wales but in tropical Queensland, where there’s more likelihood of it getting warm, draught beer is only usually served in 285ml glasses called ‘pots’. In England draught beer is available in ‘half pints’ (284ml) or, more commonly, in ‘pints’ (568ml). In the US beer is also sold in pints, although American pints are smaller (473ml) and most people there seem to prefer their beer in bottles anyway. A more unusual measurement of beer available in all three countries (though only in small number of establishments) is the yard of ale, a long thin beer glass which takes its name from its length in Imperial Measurements or US Customary Units (1 yard=91.4cm).

Notes
(1) - This results in hotels that only have accommodation and don’t serve alcohol (i.e. places that conform to the standard English meaning of the word ‘hotel’) displaying ‘no alcohol’ or ‘lodgings only’ signs to avoid disappointing customers/guests.

Photos courtesy of Liquor Snob and Firebox.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 12:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Articles in English, Food and Drink, English Language and Western Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.