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Older version of Dry January


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Reading the bottom line brought back memories of the Telegram Boys during world war 2, I remember living up in Thurso in 1944 that when delivered by the boys Most families opened them with fear and trepidation in case it was from the war office with notice of loss of a loved one. The boys would stand at the door with head bowed after asking if there would be a reply and waited for an answer then cycle off back to the telegraph office when they got their answer.

 

Lagavulin still going strong, bit more than 23/-  per gallon now though.

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Lagavulin still going strong, bit more than 23/-  per gallon now though.

I did notice that bughtmaster and thought it would be nice to turn the clock back for a dram or two, I do like the Islay Malts!

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Reading the bottom line brought back memories of the Telegram Boys during world war 2, I remember living up in Thurso in 1944 that when delivered by the boys Most families opened them with fear and trepidation in case it was from the war office with notice of loss of a loved one.

That was a reaction to telegrams which began quite early in WW1. Casualties were so severe that telegrams started arriving everywhere in great numbers and very quickly became associated with bad news. This continued during WW2 and certainly my grandparents, all of whom lived through both world wars, for the rest of their lives used to get agitated if a telegram ever arrived for any reason.

My last direct experience of a telegram was in 1973 when I was in Orkney holidaying with student friends. My mother and father were in Wick with my grandparents who weren't on the phone and the only way I could get word to them from Kirkwall that I was going to join them on my way back south was by telegram. Apparently my granny in particular got very agitated when it arrived.

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I'm often surprised at how they market things like this.  What is the "Taste the Real Beer!" about?  Was this to distinguish it from Bass's other products that had artifical beer in them?  And why make such an exclamation when the customer would be able to taste the beer better if it wasn't diluted with lemonade.

 

And if they were going to give some extra free, why 12.5% to make the grand total 495ml?  Why not 60ml free and make it a nice round 500ml.  In any case, does any one know why beer sold in cans came to be sold in cans of 440ml?  It sounds like a totally random amount but I will give the industry the benefit of the doubt and accept there was probably a good reason for it.

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And if they were going to give some extra free, why 12.5% to make the grand total 495ml?  Why not 60ml free and make it a nice round 500ml.  In any case, does any one know why beer sold in cans came to be sold in cans of 440ml?  It sounds like a totally random amount but I will give the industry the benefit of the doubt and accept there was probably a good reason for it.

I have a possible answer as to why beer always used to be sold in 440ml cans and that, in a nutshell, is that 440ml is 16 fluid ounces of beer. I'm pretty sure that, pre-metrication, cans of beer would have been 16 fl oz or 4/5 (0.8) of a pint. In fact I think I just remember these.

With water, 1 fluid ounce = 28.4ml. 440/28.4 = 15.49 fl oz. However beer is slightly more dense than water - let's say a typical value of 1.03 g/ml. So if you multiply the 15.49 by this notional 1.03 you actually do get 15.96 which is as near 16 fl oz as dammit.

So I reckon the 440ml is simply a metrication of the 16 fl oz cans of an earlier era.

That possibly also explains why it was 12.5% extra free. 12.5% is an eighth, so exactly 2 fl oz extra. When metricated, it does indeed come up with rather a funny number of 495ml but that's just a legacy of conversion from Imperial measurement. I assume that cans then went to 500ml once Imperial measure became fully obsolete.

Along similar lines, you may also have noticed that bottled beer is still usually sold in 330ml containers. That will presumably be a legacy of 12 fl oz. Have they never got round to changing a lot of bottles since these are reusable?

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Gee whiz Charles that's some answer :ohmy: I bet your pupils at school didn't ask a question at the end of the last period or they would have missed their dinner :lol:

Even if they had there wouldn't have been a problem since there would have been no way I would have missed mine either!

 

"Remember to ask me about that next time, son."

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Shandy was for pussies,

I really do have to wonder which brand of dodgy videos you're into these days 100! :lol:

 

And by the way, I now think that the change from 440 (16 fl oz) to 500ml cans may have come in the early/mid 90s. I have a recollection of journeys to Safeways excellent drink aisles in their Margaret St store (which also had a very good cafe by the way) and seeing more and more beers and ciders at that time becoming 500ml.

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