So, you think a Pint of beer is a Pint?

Apart from having a "sip" of my dad's beer when I was very young, I had my first full can of Emu Bitter (Western Australia) when I was 16. Then I never touched a drop until I was 18 and moved to New South Wales (NSW) with the Air Force.

In those days most States and Territories allowed alcoholic drinks to residents 21 or older. I'd lived in the Northern Territory, so I never drank while underage.

The "age of consent" was 21 then, but changed to 18 and NSW was the first to adapt and change its legislation to allow 18 year-olds to drink.

A "Middy" of beer, 10oz was $0.10c on the RAAF Base and a little more in local towns. I took to it like a duck to water.

Years later, after I had married and was a father of two children, I decided I needed to set an example of sobriety and not drink driving. I morphed into what I call, a "responsible drinker". Also known as a "social drinker".

The days of binges followed by a wasted day while I recovered were over. In any case, what once took me one day to recover now took two. Middle age had caught up with me.

Long drinking sessions were fewer as the years passed and eventually, I got to the stage where I never woke up with a hangover. Halleluyah!

After work on Friday evenings, I'd head to a pub for a few beers with my work colleagues or golf buddy. In those days, my first beer was a Pint which would be followed by several Schooners.

That was mostly in the Territory where a Pint is a Pint and a Schooner is a Schooner. A Territory Pint is 570 ml, rounded from 568 ml which is the size of a standard Imperial pint.

When I moved to South Australia in 2018 I was to suffer "quantum shock".

I ordered a Pint and it looked a tad small. I asked the lovely barmaid about it and she said it was a "South Australian pint". When I enquired further, I discovered that the:

1. Standard Pint in all other states and territories is 570 ml
2. SA "pint" is in fact 425 ml, the same size as a Territory schooner
3. SA schooner is 285 ml, the same as a middy (half pint) in NSW

I don't know what the comparative prices are across the country, they vary between hotel and hotel, but I've had to get accustomed to ordering a pint and being satisfied with what I have always thought of as a schooner.

Whether we're being ripped off in terms of cost per ml in SA I don't know, but it sure feels like it. Maybe I need to do some further research.

Maybe I should be brewing my own.

What do you think? Where do you live and what size drinks to you consume?