Why beer sizes are different around Australia

Is it a pot or middy? Schooner or half pint? We’re all Australians, but let’s face it, our interstate brothers and sisters are sometimes downright weird when it comes to beer names and sizes.

Go to a pub anywhere outside Melbourne and you’ll suddenly feel like you should have brought your passport.

We’re all Australians, but let’s face it, our interstate brothers and sisters are sometimes downright weird.

In Sydney, not only do they drive as if they’re always on the way to a fire, but they call a pot of beer a “middy”.

It’s worse in Adelaide and Perth where their beer vocabularies includes such strange words as “bobbie” and “butcher”.

Go to a pub anywhere outside Melbourne and you’ll suddenly feel like you should have brought your passport.

The non-standard beer sizes around the country are frankly a mess and you couldn’t be blamed for suspecting someone was totally wasted when they came up with this ridiculous system.

So, how did it end up this way, and how do you get the right quantity when you’re away from home?

How beer sizes compare around the country.

How to translate when you’re interstate

Most of the confusion about beer sizes in Australia is around the quantity that Victorians know as a pot – 285ml or ten fluid ounces.

In Sydney it’s called a “middy”.

In Canberra and Perth it’s either a “middy” or a “half pint”.

But if you want a Melbourne pot in Darwin, you’d have to ask for a “handle”, and if you’re in Adelaide they (scandalously) call it a “schooner”.

Going down a notch, if you’re looking for a seven-ounce quantity (200ml in the new style) in Melbourne, you’d order a glass.

Not so interstate.

In Sydney and Darwin it’s called a “seven”, in Adelaide it’s curiously called a “butcher” and in Brisbane it’s bafflingly called just a “beer”.

Australian soldiers enjoying a beer in Darwin in 1945. Picture: State Library of Victoria

Only in Perth could you order a glass and get the same thing you would in Melbourne.

Then there’s a strange in-between six-ounce (170ml) size scarcely heard of in Melbourne but enjoyed in Tassie as a “six”, in Perth as a “bobbie” and sometimes called a “butcher” in Adelaide.

Go a size smaller still and you’ll get a 140ml quantity (five ounces) known in these parts as a pony.

There is near-unanimous agreement on the name of this category, with “pony” being long accepted in the vocabularies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

On the larger end of the scale, most states and territories agree that a pint is a pint, at 570ml or 20 ounces.

However, South Australia is a standout.

If you’re looking for a Melbourne schooner in Adelaide, you’d have to order a “pint”.

And if you’re looking for a pint, you’d have to order an “imperial pint”.

When it comes to beer sizes in Australia, maybe bigger is always better. Former PM Bob Hawke loved a beer.

We’ve always known those South Australians were a bit weird, and maybe this is confirmation, but Victoria has its own quirks, too.

We’re apparently the only state to have a “foursie” on the books – a tiny puddle of beer smaller than a pony and measuring just 115ml or four ounces, hence the name.

In Perth it’s called a “Shetland” (smaller than a pony, ha ha) and in Hobart it’s just called a “small beer”.

Why this obscure size has slipped from popular usage is pretty self evident. The average footy-goer would running to the bar every thirty seconds if they’d settled in for an evening of foursies.

In short, if you’re in Brisbane you can more or less order as if you were in Melbourne, except that might misunderstand what you mean by a “glass”.

In Sydney, keep in mind they call a pot a “middy” and you’ll be fine.

Same in Hobart except they call pot a “ten”, and honestly good luck in Adelaide where things have really gone mad.

Are they taking the piss?

Like standardised rail gauges, talk about a uniform beer size system has been talked about in Australia for yonks, but it seems unlikely.

Each state and territory seems unwaveringly committed to their own way of speaking about beer.

The origin of such words as “middy” (mid-sized) or “pony” (diminutive) are fairly obvious, but what about “schooner”?

The word, usually associated with ships, has been around pubs since at least the 1930s and is rumoured to have originated in a Sydney court case, in which a drinker claimed he ordered a pint of beer and was given something smaller.

The irate patron argued he should have been given a “full-rigged ship” instead of this lesser “schooner”.

A Victorian brewery float in the early 20th Century. Picture: State Library of Victoria

How the beer sizes managed to get mismatched between states, however, lies in he fog of history.

In South Australia, the reduction in the size of a pint might have had something to do with the temperance movement, which sought to limit alcohol quantities.

It may have also been a result of higher beer taxes after WWII which resulted in smaller sizes rather than higher prices.

In Adelaide, they call a glass a “butcher” because of a prominent hotel’s proximity to an abattoir, which provided most of their customers.

It is all very well to bemoan the interstate inconsistencies, but who will be called upon to compromise?

Will we as proud Victorians started calling it a “middy”?

Can a South Australian be called upon to betray their heritage and start calling it a glass instead of a “butcher”?

The fight over beer sizes is probably here to stay.

Originally published as Why beer sizes are different around Australia