small beer

I seem to remember shells.  We had a smaller glass at the House of Chin, that some may have called a shell, though small beer has a ring in my ears,  There was a set at the bar that took to ordering them because, I assume, they thought they were being elegant.  It wasn't like they drank any less beer than everybody else, but they paid more since it was not as economical as a full-sized drafts.  I guess the owner would have liked that but we bartenders hated it because we had to fill their glasses more often, increasing the already overwhelming burden on our shoulders.

There were also seven ounce bottles of beer.  Schlitz had the famous Little Joe, and Budweiser had something similar although it didn't have a clever name.  That era was fading even as I was just beginning to man a beer tap.  Well who would want to order less beer, when you could be ordering more beer?

I think it was in California, or perhaps Colorado where I ran into the schooner,  The schooner was a squat heavy stemmed glass with a big mouth.  It held more than 12 oz, maybe a pint, maybe more,  A little googling reveals that the term can mean  all sorts of things in England and her colonies, but here in America I believe it  generally means a lot of beer, usually in a goofy looking glass.

The pitcher was my companion in my early beer drinking days.  As Beagles observed, it is slightly cheaper, though I don't know if we ever proved that.  You would have to pour full glasses out of it, but the way it worked was that if your glass was half full, you would fill it up during a lull in the conversation and smoking your cigarette.  Generally the pitcher wasn't drunk at the bar.  It was at a table where when your glass was empty, you would have to wait on the waitress or approach the bar yourself, that the pitcher was principally useful.  You could empty the pitcher by filling the glasses and then when the waitress or one of your buddies went to the bar to refill it there would still be beer to drink in the interim.  And generally the more enthusiastic drinkers favored pitchers because they drank faster and would get more beer on the other guy's dime.

I was going to do some research on the topic last Friday night, but well, it was too fucking cold.  Next week.


I don't  know why Beagles wants to talk about resurrecting dead bodies when he could be talking about beer.  I think he should have spent  more time napping or daydreaming in Sunday School like I did.  And I am not a fan of the Kennedy, or any other, conspiracy.  The fact that there are a lot of theories floating around about it is because people are idiots, and will believe anything.


I wonder if technical difficulties are keeping the Old Dog off the Beaglestonian.