Wetherspoons boss speaks out about shrinking pint sizes

Five schooners, please.

The pretender in question to replace the pint is known as a schooner and, despite sounding like the name of a Dutch football club's ultra fan group, is a 2/3 measure of a full pint.

With a pint measuring 568ml, a schooner in the UK weighs in at a more moderate 379ml, however, other countries such as Australia have their own version measuring 425ml.

If you're wondering where such an odd name came from, it stems back to when sherry used to be imported from Spain on ships known as clippers and schooners.

A single measure was known as a clipper because it was the smaller boat, while a schooner was a bigger boat and represented a double measure.

Recently the government has been urged to shrink the size of ‘pints’ of beer to help the nation’s health.

Researchers from Cambridge University found that beer consumption dropped by 10 per cent when pubs served beer in glasses two-thirds of the size of a pint.

The academics have said this could be enough to have a positive impact on the health of Brits, helping reduce the risk of some cancers and other health issues related to drinking.

They have called on the government to stop serving beer in pints as a result.

However, in a new twist, the beer overlord, Sir Tim Martin, owner of pub chain JD Wetherspoons, has spoken out against the proposition.

Martin said: “Common sense indicates that reducing glass sizes is unlikely, due to human nature, to reduce alcohol consumption in pubs, and would also have no effect whatsoever on drinks bought in supermarkets, unless container sizes in supermarkets were also, unrealistically, reduced."

The beer mogul went on to describe the idea as "slightly daft".

The study, which was carried out at 12 pubs, found that punters tend to stick to a specific number of drinks, no matter the size they are served in.

Customers didn’t complain about the two-thirds-of-a-pint measure, whilst the average number of units sold at the participating venues fell by around 8 per cent.

The equivalent of nearly five fewer pints of beer and cider were sold per day on average at the pubs when the serving sizes were shrunk.

Meanwhile, there was a 7 per cent increase in the amount of wine purchased.

Despite the findings, for any real change to occur, the pint would either have to be outlawed in officially law or cultural change would have to happen among drinkers to see the pint replaced by the schooner.