If you have been in a bar in London and also in New York City and ordered a pint for yourself, you may have noticed that the quantities offered in both the places have a slight difference in them. The difference may not be as much, but if you have an eidetic memory, you will instantly realize that either the bartender in the London bar is being more generous or the bartender in the NY bar is too sleazy. Well, in reality, both cases are false. The truth is that the pint in the UK is actually slightly bigger in volume than the US.
The pint in the US fills about 16 fluid ounces while the pint in the UK fills 20. While in the bars, it is easy to figure this and forget about it after a drink, there is a better translation for this that you should know about to be a beer geek. The volume of the liquid in comparison in both countries are different from each other, just like the weight and distance measurement.
While the British Imperial fluid ounce measures 28.413 milliliters, the US Customary fluid ounce measures 29.573 ml.
This means that the British Imperial Pint is 568.261ml, and the US Customary pint is 473.176ml. Similarly, the British Imperial gallon is 4.54L, while the US Customary gallon measures 3.78L.
More about English Imperial System
It was 1824 when a new system of SI units was introduced to Great Britain and its colonies around the world. This Imperial System is still used as before as a standard in the UK and other regions that were preoccupied with Great Britain in history. The measuring system of American is also referred to as the Imperial System often. After the formation of the New World-nation, the US started using the US Customary System as they felt that the previous measuring system was erroneous.
Despite the changes in the measurement systems in the future, both the systems were originally derived from English units. These measurement units were used until the early 1800s, which slowly started changing after a variety of influences that were caused due to the actions of the British Isles. After the disputes started to settle around the world, America also decided to start making changes in the measurement units. Several Anglo-Saxon units were a part of the past agricultural measurements.
Difference between the US Customary and Imperial Units
At the period of the American Revolution, the American colonies were getting influenced by the Anglo-Saxons, Romans, Normans, and even the colonists from France, Spain, and Holland. This was the time when America decided to create its own US Customary System from the Imperial System. Decades later, Great Britain also established its own Imperial System. Both the systems were mostly the same. But the American fluid ounce was first defined by an ounce of wine while the Imperial fluid ounce was measured with water. Since alcohol is less dense compared to water, the measurement of the UK became slightly more.