Weights and measures rules for serving beer by the glass

Two rulebooks, one pour

When a brewpub sells a glass of beer, two sets of rules can apply. Excise rules decide what you may sell, where and in what form. Weights and measures rules, usually called legal metrology in India, decide whether the quantity you declare is the quantity you serve.

Both are enforced at state level in practice. Both change. We cannot give you section numbers or a current list of permitted serve sizes. What we can give you is the process. Find out which sizes your state allows and how they must be shown on the menu and the bill. Find out which glasses or measures must be marked. Ask your state excise office, the legal metrology department or a licensing adviser. Get the answer in writing.

Serve sizes: choose from a short list

Most Indian taprooms work with a small set of serves. A common set is a small taster of 100 to 150 ml, a 330 ml glass, a 500 ml glass and a pitcher. Check the sizes your state permits before you print a menu. Our guides to Karnataka craft beer and microbrewery rules and Telangana craft beer and microbrewery rules show how much the picture changes between states.

Call the size what it is. A '500 ml' beer must be 500 ml of liquid. Write the volume on the menu instead of only 'pint'. Foam is a grey area that you should settle with the authority: ask whether a glass with a marked fill line and a head above it counts as full.

Glassware: line or brim

A glass can be filled to the brim or to a line. Lined glasses are marked with the declared volume. Check them, because a decorative line placed by a glass supplier is not a calibrated one. To check a glass, fill it from a measuring jug to the line. If the jug shows 450 ml when the glass says 500, the glass is wrong.

Do this for one glass from each batch you buy. Glass thickness varies and a new batch can change the real volume by a few millilitres. Keep the test result with the invoice. If an inspector asks, you can show you checked.

Foam, lines and the first pour

The biggest source of short pours is not dishonesty. It is foam. A warm glass, a warm line, a too-high gas pressure or a dirty tap all make a beer foam. The server tops up, waits and tops up again. The glass ends up right, but the keg runs out early and the bar loses beer to the drain.

Fix the cause. Keep draught lines at about 2 to 4 °C, set CO2 pressure for the beer's carbonation level, clean lines on schedule and use a rinsed, cold glass. Flow meters on taps tell you exactly how much left the keg and how much reached the customer. The gap is your waste.

A keg yield sum

Here is an illustration with round numbers. A 30 litre keg yields 30,000 ml. Suppose you serve 500 ml glasses and lose 5% to foam, line fill and the last pour.

• Usable beer: 30,000 x 0.95 = 28,500 ml.
• Glasses per keg: 28,500 / 500 = 57.

If you lose 10%, usable beer is 27,000 ml and you get 54 glasses. Three glasses is a small loss on one keg. Over a few hundred kegs a year it is a visible line in the profit and loss account. Our guide to takeaway beer rules in India covers a second use for the same beer.

Track the number weekly. A keg that suddenly gives 50 glasses instead of 57 points to a line problem, a gas problem or a heavy hand.

Show the volume at the point of sale

The menu, the tap list and the bill should all show the same volume. If you charge ₹300 for a 500 ml glass and ₹180 for a 330 ml glass, a customer can compare price per ml. If the menu says 'pint' and the glass holds 450 ml, you are exposed. Review the menu with the legal metrology rules in mind whenever you change glass suppliers or price points.

Train servers. A server who knows why the fill line matters is the cheapest compliance tool you have. Spend ten minutes of every induction on it.

What the process should leave you with

By the end you should have a written list of permitted serve sizes, a calibrated set of glasses, a weekly keg yield figure and a menu that matches the glass. Build that into the same cost sheet you use for pricing, because pour loss and margin are one number. That is where a hospitality instinct needs a costing discipline behind it.

Common questions

Do weights and measures rules apply to draught beer in India?

The legal metrology framework is generally about declared quantity. States also apply their own excise rules on serves. Check the current notification for your state or ask a licensing adviser.

How do I check whether my glass holds 500 ml?

Fill the glass to its line from a measuring jug and read the jug. Test one glass from each batch you buy and keep the record.

How many glasses should a 30 litre keg give?

With 5% loss and 500 ml glasses, about 57. If it is much lower, check foam, gas pressure, line temperature and pouring habits.