Hi Owain
As a person of the Scottish persuasion, could you explain the phrase "a pint of heavy & a wee half" or something similar - I may have misheard?
I understand its something to do with beer & whisky and the strength & measure?
Prolly heard it on a Taggart or Rebus re run.
Cheers
Dave - The Medway Handyman
Sorry, I'm not Owain, but...
As I understand it Inikced from a site but exactly my experience):
In Scotland, "a PINT and a HALF" means a PINT of HEAVY and a MEASURE of WHISKY; in England it means a PINT of BITTER and a HALF PINT of BITTER.
Rod has it right,except that the wee hauf can be any spirits.Another favourite of days gone by was "a wee heavy and a hauf"
Mark.
Of course, the reality ends up with the punter asking the barman "can you fit a whisky in there ?"
"Well fill it up, I don't come from Whiteinch."
I'm no that generous.
'heavy' is approx what you call Bitter. (From wikipedia):
Light (60/-) was under 3.5% abv Heavy (70/-) was between 3.5% and 4.0% abv Export (80/-) was between 4.0% and 5.5% abv Wee heavy (90/-) was over 6.0% abv (/- is read as "shilling" or "bob" as in "a pint of eighty-bob, please")
A "nip an a hauf" would be a tot of whisky and a half-pint of heavy. You can also get "heavy shandy" and "lager shandy" if you want.
Owain
A pint of strong ale and a half gill of whisky is how I would interpret it. (from a similar Irish expression -- A pint of double and a wee half'n.)
The **/- was the excise duty on a barrel (cask?) of the particular brew.
You're not Scottish, so I doubt if anyone's particularly interested in how you would interpret it.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Owain saying something like:
I've never heard 90/- referred to as 'wee heavy' anywhere I've drunk in Scotland. It's possible the wikipedia entry was localised and in that area 'wee heavy' referred to a local habit of ordering 90/- ale in half pints.
Having drunk various combinations of the latter I *much* prefer the 90/- as a lovely drink after a few of the lighter brews.
The "Export" is available in many pubs and a little over a Session beer, although quite drinkable.
That was my Dad's order - it means a pint of heavy, (the English "bitter") and a nip of whisky. (The nips used to be a quarter gill in my dad's day, now they're a sixth!)
When he'd drunk the whisky, he'd drip the last few drops into his pint. He also used to drink 'a wee heavy' upon occasion. That was Fowler's ale, in a half-pint (?) bottle...
Fowler's 'Wee Heavy' and 90/- were different ales. The 'Wee Heavy' was made from barley, for a start.
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