Glossary
Imperial pint
A British pint of 568 ml, which is a legally-defined measure for draught beer sale in the United Kingdom and about 20% larger than a US pint.
Also called pint, uk pint.
Legal. Fixed in law, and only in the places named. It may differ elsewhere and change over time. Defined by UK Weights and Measures legislation. As recorded here it applies in United Kingdom.
Draught beer in UK licensed premises may only be sold in specified quantities — a third, a half, two-thirds, a pint and multiples — and glasses used must either be stamped to the measure or filled from a metered dispenser.
A US pint is 473 ml. The two are routinely conflated in international beer writing, which makes any per-pint figure — units of alcohol, calories, price — wrong by a fifth if the wrong pint is assumed.
Commonly misunderstood
Recipes, unit counts and "per pint" statistics move between UK and US sources without conversion. The two pints differ by about 95 ml.
Related
- Alcohol unit — What a pint is often expressed in.
- Nonic pint — The classic British stamped glass.
More vocabulary
Beer-clean glass · Brewer’s barrel · Cask · Cellar conditioning · Crowler · Draught · Firkin · Growler · Keg · KeyKeg
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.
Evidence
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Draught beer sold in United Kingdom licensed premises must be served in prescribed quantities — a third of a pint, a half, two-thirds, or a multiple of a half — using stamped glassware or a metered dispenser.
Checked against the source Applies in United Kingdom. Last checked 2026-08-16.
Sources: The Weights and Measures (Intoxicating Liquor) Order 1988 (SI 1988/2039), Article 2(1)(a); The Weights and Measures (Specified Quantities) (Unwrapped Bread and Intoxicating Liquor) Order 2011 (SI 2011/2331), Article 4(2)