Pub Glossary U to Z

PUB GLOSSARY U TO Z

U

UNITS Increasingly used medical term for how much alcohol may be used, metabolised or wasted in the average drinker.

Medics set out guidelines on how few units of alcohol a patient might be advised to have in any given day, week or month. Potential employers often seek this information too.

A unit is not just one drink, as a bitter with a strong ABV may carry several units. Spirits often have high unit levels.

Doctors often set idealized unit consumption low, and drinkers would find having just 4 units per day very restrictive on a good night out. A single pint of strong (5.2% ABV) bitter can carry three units in one glass.

Application forms often request knowledge of the applicant’s weekly or monthly alcohol unit intake, though most people will understandably lie about it if they think their consumption is likely to be regarded as higher than average.

USUAL – A drink the drinker usually has. Regular customers in a bar will be well known enough to staff who may ask if they are having the usual, namely, the same drink they have most visits.

V

VINTNER – Wine maker, seller and wine expert.

W

WAGON– A  slang expression comparing sobriety to being on the back of a truck. To fall off the wagon is to start getting drunk again.

WATER – Many drinkers moan that their beer might be ‘watered down’ and somehow therefore not as strong as they like it, but water is still the most prominent ingredient in any drink, alcoholic or otherwise. Dehydrate a beer and there won’t be much left.

WIDGET – A devise in cans of beer that releases liquid nitrogen agents into the beer as the ring-pull is triggered, turning a canned beer into a supposed tinned ‘real ale’.

WINE Fermented fruit juices, most commonly grapes, without added sugars or other substances. Coverage of Red Wines, White wines, Rosès, and the national variations, would take much room to present here.

Greek & Roman culture was dominated by wine, even in religious service. Bacchus became the God of wine. Even Christianity sets the use of wine great importance in its mass.

Wine production is more climate dependent and time consuming than ale production so ale has tended to push wines into second place in the alcohol popularity race.

WINE BAR A bar specializing in wines, and spirits, though some may also serve some beers; the wines are their main selling item. Most pubs have limited ranges of wines on offer. Wine Bars cater for the wine drinker. Yates’s Wine Lodge is a well-known Manchester Wine Bar. Wine bars do not usually have inn-signs.

WORT The liquid extracted once the starches have started to germinate during a brewing process. Beer is turned into numerous varieties is produced by treating the wort in various ways.

Y

YE – Often added to pub signs instead of ‘The’ to imply a pub is old and traditional, which may or may not be the truth.

YEAST natural microscopic fungi that help heavily in the brewing and fermentation processes and in many other forms of food & drink preparation. Brewer’s yeasts are carefully cultivated and controlled for the brewer’s purposes.

YUPPIE BARS – Derogatory slang expression foe expensive wine and cocktail bars, attracting only an affluent middle-class and middle management clientele.

Arthur Chappell