Can you get a 'bad pint'?

Well my FIL took several pints back to the bar at Christmas at a local Wetherspoons, apparently it's well known that their pints are cheap for a reason but I think that's more to do with the flatness of it, not that it makes you bad.

Hopefully you can otherwise the rest of you could get ill and that would be baaaaaad.

[puts on landlady hat] Oh yes, you can. If the beer lines haven't been cleaned recently, the barrel has been left too long or - bleugh - leftovers have been put back into the barrel, you can quite easily have dodgy beer. It's actually quite a job to get it decent, particularly where ale is concerned. [/takes off landlady hat]

I knew of a pub where people used drink and repeatedly got sick. All it takes is a wee bit of dirt in a glass or similar I guess. Or it could be a case of dirty lines.

<puts on ex-pub manager hat> WGWTWS.

Really, GWTW? Maybe it was then, it's only a little clubhouse on our development so I doubt their standards are that high, tbh.

Time will tell, I guess. We had the vomiting bug last april so are probably due another dose, I reeeeeallly hope it was a bad pint, for the sake of the children if nothing else.

Thanks, peeps xx

<borrows ex-pub manager hat from ma> WGWTWS

I'm amazed people weren't constantly ill in the first pub I worked at. The manager used to collect all the drips from the real ale (bitter, guest bitter and mild) and pour it into the Mild barrel at the end of the night. Niiiiiiiiice.

<Dons ex-bar/cellar person's hat> WEES and also, sometimes glasses aren't cleaned properly either. Or, as happened in the pub I worked in, beer got spilt on the shelves underneath where the clean glasses were stored and the glasses would sit in the stale beer until someone cleaned it up - and it wasn't the people who worked there full time, either?

Lots of pub managers replenish the Mild with leftovers. I lost count of how many people told me it was how it was made at the brewery anyway. Bleurgh.

I once did relief <fnar> at a pub where the lines were so minging, they couldn't have been cleaned for months. Yeast central.

Ewww, I'm so glad I don't drink pints! Mr Hole may never drink a pint again if I let him read this, actually scratch that, what a ridiculous thing to say ?

Thanks all, I appreciate it. I'm thinking we'll know by tomorrow whether it was a bad pint or a bug, I've stripped the bed and cleaned the bathroom anyway, just in case.

?

<yes scientist peeps, I know cleaning bedding and bathroom probs doesn't make any difference, but it made me feel better ?>

Nothing wrong with a bit of extra basic hygeine especially if he has something contagious.

Thanks, P&AP, I thought I'd get told off for being over cautious ?

It was always drummed into me to never order something unpopular on tap, the most popular drinks should be cleaned and changed the most frequently.

The worst time this happened to me was a little bar in manchester. It was an old public loo, and still smelt. I had a pint and spent the whole night throwing up, and my friend passed out. I dread to think what was hanging round an old loo ? teach us to fall for gimmicks.

Lots of hand washing too! Soap and hot water for everyone.

Also even if it is Norovirus it doesn't seem to be annual. I seem to be particularly susceptible to it and I only get it every 2 years.

You can get a bad pint but you can also get norovirus...

A pub I used to work at - the manager used to put the line cleaner in and start to run it through the system. But he used to sell the pints until the berr/lager came out slightly greasy showing that the line cleaner was coming through into the drink.

You had to rub your fingers together in the flow of beer to see when that happened (as you were pulling the pint).

Yum

Absolutely.

Although you would usually at least taste it as being bad, if not actually see it (cloudy, doesn't settle to clear) in my experience.