Beer Forum

This will probably be defined as a Stupid Question, but this is the kind of thing that keeps me awake nights ... We refer to the standard strengths of Scottish ales based on some historical price in shillings as 60s, 70s, 80s ... (or sometimes in the slash notation: 60/-, 70/-, 80/-). My question is - why don't we parse out the price properly: 3£, 3£ 10s (3/10/-), 4£, etc. ?

Am I the only one who might feel a little less lame brewing/drinking a "Scottish Three Pound" than a "Scottish Sixty Shilling"? And I'd feel amazingly cool about ordering a "Three-Pound-Ten" (or is that "Three-Pound Ten and Naught"?).

TIA for any serious responses, and IA for non-serious ones.

-JAI

The names are derived from the original tax rate on the beer, in shillings per barrels. It might be confusing and detrimental to sales to rename the beers by the contemperary tax rate.

You don't sleep well at night do you?