NMO: no conclusion from Brulines report

The National Measurement Office has stressed its report on Brulines does not mean the equipment is either accurate or inaccurate. The NMO said the report neither gave a "pass or a fail" to the beer flow monitoring equipment.

The National Measurement Office (NMO) has stressed its report on Brulines does not mean the equipment is either accurate or inaccurate.

On Friday, Brulines said it believed the NMO report, paid for by Brulines on a private basis, proved its equipment was accurate.

Tests by the NMO showed that standard Brulines Dispense Monitoring Service (DMS) kit has an accuracy variance of between -0.71% to +1.71% for keg beer and cider and +2.08% for keg stout.

For cask ales the error range was from -5.23% to +3.66% — Brulines said that 1% of a pint of beer is slightly less than 1 teaspoon.

But a spokesman for the NMO said the report neither gave a "pass or a fail" because the equipment falls outside Weights and Measurement legislation.

It said, it simply carried out a series of tests without drawing a conclusion.

"There is not a great deal that we can say concerning the service," he said. "We were asked to run tests on the equipment and that is what we did. It is up to Brulines to release the report because this was a commercial arrangement.

"We can't go into the details — that is fro Brulines to decide.

"It is a piece of equipment not prescribed by legislation so there is no regulatory standard to judge it against."

Brulines said the report proves its equipment is "fit to provide accurate raw data for dispense monitoring purposes".