The Manchester-based brewery, which has produced the beer since 2009, told The Morning Advertiser (MA) it hoped the organisation would not pursue the “silly” complaint.
Marble head brewer James Kemp said: “We got a phone call from trading standards about a week ago, who told us there had been a complaint issued over Pint being sold in 500ml cans.
“The complaint was about the fact that the can said ‘Pint’ on the side, but wasn’t actually a pint. That’s as much as we know.”
‘I did giggle a bit’
Pint, a 3.9% ABV pale ale, was first put into cans by the brewery in March of this year.
When asked for his reaction to the complaint because a pint measures 568ml, Kemp said: “I did giggle a bit. When we released it in cans we did get a few people on Twitter saying ‘oh it’s not a pint’ and we just sort of laughed it off.
“It’s quite hard to source pint-sized cans for starters, and it depends on your canning machine. So when I heard from trading standards, I just thought ‘this is a bit silly' to be honest.”
Big can, small beer
On whether he felt the complainant had a point given the prominence of the word 'pint' on the can’s label, Kemp said: “Not particularly because it gets served in schooners, half pints, etc. It’s got 500ml written on it. Pint is the name of the beer, not how much of it you should drink!”
“We put it in a big can because it’s a small beer. It’s only 3.9% ABV. We certainly didn’t expect people to lose their s**t this much about it!”
The Morning Advertiser has contacted trading standards for comment.