Wetherspoon staff get their pints weighed by managers to check they’ve done head right

Wetherspoons bosses sometimes weigh pints in order to check that staff have poured them with the correct amount of head, according to a new documentary.

In 2021, Channel 5 took a look inside the UK’s biggest pub chain to see what really makes it tick, and how it has managed to remain so successful.

Of course, any Brit will agree that Wetherspoons is a bit of a British institution.

There are social media accounts dedicated to the carpets and buildings that house the pubs, as well as Facebook groups dedicated to counting the chips that are received with their meals.

No other food and drink chain seemingly attracts this level of behaviour.

Presumably, the ubiquity of the Wetherspoon pub in nearly every town, coupled with the availability of every meal from breakfast to dinner, as well as a reasonably priced pint, accounts for a lot of this.

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But, if this Channel 5 documentary is to be believed, there are strange practices behind the scenes, as well.

The documentary - entitled Wetherspoons: How Do They Do It? – opened the doors on some of the staff practices, making claims about how staff are trained to upsell products to customers, as well as how they are checked to ensure that there’s as little stock wasted as possible.

Anyone who has ever worked in a bar or restaurant will know that there’s a constant battle to be fought against wastage.

Beer sitting in a drip tray is no good to anyone, after all.

So – according to this documentary – bosses at Wetherspoon pubs can sometimes weigh pints to check that the right amount of head is being given out, meaning that no extra alcohol is being given away, and none is wasted.

The narrator explained: "Speedy service has to be matched with precise pouring.

"Staff mustn't give the staff more alcohol than necessary. So ensuring a fair share of froth is vital."

A former pub manager then added: “Managers can test this by weighing a beer.

“They weigh the glass first then I think they are told by head office what the weight should be with a five percent head.”

John Morrison/Alamy Stock Photo

To be fair to them – although this might not be the reasoning behind it – most beers are supposed to come with a decent amount of head on them, as they’d be pretty flat otherwise.

As for the upselling, one member of staff claimed that ‘it's part of the training for members of staff to try and add an extra item onto every order’.

Another said: “[We say] 'do you want a double or do you want a single?' We say the word 'double' first so it sticks in their head. It works most of the time."

However, Wetherspoons made a statement denying the upselling claims - saying that is only encouraged for soft drinks.

The statement said that while customers are still asked 'if they want a pint of Pepsi, rather than the standard size', it has 'discouraged... upselling of spirits... for the last 10 years'.

LADbible has reached out to Wetherspoon for any additional statement about the upselling of alcohol, as well as the claims that pints are weighed.