# Echoes And Stubbies



## mattcarty (8/2/09)

Hi

Grew up in the country in SA, my old man calls 375ml bottles of beer echoes as do most of his mates so naturally becoming a beer drinker myself i called them echoes as well.

moving to adelaide i used the term echoes and people were giving me blank looks.

moved to qld and called them echoes still and was told to forget that SA crap i was in qld and should call them stubbies, advice i promptly put in the get f#$ked response category

moved back to adelaide still call them echoes and all my SA mates tell me to give up that Qld crap cause im in SA now and we call them stubbies

so.... WTF?

i searched the site and found that other people call them echoes so i know my old man, brothers and I are not alone on this, what i was wondering is where the term echoes came from 

is it a region thing or an era thing, most of the blokes i know using the term are in their 50 and 60's so maybe it was a term used many years back that has since been replaced by the word stubbie, is this a result of marketing/advertising 

are echoes and stubbies the same thing or are they different types of bottles ie VB could have originally been called a stubbie and say a west end bottle called an echo as the VB bottle are a lot shorter, i dont know just a thought

if anyone knows anything about this it would be great to find out more.

Cheers
Carty


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## mwd (8/2/09)

Same with all the regional names for glasses of beer. The Brits have it right Pints and Halfs end of story.

Two Brits on holiday in Victoria go into the bar and ask what is the biggest draught beer they have. The Barmaid said "Pitchers". "Give us two Pitchers then."
She says " How many glasses do you want ? " 
Errrr Blank looks from tourists.!!


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## mattcarty (8/2/09)

yeah it pisses me off ordering a pint and only getting 425 or whatever it is.

the reason i though it was not regional is tat i know a lot of people from around aus that have never heard them called echoes which is why i thought it may be an era thing rather than region.

cheers
carty


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## np1962 (8/2/09)

Matt,
I am now in my late 40's and when I first was of legal drinking age they were called stubbies in SA, sometime in the late 70's early 80's they changed shape slightly and became one use bottles. 
At this time they also changed the name to echoes, amongst the people I associated with the name never really took and we continued to call them stubbies, why should we change?
Then would you believe it..... in the last few years the name gets changed back to stubbies!
Why? I have no idea. 
Marketing maybe? Or is it because Lion Nathan now has control of the brewery on Port Road?
Your guess is as good as mine.

Nige


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## caleb (8/2/09)

Tropical_Brews said:


> Same with all the regional names for glasses of beer. The Brits have it right Pints and Halfs end of story.


+1 for the pint and half. (Real pint, that it)
Or if you have to metricize, like in Bavaria, the litre and half litre! B) ('Kay, they have the 1/3 too... 330 ml.)
At least these sizes match up with glasses and what-not.
Australian beer sizes are a joke. It's not like anyone even makes a "schooner bottle" either. (Well, the old Cooper's grenade used to be 425ml didn't it?) So we get the 375ml bottle instead... which matches WHICH glass?!?
As for the echo, I think you've found a generational thing there... For the record, I'm 34 this week and from Sydney, and I've never heard the term before. There's always been the "long-neck" and the "stubbie" which I guess makes some sense.


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## warra48 (8/2/09)

Caleb said:


> Australian beer sizes are a joke. It's not like anyone even makes a "schooner bottle" either. (Well, the old Cooper's grenade used to be 425ml didn't it?) So we get the 375ml bottle instead... which matches WHICH glass?!?



Yeah well. Whatever etc etc yada yada. 

Beer sizes are a bit like what blokes like to boast about the eeerrrr size of their appendages. :huh: 
A stubby does hold a genuine 375 ml of beer.
A schooner allegedly holds 425 ml of beer, but in reality it only holds 375 ml of beer, and about 50 ml (or less) of froth or head. 
You try to pour a genuine 425 ml into a schooner glass, and you'll have some mopping up to do.

I bottle a lot of my brews into stubbies (as I only consume 2 or 3 a day, and I like variety), but I use a 500 ml glass. 
Problem solved.


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## FreemanDC (8/2/09)

bah, Long neck ? wtf ?, i call them MAN STUBBIES


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## pcmfisher (9/2/09)

When delivering for Coopers about 15 or 20 years ago they were called echos and long necks were called quarts :huh: 



> A schooner allegedly holds 425 ml of beer



Not in SA it don't


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## MarkBastard (9/2/09)

I'd never previously heard of echos.

Just stubbies, tallies, and throw-downs (250ml 'twist tops')


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## mwd (9/2/09)

pcmfisher said:


> When delivering for Coopers about 15 or 20 years ago they were called echos and long necks were called quarts :huh:
> 
> A schooner allegedly contains 425ml of beer
> 
> Not in SA it don't



I rest my case. :lol: 

edit: added quote within quote ??

When I first visited Australia the common cry was we only drink pots because otherwise the beer gets warm. The Brits drink pints to allow the beer to get up to drinking temperature ( only applies to ale drinkers ). Ice cold Lager and Stout is for Nancy Boys.


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## mattcarty (11/2/09)

Freemasha said:


> bah, Long neck ? wtf ?, i call them MAN STUBBIES




or tallies or king browns


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## raven19 (11/2/09)

pcmfisher said:


> When delivering for Coopers about 15 or 20 years ago they were called echos and long necks were called quarts :huh:
> 
> 
> 
> Not in SA it don't



This could quite easily go OT with different states having different names for certain measures of beer.  

I vaguely recall echoes being mentioned many years ago too, but this is the first time I have heard them being mentioned in a looong time.


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## mattcarty (11/2/09)

also... is it true that butchers (the glass size) are called so because of the shape of them so that when butchers had greasy meat hands they could still hold onto the glass?

someone told me that but im not too sure whether i really believe it or not

cheers
carty


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## Frank (11/2/09)

matt carty said:


> also... is it true that butchers (the glass size) are called so because of the shape of them so that when butchers had greasy meat hands they could still hold onto the glass?
> someone told me that but im not too sure whether i really believe it or not
> cheers
> carty


I think the history of the Butcher was the size of glass (200ml) that was served to the Meat Workers from the Abattoir in their lunch break. Small enough to knock back and then head back to work.


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## Bribie G (11/2/09)

Tropical_Brews said:


> Two Brits on holiday in Victoria go into the bar and ask what is the biggest draught beer they have. The Barmaid said "Pitchers". "Give us two Pitchers then."
> She says " How many glasses do you want ? "
> Errrr Blank looks from tourists.!!



Did the same myself, on arriving in Bundaberg in 1977 I was appalled at the seven and ten ounce glasses (no schooners in QLD back then) and I asked what the biggest measure was, and bought a jug. Drank two of them (out of a 10 ounce glass) with a counter lunch and slept most of the afternoon.



Caleb said:


> ..................So we get the 375ml bottle instead... which matches WHICH glass?!?



13 ounce, which is half of the 26 ounce, which conveniently is three quarters of a litre. I notice that in southern states, 750ml bottles are called longnecks. In QLD they are called tallies. The term longneck came in here in the 80s. Up to then stubbies looked like this: 





But as we know evolved into this:




Bundaberg Ginger Beer bought their bottling line in that era (I lived 200 m away and know the business well) and are obviously happy with the technology. Those rip top caps were great, you could use them to make little models of bikes and stuff. 

Then Fosters gradually introduced the modern shape for the 375ml , initially for the restaurant trade where the long neck was considered more upmarket than the hick stubbie. Now of course it's all longnecks so the term is no longer heard in QLD but as I gather from the forum is still used in other states for Tallies 750ml.


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## mattcarty (11/2/09)

BribieG said:


> Those rip top caps were great, you could use them to make little models of bikes and stuff.




yeah i loved doin that, i used to collect my old mans pull tops "hurry up and drink dad i need more tops!" and make bikes and stuff 

then they chaged to screw tops but we still had bundy ginger beer tops until they changed recently and now have those annoying plastic bits on them so ya cant make bikes anymore.

the times they are a chiangin

cheers
carty


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## stoutdrinker (11/2/09)

From what I can remeber I think Wally is right.

Once bottle legislation was brought in there was a big drive to re-use as many bottles (especially beer bottles) as many times as possible. The analogy was that the bottles keep coming back, somewhat like an echoe??

Not my advertising idea but thats where I thought the name originated, probably late 70's 80's and most likely unique to SA because of deposit legislation.

Cheers, cheers,cheers,cheers,cheers,cheers

Stout


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## Darren (11/2/09)

Yep, i agree with Wally and Stoutdrinker. Echos were returnable and refilled

cheers

Darren


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## Adamt (11/2/09)

I, being a youngen and all, haven't often heard the phrase "echo". My understanding was it was a shortening of "export", can't remember what the supposed reasoning was behind it but anyway, I thought I'd throw that in the ring.


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## Darren (11/2/09)

I remember been shown as a kid that if you threw and echo out a car window at 100 mile an hour, it wouldn't break, just bounce.
It was true.

cheers

Darren


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