• The Wall Street Journal, Monday, June 9, 2008 10:30 AM

Beer prices at bars and restaurants have risen over the past few months as the cost of hops and barley has skyrocketed and retail business has slowed alongside the economy. To compensate, some restaurants have replaced 16-ounce pint glasses with 14 ouncers -- a type of glassware one bartender calls a "falsie." And customers are complaining that bartenders are increasingly filling up extra space with foam instead of liquid.

Restaurateurs "want more of a perceived value," says Mike Schuster, Libbey's marketing manager for glassware in the U.S. Glasses with a thicker bottom or a thicker shaft help create the perception. "You can increase the thickness of the bottom part but still retain the overall profile," he says.

Dedicated beer drinkers are protesting "cheater pints" and "profit pours" by outing alleged offenders on Web discussion boards and plugging bars that maintain 16-ounce pints, in hopes peer pressure will prevail. And they are spreading the word about how to spot the smaller glass (the bottom is thicker).

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