pull a beer

ostap77 said:

"He asked a bar tender to pull him a beer." Can we say that to mean that someone pulls the handle too get beer out of a keg?

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Ouisch said:

"Pull a beer" to mean pouring beer from a keg or a tap in a pub is strictly BrE. In AmE "pull a beer" would confuse any native speaker. In AmE, if a patron is requesting a beer to be "pulled" ("on draft", rather than in a bottle), he would request his brew of choice to be "draft" or "on tap."

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ostap77 said:

What would you say than? "pour me a beer"?

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Ouisch said:

"Pull a beer" to mean pouring beer from a keg or a tap in a pub is strictly BrE. ...

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BobK said:

'Fraid not. Draught beer (the word is related to 'drag') is pulled from the cask using a handle mounted on the bar-top; the handle is the lever of a pump, which draws[/U the beer up from the keg (which could be either under the bar or in the cellar)]. You can get something marketed as 'draught beer' in individual cans, but that's just marketing!

Incidentally, students may be interested to know that there's another use of 'pull' in this context. A person drinking something (often beer) can 'pull at' it or 'take a pull' at it.

b

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I may have described the actual pulling process incorrectly, but my point was that "pulling a beer" or "pull me one" is strictly BrE. In AmE, even when asking for a draft beer (that is, one that is not canned or bottled) one would not refer to "pulling" it.