Beer Blog 7: Glassware

Cragus

Canada144 Posts

December 09 2012 02:42 GMT

Well, I'm starting this blog up again after stopping for several months (travelling for work then just never got started again). Today's blog will be my much delayed glassware post. When people think of drink-specific glassware, they generally envision some snotty Frenchman sneering while saying something to the effect of "surely you are joking, that must be consumed out of this varietal-specific glass;" hopefully, I can avoid falling into that category while explaining the logic of beer glassware and why you use certain glasses with certain beers. (varietal-specific glassware is pretty much bs though).

A basic practical reason to use glassware before I get into the realm of terms like "nose" and "head retention" is reduced mess. It's not really an issue with beers that don't retain head (adjunct lagers for instance) or ones that don't make much head (imperial stouts, barleywine, etc), but drinking a heady beer like a hefeweizen from the bottle will often result in beer being in more places than just your mouth. Examine the bottle shape of the hefe I drank in a previous blog:
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Now look at this high pressure waterjet nozzle:
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Yeah, not going to go well.

Now, time to get poncy. If you read many beer reviews, you'll notice that beers are usually broken down and rated by appearance, smell, taste, and mouthfeel. In other words, they are rated on how they appeal to every sense that is logical to use (if you hear your beer saying something to you, I recommend visiting a medical professional). Glassware primarily affects the appearance and smell (or nose) of the beer, although you can't really completely separate flavour from smell (also oxidation in the glass will have small effects on taste). Appearance should be obvious - you can't see well through a beer bottle.

The nose and head of a beer are intrinsically linked – a strong head will often release a stronger nose thus enhancing the beer tasting experience. In general, glassware designed to intensify nose has a concave structure narrowing toward the top to concentrate odours. Head retention in a glass is largely the ratio of nucleation sites the beer is in contact with to the surface area of the top of the beer (in fact, Duvel tulips have a little D etched in them to, I assume, provide additional nucleation). Here’s a “family photo” of most of my beer glassware collection organized into categories, and covering most types of beer glasses (I don’t have a pilsner glass, true flute, or a stange).
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Left to right: snifter, wine glasses (burgundy in the back, tasting in front), semi-flute semi-tulip, tulip, chalice, weizen, curved pint, straight-sided pint, Maß

In terms of what to drink out of what, to be honest, a red wine glass, snifter, or tulip will be fine for any beer. They all concentrate nose, help head retention and generally work fine. Pint glasses don’t really do anything for tasting, nor does a Maß. The best option if you can’t get any beer glassware is to just get a large red wine glass – thats what i used before I started my collection. If you can't get a wine glass, anything from a bowl to a normal mug will work better than the bottle; it is almost impossible to smell any details while drinking from a beer bottle, so even a coffee mug will do a better job.

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Fullsteam Rocket Science IPA with some of what I call “rustic pizza;” in this case, the pizza has chorizo and avocado as toppings, although usually I just forgo anything but mozzarella, herbs, and tomato. The rocket science is okay, nothing to write home about and I won't get it again, but I'm not unhappy with the purchase.