The Greatest Beer Glasses of 2022

About six years in the past, my boyfriend (now-husband) John fell in love. We have been shifting in collectively and went purchasing for furnishings at a couple of native roadside vintage retailers. Our record had chairs, a sofa, facet tables, and possibly some tasteful decor. 

However as I dragged a desk throughout the gravel car parking zone at one vintage retailer, I noticed John with one thing unusual in his arms: an enormous glass bottle. My first thought was: it’s an enormous ugly vase.  However then I noticed him seize some gallon buckets with plastic tubes dangling from them and realized, this was not decor—it was a brewing package.  

For one thing like 20 bucks, my companion started his beer and brewing love affair, one which has endured so long as our relationship. And all through these previous six years, by him, I’ve discovered an entire lot about brewing and consuming beer. One factor he’s taught me is the significance of the beer glass; as with wine, the glass you select for a pilsner versus a dry-hopped IPA can truly make a distinction. I consulted beer and brewing professional Randy Mosher (one in all my husband’s beer heroes) to study extra about beer glasses (misconceptions, truths, fallacies), and the way the form of the vessel shapes your consuming expertise. 

First, Let’s Speak The Shaker Pint—And Why You Shouldn’t Use It to Drink Beer

Head to any dive bar (or simply bar basically), order a beer, and there’s a excessive likelihood you’ll be sipping your brew from a 16-ounce shaker pint. This ubiquitous glass has its origins because the glass half of a Boston cocktail shaker; it was by no means meant to be a beer glass. The form, which is tall with a slight taper in the direction of the underside and a flat, huge rim, does a poor job of retaining and channeling taste and aroma; the huge opening additionally causes the frothy beer head to dissipate sooner than a curved choice, like a tulip glass. However, as Mosher notes, it’s right here to remain. “I name it the ‘cockroach of beer glasses,’ since they will be with us without end,” he says. “They’re low-cost, too, and stackable, which is important in bars.” 

However past affordability and storage practicality, why this turned the quintessential glass for serving beer is unclear—although there are a couple of theories: some suspect it has to do with the rise of huge beer, which didn’t require a very fancy glass to “take pleasure in,” for the reason that beer itself wasn’t that outstanding (sorry). Mosher postulates that it was the closest factor we Individuals may get to a British “nonick” pint glass with out having to place in a particular order. 

No matter the way it got here to dominate the beer glass scene, we humbly ask you to go away the shaker pint for the mixologists and solely use it in circumstances when no matter you’re consuming doesn’t have a lot in the way in which of taste. To savor an excellent brew, we as a substitute recommend you seize one Mosher’s favourite glass kinds: the tulip.

The Case for a Tulip Glass

A Basic Tulip Glass: Spiegelau Beer Basic Tulip Glasses

A Fashionable Tulip-Impressed Glass: Rastal Teku Glass

The tulip glass is gorgeous in title, kind, and performance; these upside-down bell-shaped glasses seize and channel aroma into your mouth, not not like a wine glass. “I actually like a type of tulip glass, about 12-ounces, the place there’s a bulbous decrease half, and the rim flares out gently,” Mosher says. And when you can drink, say, a beer, in a tulip glass, they’re actually nice for beers the place you actually wish to simply luxuriate and admire all the flavour happenings occurring—assume complicated stouts, IPAs (until they’re hopped into oblivion, through which case, it’d emphasize the flavors in an awesome approach), and Belgian beers. My husband and I significantly take pleasure in savoring Belgian Flanders Crimson Ale fashion beers (like the just about cherry-cola/vermouth/wine-like Duchesse De Bourgogne, one in all our favourite brews) in a tulip glass. 

It must be famous, nevertheless, that this fashion of glass isn’t meant to be stuffed to the brim, similar to you wouldn’t fill a wine glass to the highest with wine; it defeats the aim, negating the seize and directing of aroma and as a substitute releasing it into the air. 

Much like the tulip glass is the Rastal Teku glass, which has gained recognition together with the rise of craft beer. This vessel takes the overall form of a tulip glass (although it’s a bit extra angular) and pairs it with the stem of a wine glass (retaining your hand from warming the contents), combining the very best of each worlds. Mosher notes they’re “particularly good for pure tasting (versus consuming) for the reason that widest spot is so low, and it would not take a lot beer to fill it to the widest level.” 

Mosher additionally likes to make use of a smaller, snifter-type glass for stronger, particular brews—assume a wealthy, virtually syrupy previous ale, or a barleywine, which might clock in as excessive as 11% ABV (let’s simply say you wouldn’t to slug a pint of it, or not less than, you won’t really feel too good after should you do). 

The Case for Utilizing a Wine Glass to Drink Beer 

Our Successful Common Wine Glass: Riedel Vinum Zinfandel/Riesling/Chianti Glasses

Earlier than you cry foul, know that this tip is Mosher-approved. “For conducting tastings, I typically use wine glasses,” he says. “I all the time get a couple of raised eyebrows and an ‘Ooooh, beer in a wine glass?’ Sure, beer deserves respect, and a wine glass is usually a extremely good vessel for tasting, offered you do not fill it above the midway mark.” The tapered bowl form, which captures aroma, and the stem, which retains your hand from warming up the beer, are options that lend this glass fashion to tasting beer—and it doesn’t harm that you just in all probability have already got a couple of kicking round in your cupboards. 

What About Fairly, Specialty Glasses? Are They Purposeful?

An English Dimpled Pint to Get You Began: British Pub Imperial Pint Dimple Glass

A Fairly Chalice-Type Glass for IPAs: Spiegelau Craft Beer IPA Glass

A Hefeweizen Glass: Spiegelau Hefeweizen Glasses

A Pilsner Glass: Libbey Stockholm Pilsner Beer Glasses

Some beer glasses simply look gorgeous. Take Bavarian seidels or English dimpled pints, for instance: each function imprints on the perimeters that, for me, are harking back to the glass block partitions that folks put in of their properties within the 80s; they possess a form of aquatic magnificence, as if you’re wanting into the glass by ripples. I used to be curious if the seems have any practicality—do they have an effect on the consuming expertise? In accordance with Mosher, it’s all purely aesthetics. 

“They’re there simply to look stunning and visually amplify the colours of beer,” he says, noting that many dimpled glasses at present are “mass-produced variations that have been apparently impressed by hand-cutting/sprucing on hand-blown ones from the nineteenth century, particularly English ‘pillar’ ale glasses used to showcase the newly well-liked pale ales circa 1830.” 

However simply because a glass seems good doesn’t imply it isn’t a legitimate consuming vessel. Mosher notes that oftentimes beer glass kinds are extra of a cultural custom than something. “Whereas ales and lagers have a technical distinction, [for drinking glasses] it’s extra cultural, actually,” he says. “I actually do like a tall, conical pils glass, because it actually exhibits off the golden shimmer. Chalice-type glasses actually do make a Belgian abbey/Trappist beer really feel particular; Kölsch has these paper-thin 0.2L stange (cylinder); weissbier has the sleek vase. These are all nice, and every enhances the expertise in its personal approach.” 

And whereas sure glasses can improve the consuming expertise, ultimately, Mosher recommends having enjoyable with the way you serve a pour. “I’ve a circa 1830 attractive, Irish cobalt blue chalice with hops and barley engraved on it, however any beer apart from a stout or porter seems completely hideous in it,” he says. “No matter makes you cheerful, simply go for it. There’s plenty of nice issues at vintage malls, flea markets, and on eBay which have extra persona than what you will get off the shelf.” 

FAQs

What’s the finest beer glass?

There actually is not any proper reply to this query, although, like Mosher, we like utilizing a tulip-shaped glass or wine glass for many brews. 

What glass ought to I exploit to drink an IPA? 

The reply depends upon the fashion of IPA you’re consuming—a double IPA might be finest served in a brief and stout snifter, whereas a West Coast IPA is okay in a Teku or tulip glass.