How To Know What Glass Is Right For Your Beer

Shannon Mulligan, our resident marketing specialist/ beer aficionado, shares her tips on picking the perfect glass for your favourite brew.

To start things off, there’s no wrong glass for your beer. Whether it’s made of expensive crystal and will only release the beer to a hand matching your fingerprints exactly, or it has Dora the Explorer decals on it because it’s the only clean cup in your house, as long as it holds your beer, it works. And for those of you who enjoy drinking straight from the can or bottle, hey, we’ve all been there. But there are benefits of having the proper glassware for your beer style. Of course, a big part of it is finding out which shape and size work best for you, but different styles and shapes are meant to enhance different aspects of your beer. Ben Johnson did a great review over on his blog that can be summed up nicely in one sentence: “ glasses won’t make a bad beer good… but they will make drinking a great beer better.” (Author’s note: Ben Johnson did not pay me to promote his blog, however, I am open to it if he wants to slip me $20 bucks sometime.) Here’s a couple things to think about when selecting what beer glass to pour your favourite brew into: Visibility Whether it’s a chocolate brown stout with hints of ruby, or an unfiltered lemony hefeweizen, #allbeerisbeautiful (now trending on Twitter, at least on my feed). A clean, clear glass will showcase the delicate colours. And as an added bonus, is there anything more satisfying than when your flight of beer arrives and every one is different? Probably, yes, but for the sake of this post, no. This is the most beautiful thing in the world. Sidenote: Companies likeBru-V have created an amber glass that prevents light from entering your beer, which can be harmful to the flavour and cause your beer to go skunky. A great invention, but in my world, if you’re leaving your beer out long enough for UV rays to affect it, I’ve already drank it for you. Shape Perhaps the biggest thing to affect your beer, the shape of the glass is important. Let’s start with the lip of the beer, where you’re sipping the good stuff from. Some beers glasses will taper outwards, like a tulip glass. That helps provide stability for a nice, foamy head (because about two inches of head in your beer is great for aroma, and you don’t actually want your beer poured right to the rim. But you already knew that, right?). Foam helps you to get more aromatics from your beer, which can actually improve the flavour, since about 80% of what we taste actually comes from what we smell. Science! Other beer glasses, like the snifter glass style that we use for some of our bigger beers, like Double Chocolate Cranberry Stout, taper inwards. They have a big, round base that’s great for swirling. While this is actually to help release new aromas from a beer as it warms up (chocolate stouts and Belgian styles are great for this), it has the added benefit of making you look like a rich Bond villain. Nucleation Nucleation is a very cool sounding word that translates to, “You know, those bubbles that are in your beer and fun to watch dance, like little carbonated ballerinas.” It occurs naturally, especially in higher carbonated beers, like pilsners and lagers, and can be increased by etching the bottom of a glass. It helps with carbonation, and gives you a better beer experience. It can also sometimes come in cool designs, in case you needed another reason to finish your beer and check out the bottom of your glass. In short, there are a lot of different beer glasses out there. Whether you’re happy drinking out of the branded Muskoka glass you stole from your favourite bar (uh, we do sell them guys. Stealing is wrong), or you’re willing to shell out for a set of matching glassware for every style of beer, it’s a personal choice. As long as the beer you’re drinking tastes good to you, you’re doing something right. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to drink our latest Moonlight Kettle release out of the “Best at Crafts” stein I won in university. Bonus: How To Properly Store Your Glassware 1. Don’t stack your glasses. Water and bacteria can become trapped in between them, and it can increase breakage 2. Ensure your glassware is properly dried. Watermarks leave streaks that can affect visibility, and it can cause bacteria 3. Even though Pinterest might disagree, store your glasses in a cupboard, not open on a shelf, where they’ll easily get dusty 4. Don’t freeze your glassware before pouring your beer. When your beer hits the frost, it creates condensation and changes the taste of your beer. It’s also a breeding ground for bacteria (yes, bacteria is everywhere) (photo 1 credit: Danielle Meredith Photography)