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)
