Craft Beer: Selecting the Right Glass

While I am not enjoying beer tonight, I never take a break to talk more about craft beer!

I think proper glassware can be really beneficial when maximizing the enjoyment in your beer. Every beer is designed to flourish most in a specific glass. When I first started drinking, I thought it was snobby and pretentious. I still believe that partly, mainly because the wrong glass is not going to ruin a great beer. If a great beer is offered, I would drink it out of a boot if that’s all was available. However, if I do have the right glass, then I think it makes the beer much better. There are many reasons for this, but the three main ones are:

**Escape of C02**

The main factor that can alter the taste is how the C02 moves and emits the C02. The size and shape of the glass controls how the carbonation will control how fast and much C02 Escape. Different styles of beer have different levels of carbonation, and the escape of that C02 will dictate how the flavors are delivered. Some beers are meant to have a nice foamy head and some are not.You may have had an under-carbed or over-carbed beer before and felt like something may be off. The incorrect amount of carbonation for the style might be the brewer’s defect, but the glass could change it for the better or worse.

The length of the glass will affect how long the C02 has to go to get to the top. The size of the glass will affect how space the C02 has to move up. The shape will form how the C02 moves throughout the glass. The creamy head of a Guinness Irish Dry Stout pairs well with the shaker/pint glass because the size and shape provide the perfect vehicle to contain the carbonation. A glass too short, too shallow, or too long would change the taste dramatically because, the thick and foamy head would not form correctly, leaving that creamy Irish stout just a little flatter.

**The Stem**

The stem of the glass controls how the glass is held. Where the glass is held affects how much it is warmed by your hand. Your hand is much warmer than the beer (hopefully!) so a stemless glass leaves your hand gripping it, thus warming it up faster. A beer will change the flavor as it warms from your hand. Warming your beer is not necessarily bad. Some beers start tasting much better as they warm. It all depends on how the ingredients react with the C02 as temperature changes. For instance, that vanilla in your stout might be absent until it changes 5-10 degrees. The vanilla now enters the party and it makes the beer so tasty.

Choose the stem on your glass depending on how you wish the beer to warm. If the beer is good as is, a longer stem will keep your beer at the current temperature for longer. The shorter the stem, the more it will affect how much your hand warms it.

**Size and Shape Factors**

The size and shape also affect the beers temperature. The more surface area to the glass, the more it is affected by the temperature of the air. If it’s a super high glass, the colder air has more area to affect its temperature than a shorter but thin glass.. The thickness of the glass also plays a big part. If you have a huge stein, it has a lot of surface area but if its made from thick glass and has a large handle, that beer is staying cold. The size of the opening just doesn't let C02 out, it lets cold air out. A glass with a huge opening will generally cool faster than a one with a small opening.

**Suggested Beer and Glass Pairings**

Here’s a picture from my beer journal that provides some generally preferred selections for each kind of beer. The shapes all vary based on the principles that I have been discussing. This list is hardly comprehensive, there are hundreds of different styles of beer.

**Here’s three glasses I use for stouts**

The first is a very small stemmed snifter. I want this glass to warm up as I drink it. The curved-in top does limit the C02 escape a little bit, but I am holding this glass primarily under the palm of my hand. I want this stout to warm up as I drink it so I can get the array of flavors.

The second glass is also small but it has an non-curved opening so the c02 and temperature escape much easier. It has a little more of sem so I am holding it a little less with my hand than the previous one. I may want to enjoy this stout cold at first, but overall I want it to get warmer faster so it tastes ideal.

The third is essentially just a wine glass. Fairly large opening but still minimal surface area, and the super long stem gets my hand nowhere near the beer. The C02 will be flowing out of this one, but I am keeping it cooler for the most part.

There are many more kinds of glasses available, and people keep designing new shapes because new styles are invented and better ways to serve them are being developed!

Recently the hazy beer craze has birthed a whole new set of glassware. They are mostly like a combination of a snifter and pint glass. The lower half is basically a giant stem. The fist grips around it and provides major hand warmth. The top is typically curved like a chalice or snifter to control C02 emission, but I want the beer to get warm so it can take me on the magical journey of the hops full flavor profile. The beer will warm from my fist, but carbonation will be controlled, getting all those piney or tropical (or both) notes swirling around and putting on a show!

Glassware only adds to the greatness of craft beer, it is meant to be fun. Getting a glass from a brewery that you get enjoy your favorite beer from them is rewarding, especially because it was was meant for the beer you're drinking. And sometimes, I just get glasses because they are funny....

Thank you all reading, if you love craft beer, please follow and/or upvote, and I promise to bring more.