Long Live the Shaker Pint!

In BeerAdvocate magazine #71 (Dec. 2012) we made some beer predictions for 2013. In one of them, we addressed glassware:

“Despite all the Q4 2012 hate toward the American shaker pint, it’ll survive another year as the preferred serving vessel for beer as they continue to be inexpensive, stackable and versatile.”

More than three years later, the standard 16-ounce American pint glass or shaker pint still reigns supreme, but unfortunately the hate has endured, too. By now we’ve heard it all. Shaker pints destroy good beer. They’re dirty. They’re ugly. The heat from your hand warms the beer too quickly. They don’t hold a full 16 ounces with a proper head and you can’t get good head retention with their shape anyway. Blah, blah, blah.

Don’t get us wrong. We’ve been advocates of beer glassware since we launched our site in the late ’90s, and using the correct or traditional glass for each style (or even brand) can change your drinking experience. A single type of glassware isn’t to blame for destroying beer though. There are too many other factors at play: a bartender who sucks, a glass that wasn’t cleaned properly, a customer who’s milking their beer, or a bar that’s using cheater pints, for example.

In fact, speaking of destroying beer, there’s been a movement toward smaller, more expensive pours for years, thanks in part to anti-shaker snobs. And now we’re seeing dainty 8- or 10-ounce pours of a normal beer going for $1 or more an ounce! Thanks, but we’d rather have two servings at a reasonable price. You can keep your tulip glass.

We’d love to see more bars move to the British nonic pint, a 20-ounce container that leaves plenty of room for some proper head. It also features a bulge near the top for gripping and to stop glasses from sticking together when stacked. Not only do they look cool, they’re inexpensive, versatile and nobody hates them yet.

Respect Beer. ■