Cleanest glasses in town

Lol, me too. Even though it only cost a buck or two I’ve found such great glass cheap. I’m one who can have nice things , but I rarely use them then put them back immediately. I’m a horrible breaker of glass, just broke one 30 minutes ago with help from a puppy.

 

That's always a huge buzzkill. It's only ever the fanciest, highest quality glasses I break too. Another benefit of those Goodwill price tags! I hope the puppy is alright.

 

All I know is that pre covid I was turned off by bars that use the “three dunk” method. You know, simply dumping a glass in dirty water and then dirty luke warm soapy water... Yeah, lost covid no way Jose!!!

 

She got a time out, lol. But it’s why I rarely use glass I can’t replace, my HF Balloon Glass, BC glass. I use them, wash them put them up.

 

Most importantly I don’t use my best glass buzzed, that’s a recipe for disaster for me.

 

So if the head leaves a lacing down the side, that means the glass isn't clean? I more than often see at least some lacing down the side of a glass. I wipe clean all my glasses by hand with dish soap and a sponge. I've always attributed the lacing to the beer rather than the glass.
Please enlighten me.

 

The lacing is fine and often lauded. It's the small bubbles that cling to the side of the glass under the surface upon pouring that people are talking about. These are sites of nucleation that don't occur on clean glass.

 

That method (as noted, much ignored in some places*) is pretty complicated (from the Brewers Association pdf "Draught Beer Quality Manual"):

One of the popular sanitizers in the #3 sink is Nu Foam, which one of their dealers suggests has benefits beyond cleanliness:

Note that Nu Foam's own instructions says "Lastly, make sure to air dry the glass" seems to me, that's often ignored.

(Note: Long time BA'ers should skip the below rerun of a story...)

* I used to go to a bar (only because it was closest to home, and had a pretty good "happy hour" food menu between lunch and dinner) where I noticed they used a 3-sink method (sanitizer brand unknown) BUT took the wet glass and immediately put it in the freezer - you know, for "The coldest beer in town". Now, I almost always order a "room temperature" glass anyway when I notice frosted glasses at the bar but at this place, it was even more important 'cause that "ice" was frozen sanitizer!

At one point, I became a "regular" enough that when I ordered beer the bartenders would say something like, "Oh, yeah - you're the guy who wants a hot glass..."

"Well, not exactly "hot" - I mean, I didn't bring welder's gloves to pick it up with or anything..." I'd think to myself.

Another benefit for asking for one's beer "in a room temp glass" at another bar was that they always had un-frozen Guinness tulips at the bar (I guess it's easier for B&T's?), so they'd grab one of those imperial pint glasses for my order, instead of getting a frozen shaker pint of 14-16 oz.

 

I tend to put my glass(es) on the sink when I'm done and fill them with warm water. Usually the next morning I dump it out, I have a dedicated sponge that I swipe them with and spray them out with the sink sprayer and air dry.
Rarely do I use soap on my personal beer glasses. If I serve beer to company those ones go in the dishwasher or hand wash

 

I saw a post a few months ago on a homebrewing forum. The poster did an "experiment" of clean beer glasses to see what produced the best results to avoid the #dgm comments. His cleaning process was:

1) Hot water only
2) Dish soap then rinsed
3) Star san and rinse.
4) PBW soak, Star san, then rinse.

He determined the best results came from the PBW and Star San.

Personally, I rinse my glasses after use, then spray with a Star San, rinse again, and air dry. Prior to using the glass, I'll spray with Star San and rinse. Produces good enough results for me.

 

Thank you. I'll have to pay more attention to that. I wash my glasses thoroughly. Haven't noticed that in particular, but now I'll be vigilant. Hopefully I don't have any issues since I wash by hand. I suspect most of the issues arise in folks that are using commercial dishwashers.

 

While I love me my homebrewing brethren, this is exactly an example of my theory: homebrewers are, at heart, Project Guys, more than brewers. They would just as soon build a new wort chiller on a Saturday as actually brew. Which, GREAT! , I've had tons of awesome homebrews.

But, to your point, us home consumers do not have the same things at hand as do homebrewers. You have added, and then repeated, unnecessary steps. If you enjoy that extra work, GREAT!

Us lazy drinkers, on the other hand, appreciate simpler, less ingredient and technique intense, methods.

Le Shrug, let's just drink some beer!

 

I use to just do the hot water rinse before each pour but found I was getting too many bubbles still. I have old pictures of beer with a shameful amount of bubbles on the glass.

Now I just use a touch of Dawn inside the glass with some water, swirl it around and use a glass brush to clean inside. Rinse until no soap is left, use the residual soap on the brush to hit it with another pass, then rinse multiple times to ensure no soap is left behind. Dry the outside of the glass with a microfiber cloth. Seems to do a good enough job of making the glass beer clean; I rarely have bubbles and when I do, it's one (maybe two) small patch that are easily shaken off by swirling the glass.

I've considered the StarSan approach but find this method works just fine 99% of the time.

 

You think people on this website (save for those who may work/own bars) have "commercial dishwashers" in their homes? I mean, that's real dedication to glassware cleaning.

The "issues" involved from dishwashers (commercial or consumer) tends to be etching and fading/destruction of the print/decoration in the case of those brewery-logoed glasses or a film that kills the beer's collar, not the small bits of dirt and grease that might form nucleation points that cause the large ugly bubbles on the sides of the glass.

 

my grandfather always used kosher salt and hot water.

 

Same here.

 

This thread, and the OPs first post specifically, is exactly the reason I love BeerAdvocate.

Because any time I think that I may be getting a bit too “into” with my own beer hobby I come on here and realize I pale in comparison to so many.

 

That's what I do. Except sometimes the water isn't that hot. Because I'm impatient, and you know, what the hell.