Is glassware important?

$1.10 at Madison Square Garden in the late 70's for the small is my earliest memory of those. I remember Schaefer. There were probably other ones on tap too.

 

Nice collection you got there man. You seem to be the only one in this thread I agree with completely. If I have a party or get together I’m probably just gonna crush it from the can/bottle, but with the amount of glassware I have, why wouldn’t I use it in other situations? I try to match style to glass as much as I can, but I also think there’s good substitutes out there. The glassware page on BA doesn’t list IPA glass for example, and damn near all of my IPAs go in there

 

Absolutely try to match the beer to the proper glass. I have an extensive collection of glassware and ceramic beer steins. Some recent and many are antiques. Besides, I hate drinking beer out of my cupped hand..

 

How about the plastic bags they used to sell in Japan?

Maybe it was China?

It was (is?) China.
https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2018/08/trend-for-drinking-beer-out-of-plastic-bags-in-china/

 

I spent years being concerned about this issue, making sure I matched style to traditional glass ware.
Since then, 20 years in, I basically have 3 glasses that I use for all styles

1) Pilsner tall glass for hefes/pilsners/lighter lagers and ales
2) Tulip for big, beefy styles like Imperial stouts, barleywines, anything barrel aged
3) Sam Adams perfect pint for hoppy and everything else

Honestly, I think Sam Adams nailed it with their perfect pint glass. If I had to choose one glass, it would be this one.

 

I think it does as the shape effects the head. I will say that regardless if it actually effects the aroma and taste it effects your bias. A beer poured into a nice glass will change your basis. It changes how you drink. A tulip, snifter, teku encourages you to sip and take your time. I think bias is a huge contributor to how you perceive something. Thus, I think it does change the flavor, aroma and experience.

also, having a bias isn’t bad we all have them.

 

Yes. I use a tulip for IPAs because of the aromatics and a pint glass for lagers and everything else.

 

There is a world of difference between the Sauvin glass and a candle holder:
Sauvin glass - $65.00 (Etsy)
Candle holder - $1.00 (St. Vincent de Paul)

 

For Christmas I received two British pint tulips. I find they do a great presentation of relatively low ABV beers.

 

OMG that's awesome, LOL, and actually remarkably similar! I really can't believe they are now charging 65 bucks for it. I bought mine when it was 35 bucks and even at that price it took me a while to make the decision.

 

As always, it's all about set and setting. I find a citrusy-IPA (like Troeg's Field Study) in a Belgian chalice (Orval) gives the beer a sacramental flavor on a warm day. I like the Spiegelau IPA glass (before it breaks, anyway) not so much for what it does for the flavor as for its play of colors and transparencies. A reddish IPA (like Yards) in that glass is wonderful: as you get to the narrow bottom part of the glass the beer gets lighter, and takes on a wonderful hue with the sunlight playing through it. A good old Sam Smith pint glass transports one back to London, especially with the appropriate nut brown ale. And a humorous Duval glass with giant lips anticipating a beer (one of their specialty glasses a few years ago) adds whimsy and a touch of the grotesque to a strong Belgian ale (which is already a bit grotesque, with its pilsener look and high ABV wallop).

 

I guess certain styles are better in glassware suited to them. I like a spiegelau glass for IPAs and a snifter for stouts. To me the most important thing is a clean, non dishwasher cleaned glass.

 

Personally, I think it provides a nice visual and it can enhance the aroma a little for certain styles. Otherwise...not really. It's just a vessel for the most part. I've been through some of those sensory tests with glassware comparisons. They often feel like martial arts classes where the "master" uses chi powers and students act like it's real because they want to believe.

 

I use the same few glass for all beers. I also drink baby right from the can/bottle. I never pour an AAL. I will use a nonic pint, nonic 1/2 pint, tulip style and I also have my ommegang and Stoudts tulip style and a few others I use sometimes. Really depends on what I feel like using vs the beer going into it. 90% of the time it’s a nonic.

Enjoy

 

Years ago, I purchased a brewery-branded glass for a friend. The glass itself had a round bottom -- literally. In order for the glass not to tip over, a wooden base / coaster was supplied with a spherical indentation that would safely accept the glass when carefully placed. This glassware style might be useful to prevent excess consumption. No pictures -- sorry.

 

In my early days of craft beer, I drank a BCBS 12oz from the bottle one year to not look like a beer snob. It was horrible. I sure wish I had that bottle back now.

 

Stemless tulip I'd imagine. I have a stemless red wine glass that I like to use from time to time. I received 2 Luigi borumelli (sp) stout glasses for Christmas that I despise due to the difficulty cleaning that is caused by the weird lower portion of the glass.

 

This provided me with a funny mental image.

I'm assuming the majority of those in this social setting were not craft beer drinkers which made you feel uncomfortable using/requesting a glass? Did you bring a bottle of BCBS to a Super Bowl party or something?

I've definitely drank from the bottle in social settings where everyone else was doing so in order to not single myself out. This winter I brought a 4-pack of St. Bernardus's Christmas Ale over to a friend's get together, and while I was happy to see two other people also grab one, we all drank them directly from the bottle since that's what everyone else (craft and non-craft beer drinkers alike) was doing. Given how good that beer is it was a bit of a shame, but on the other hand in social settings noticing every sensory aspect of a beer may not be as important.

 

It was a friend’s birthday party, so I brought some to share. I can’t clearly recall, but I think they were like $24/4 back then. Wasn’t I King Sh!t bringing such fancy beer? LOL! I think those might have been some of the first really big ABV stouts I’d had, so didn’t really even know what I had or what to expect. All I remember was that it was very cold, insanely oil thick, super bitter, with a mess of harsh flavors and no aroma. Now I just snob out with a glass whenever and where ever.