Breaking the glass(ware) rules

I don't like wheat glasses. I prefer Hefes from a tulip pint.

 

it's nice to see this kind of daring, 'throw caution to the wind' attitude in craft beer. i salute you

 

Tulip for everything

 

I typically use a tulip for everything. Makes the beer look better, therefore using mind power, taste better.

 

Everything for the past few months has gone in a Dollar Store wine glass.

 

Everything out of a pint glass or imperial pint.

On occasion for an expensive offering I do bust out my goblet for that extra smell sensation.

 

everything gets poured into my nitro tulip glass. I'm classless that way. Guess what? IPAs and stouts still both taste good.

 

I have been using the dildo glass (my wife's name for it)

Or this glass
Almost exclusively lately.
I seem to be getting along just fine.

 

Speaking of breaking crap. I broke my favorite tulip glass 2 weeks ago. Then yesterday a 4 pack of fis fell off the shelf in my basement and 2 of them shattered (thankfully only 2). It's been a bad couple weeks. Nothing to do with topic but title made me think of it and had to vent. Carry on...



Ok fine, back on topic. I use my duvel or stone snifter/tulip for almost everything. Want an ipa glass though. I have some pint and pub glasses that I'll use on rare occasion if my others are dirty/drying.

 

For me, part of the drinking experience is the glassware. The look of Weihenstephaner out of a proper weizen glass is just breathtaking, for example.

I don't know how much impact the glassware has on the taste/aroma of any given beer, because I've never sat down and had back to back glasses of the exact same beer in different glasses to do an official scientific comparison.

I do like the "dildo" glass for IPAs though. The shape makes it easy to pour a nice thick head, and the ridges on the base help aerate the beer each time I tip it back for a sip. And snifters are nice because you can get your schnoz all down in the glass to get maximum aroma-ness.

Fun random side note of the day: the spell check algorithm on BA apparently recognizes "schnoz" as a correctly spelled word, while "hoppy" continues to be flagged. Go figure.

 

I think glassware makes a big difference. There was a video- I don't have the url right now, but the beer geek poured the same beer into a dozen different glasses and blogged about the differences in taste. There were definitely small differences in taste between glasses. I sometimes switch glasses in a tasting session. Tonight, I switched to an Imperial pint glass for sampling a Victory Old Horizontal Barleywine.

The name of the game is the quality of the beer and the serving temp.

However... I favor a tulip for DIPAs, a pint glass for IPAs, a pilsner glass for IPLs, and a stein for Octoberfests and bocks, wheat beer glass for Hefeweizens, a thistle for Scotch ale,and a balloon glass for a number of beers, especially some bourbon aged beers.

Glasses enhance beer geekdom, but the bottom line is the beer itself.

 

I have several nice glasses but I favor my tulips/snifters now that my fiancee knocked over my IPA glass and broke it. I need to get a nice stemmed chalice.

 

I definitely match my glassware with the style of beer I'm drinking. It obviously doesn't make much, if any, difference in how the beer will taste, but I have seemed to notice a difference in how the bouquet is released as the liquid forms in the glass. At bars I usually request a specific glass if I see the bartender reaching for the "wrong" one. Ultimately, though, it's probably a question of preference and how far on the beer nerd (some would say 'snob') scale you are willing to go. I also have a number of glasses out of which I'm willing to enjoy any beer, as well as a couple I will only pour a specific style into.

 

I use my Teku for almost everything lately and I really like it, though a snifter is hard to beat for imperial stouts.

 

All Belgians go into my Duvel tulip, all heavy stouts and barley wines go into my snifter, everything else goes into a pint glass

 

if you're curious, it's worth pouring the same beer into several different glasses and tasting them to see if you notice a slight difference. we did this at work during training and found small but noticeable differences between glassware and pouring techniques, but ultimately, if you put a great beer into the wrong glass, odds are it's still going to be a pretty great beer.

 

If I can't decide what a beer should be poured into (I do have a fairly extensive guide), I'll default to a dimpled mug or a traditional pint glass. I find those two to be fairly universal.

 

I try to drink everything out of the tulip at least once, but at least 3/4 of my pours are into an imperial pint (SN or FW but I have a couple blank conics). This includes BCBS, Backwoods Bastard, everything. Things with brett are probably the most likely to go in a tulip, and I like some saisons in a tall wheat glass, but most of the time I grab a pint glass. I love the wide mouth.

 

I have many (too many according to my girlfriend) styles of glasses, but I tend to use a Belgian Tulip/Snifter style glass for everything above 7% & a nonic pint glass for everything below.

I also have some IPA glasses that I got as a gift that I enjoy & some can glasses that are really good all around glasses & come in handy for tastings.

 

That's actually a good point, too. First time I'd given that a try was at Torst in Brooklyn. Interesting, but worked with a wide variety of beers I tried that day.