Dad's Old Pilsner Glasses

My grandfather always called it a bucket of beer (southern Atlantic seaboard). I never knew it was called a growler until I looked up why the modern growlers are named that.

 

No! Those are exact engineer drawings of the glasses.

I'm a little confused, what do you "do" with the bucket?

Drink directly from it? Awkwardly pour it into a glass? Dip your glass in the bucket?

That's one thick ass glass.

 

What do "I" do with them? I keep them on the fireplace mantel.

But, just as with cans and bottles today - both.

Just pulled one of the white enameled growlers (4.75" tall, 6" dia) off the shelf, washed/rinsed it (they do get dusty), filled it*, and drank from it and poured some into a beer glass. Nothing particularly awkward about either method.

* With water. No actual beer was harmed during this experiment.

 

Have you tried taking them to a taproom to have your growler filled?

 

On display, yes. Didn't have access to the warehouse.

Of course, I don't remember any of them being enameled and they had the typical hinged lid.

Um. Hate to say it, but those enameled ones look like what my grandparents kept under the bed in the cabin for cold nights... when a trip outside wasn't desirable.

 

If you read up on them I'm sure you learned that they were actually "lunch pails" (where that term came from as well) that were serviced into double duty for beverage transport. The term "growler" came from growling stomachs anticipating the lunch from within.

 

Well they were better men than me. No way I'd drink 55 oz. of anything from a bucket, I still think it's cumbersome.

And I'd probably spill a lot of beer trying to pour from a bucket into those tiny glasses the fellas on the right have there.

 

Never saw one, either in person or in prints/photos, with a hinged lid. In fact, contrary to that film clip and one of the supposed origins for the term "growler" (from the sound of the lid "rattling" from the carbonation), I've never seen a lid depicted on a metal growler.

Hey, so they were versatile! (Most enameled or pottery chamber pots I've seen were a lot bigger than 6" diameter )

Often, both at the time and currently among antique collectors, etc., the metal containers are referred to as "berry buckets (or pails)". << Gogglin' "antique berry bucket" turns up images of them.

Now, this does not appear to be how modern so-called craft "Blueberry Ale" or "Strawberry Lager" originated, but some brewer will soon claim it is...

 

I think they would get separated and lost pretty often -- especially over a century or so.

6 inches? That seems small -- seems like the ones we got from the bar were bigger than that (albeit, not antique).

Are you sure?

 

According to most contemporary sources, the 2-quart capacity metal pails were typically only filled about half way with beer, leaving room for the (excessive, according to purchasers) head and often extra space that allowed the bucket to be easily carried home or to work without too much spillage. (Some claim that the term "growler" itself referred to the frequent complaints about the fill).

Can't you just picture the ad - where the brewer reminisces about the beer's origins?

 

This (and another Bitburger glass) were the 2 glasses that got me into collecting beer glasses 17 years ago!!

 

All you have to do is coat the inside of the bucket with lard -- keeps any head from forming!

Tastes great... Less filling!

 

Yeah, another head-scratcher growler convention - along with the more middle-class "butter" usage. So far, no "craft" brewers tried that one ("Crisco Ale" - yeah, not lard but with the vegetarian segment of the beer drinkers these days...).

 

Ah ok.

Still...I'm all set with drinking from a bucket. Unless I was drunk, then it's ok.

Wow, and I thought I had a lot of beer glasses.

Are you sure you don't mean "Cisco Ales"?

 

Well, no - unless they have a beer brewed with whale blubber .

 

Thin glass can feel nice, and elegant, but they don't stand a chance in my house.

Sadly, the only possession I had of my father's after he died was his very thin Rheingold chalice glasses from the 1970's. I loved them. All three have broke from the slightest of irregular contact.

 

Yeah, as others have said, check thrift stores; around my area, these Warsteiner glasses are pretty common - I have 5 or 6 of these I think I have picked up for less than a buck - would never pay some outrageous Amazon $30+ price for a common glass like this

but, I only have a "few glasses" - what do I know? haha

 

I don't know, man, kinda weird to have all those beer glasses next to Ol' Henry David "Simplify, Simplify" Thoreau's books.

You'd never see me do that (Beer bottles and cans? Oh, yeah ).

 

I think Henry would approve......if he were alive today, I think he would be into "hazy ipa's" and find some moral high ground for drinking these over "regular ipa's" and that mass produced corn syrup infused lager that some un-enlightened souls consume.....ha! I have so many books, beer glasses and boats, that I need to simplify....yes indeed

 

Back in the '70s when I was still homebrewing I had made a mock-up (now lost) of a label for a beer called "Different Drummer Lager" - the slogan of which was: