I've gradually accumulated a good variety of glassware covering an appropriate range of styles. My problem is when I'm entertaining and there's more than a handful of people over, I find it awkward serving from my random assortment of glassware. I'm looking to purchase 12-24 glasses to use for entertaining, but I'm not sure the best style for general use. Most of the time I offer a selection of 12oz bottles, but I do serve from bombers or 750s on occasion. I'm leaning towards either tulip pints or nonic pints. I thought about tulips, but I'm not sure if I want to go the stemware route. I've found a number of restaurant/bar supply stores online with reasonable prices, so it shouldn't be a problem just to order a case or two. What do you use?
When I am entertaining - or being entertained, for that matter - I like for everyone in attendance to have their own easily distinguishable glass. I hate leaving my glass on a table only to find that somebody else using the same glass, possibly drinking the same drink, sat theirs next to mine. That said, I really love the Russian River chalice glass as a multi-purpose glass. If you want something unbranded, I'd go for the Riedel water glass; basically the same shape as the RR, but thinner and made better:
If I have a bunch of people over for full size, I'll just offer shaker pints. A) I have a million of them, so if one breaks it's no biggie. and b) if it's a bunch of people generally we're not there for every single nuance of every beer. And even so, if it's splitting a 750 among 4+ people, there's still plenty of room in there for aromas and whatnot to develop.
Thrift stores are your best bet for good cheap glassware. I get nice long stem tulips (10oz pour /12oz full), usually get them in pairs or in groups of four. In my opinion this is the best all around glass. I've got over a dozen of them and by not getting them all at the same time, there is some variation in glasses, so you can differentiate between glasses. If you worried about getting glasses mixed up, make some wine glass charm type things with old bottle caps.
