Pilsner Glass

A pilsner glass is typically a tall, slender and tapered glass. It's generally smaller than pint glasses with 12-ounce capacity. As you can tell from the name, a pilsner glass is intended for pilsner, but is typically used to serve other types of light beers as well. The trumpet-like shape of a pilsner glass helps to capture the sparkling effervesces and colors of a Pils while maintaining its head.

The benefits of a pilsner glass includes: promotes head retention, enhances volatiles, and showcases color, clarity and carbonation.

The following beer styles are suitable to be served with pilsner glass:

• American Adjunct Lager
• American Double / Imperial Pilsner
• American Amber / Red Lager
• American Pale Lager
• American Malt Liquor
• Bock
• California Common / Steam Beer
• Czech Pilsener
• Doppelbock
• Dortmunder / Export Lager
• Euro Dark Lager
• Euro Pale Lager
• Euro Strong Lager
• German Pilsener
• Happoshu
• Japanese Rice Lager
• Light Lager
• Low Alcohol Beer
• Maibock / Helles Bock
• Munich Helles Lager
• Munich Dunkel Lager
• Schwarzbier
• Vienna Lager
• Witbier

Wheat Beer Glass

A wheat beer glass (or Weizen glass), as the name suggest, is designed to serve wheat beer (or Weizenbier). It is taller than a pint glass, and has a shape of narrow bottom and slightly wider top. This special design allows the wheat beer glass to produce more foam while showcasing the beer's color at the same time. Most wheat beer glasses (the German version) are typically 0.5 litres in size, but in certain countries such as Belgium, the glass may be 0.25 litres or 0.33 litres.

While the thin walls and length of a wheat beer glass helps to showcase the beer's color and allows for much headspace to contain the fluffy, sexy heads, care must be taken when touching the glass while toasting. one should touch the thicker bases of the glasses to avoid warming the beer. But still, due to the relatively large surface area of wheat beer glasses in proportion to volume, beer become warm faster in wheat beer glasses compare to steins or pilsner glasses.

Designed specifically to take on volume and head, one need to use the correct method of pouring a beer into a wheat beer glass to produce the desired head volume. First, it should be rinsed with cold water. Then, without drying the glass, slowly pour the beer into it by holding both the glass and the bottle horizontally. When the level of the beer touches the lip of the bottle, slowly begin to bring the glass upright. When there is less than one inch of beer left in the bottle, swirl the bottle vigorously to pick up the sediment and create foam, which is poured on top. If done correctly, not only the foam will crest the lip of the glass without pouring over, it will also help locking in the banana-like and phenol aromas.

The following beer styles are suitable to be served with wheat beer glass:

• American Dark Wheat Ale
• American Pale Wheat Ale
• Dunkelweizen
• Gose
• Hefeweizen
• Kristalweizen
• Weizenbock

Beer Pint Glasses

Pint glass, one of the most common beer glasses in the United States, is a drinking vessel with near cylindrical shape, and a slight taper and wide-mouth. It is cheap to make, easy to store, and easy to drink out of. There are two standard sizes for a pint glass: an American pint of 16 fluid ounces, and a British pint (also known as "imperial pint") of 20 fluid ounces. The shape of a pint glass varies. The few common shapes for a pint glass includes "Conical", "Jug", and some other modern glasses that have a taller shape, and usually flaring out towards the top. The wide mouth of a pint glass allows for good aroma and easy drinking, making it ideal for quick beverage consumption.

There are some beer pint glasses that contain small pits on the base. These small pits, often made to form words or logos of one particular beer, will help in nucleation and thus preserving the head. A regular pint glass without these pits will only keep the beer's head for about 3 to 4 minutes.

The following are the beer styles that are suitable to be served with pint glasses.

• American Adjunct Lager
• American Amber / Red Ale
• American Amber / Red Lager
• American Barleywine
• American Blonde Ale
• American Brown Ale
• American Dark Wheat Ale
• American Double / Imperial Stout
• American IPA
• American Malt Liquor
• American Pale Ale (APA)
• American Pale Wheat Ale
• American Porter
• American Stout
• American Strong Ale
• Baltic Porter
• Berliner Weissbier
• Black & Tan
• California Common / Steam Beer
• Chile Beer
• Cream Ale
• English Barleywine
• English Bitter
• English Brown Ale
• English Dark Mild Ale
• English India Pale Ale (IPA)
• English Pale Ale
• English Pale Mild Ale
• English Porter
• English Stout
• English Strong Ale
• Euro Dark Lager
• Extra Special / Strong Bitter (ESB)
• Foreign / Export Stout
• Fruit / Vegetable Beer
• Happoshu
• Herbed / Spiced Beer
• Irish Dry Stout
• Irish Red Ale
• Low Alcohol Beer
• Milk / Sweet Stout
• Märzen / Oktoberfest
• Oatmeal Stout
• Old Ale
• Pumpkin Ale
• Russian Imperial Stout
• Rye Beer
• Sahti
• Saison / Farmhouse Ale
• Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy
• Scottish Ale
• Scottish Gruit / Ancient Herbed Ale
• Smoked Beer
• Winter Warmer
• Witbier
  

Beside being used for beer serving, pint glass collecting has become an increasingly popular way to commemorate ones visit to popular tourist destinations. These destinations often print their logos on pint glasses, and sell them for between $4 and $7. Pint glass collectors often display their collections on shelves or in display cases.

Types of Beer Glasses

There are various types of beer glasses. Each of them complement different styles of beer. Some of these glasses are designed to enhance aromatic volatiles, some are for showcasing the appearance, and some are designed to keep the beer cold by preventing the warmth of the drinker's hand from warming the beer. Using the right type of beer glasses for the right type of beer can greatly enhance your beer drinking experience.

So which beer glass to use? The answer can often be overwhelming as there are so many types of beer glasses out there. To help you out, we have compile a list of most beer glasses and try to explain how they can enhance the beer drinking experience.

• Pint glass
  Pint glass is the most common beer glass in the U.S. with near cylindrical, with a slight taper and wide-mouth design. There are two standard sizes for pint glass: 16-ounce and 20-ounce. The latter version is preferred to accommodate more beer or beers with large crowning heads.


• Wheat beer glass
  A wheat beer glass (also known as Weizen glass) is designed specially to serve Wheat Beer (also known as Weizenbier). It has a shape of narrow bottom and slightly wider top. With its thin walls and length, a wheat beer glass allows much headspace to contain the fluffy, sexy heads association with the style, and showcase the beer's color. A wheat beer glass typically holds 500 millilitres with room for foam or "head".


• Pilsner glass
  A Pilsner glass is typically tall, slender, tapered, shaped like a trumpet at times, and pairing well with pilsners and other light beers. It's usually in 250 ml or 330 ml sizes, and is designed to allows the remarkable clarity, color, and effervescence of pilsners and other
  light beers to stay at the forefront.


• Beer stein
  A beer stein is a heavy, sturdy, and large mug with handle. It can be made from glass, wood, porcelain, pewter, silver, or earthenware; and typically with a hinged lid and levered thumblift, the use of which dates back to the Black Plague to prevent flies from dropping in. It comes in many sizes and shapes.


• Stange
  A Stange is a traditional German glass. It's tall and slender, and is usually used to serve more delicate beers. Serving with Stange has the benefit of tighter concentration of volatiles.


• Goblet or Chalice
  Chalices and goblets are large, stemmed, bowl-shaped glasses. Goblet is more delicate and long stemmed, while the Chalice is heavy and thick walled. They are suitable for serving heavy Belgian ales, German bocks, and other big sipping.


• Flute glass
  A Flute glass has a long and narrow body that helps to maintain and showcase lively carbonation, while providing a strong aromatic front. It's ideal for preserving the delicate flavors and gentle carbonation of Lambics and fruit beers.


• Tulip glass
  With Tulip shape, a Tulip glass helps to trap aroma and maintaining large foamy heads. It's adequate for serving Scottish ales, barleywines, Belgian ales and other aromatic beers. The benefit of tulip glass is that it captures volatiles, and induces large heads which create a visual sensation.


• Snifters
  Shifters are usually used for serving brandy and cognac. It is a stemmed glass with wide bowl and tapered mouth which is is ideal for capturing the volatiles of aromatic beers. Also, Snifters provide room to swirl and agitate volatiles.


• Beer Boot
  While Beer Boot is often used for a festive drinking challenge, it has a story behind. It's believed that the beer boot is originated from a General who promised to drink beer from his boots if he won in a battle. After his victory, he ordered a glassmaker to make a boot-shaped glass to fulfill his promise without tasting his own feet. Since then, soldiers have enjoyed toasting to their victories with a beer boot.

Remember using the appropriate beer glasses for different styles of beer will enhance your drinking experience. Cheers!

About Beer Glasses Blog

Do you like drinking beer? Do you collect beer glasses? If you do, you have come to the right place. This is a blog for beer lovers, for discussion about beers, particularly about beer glasses and mugs.