Pilsner Beer Glasses | Why Should I Use One

A 12 ounce tapered glass that is tall and slender. Pilsner glasses are good for showing a beer’s color, carbonation level, and for head retention. Designed to be used with “pilsner” beers. These are tall, with a shape that evenly tapers from a wider mouth to a narrower base with no curves. The shape of the Pilsner glass provides a stage for the light, gold color of the traditional pilsner beer while the wide mouth allows formation of a foamy head to keep in the flavor and aroma of the hops.

How to Choose the Right Beer Glass

Fine beers should not be drunk straight from the bottle. They should always be enjoyed only after being poured into a glass. Glassware choice, as well as appropriate use and care, are important to the overall enjoyment of a fine beer, so here are a few tips:

Cleaning – First of all, make sure your glass is “beer clean”. If it isn’t, you may find that the carbonation dissipates quickly which will cause the beer lose its head prematurely, or even go flat. Worse yet, a glass that has not been appropriately cleaned can alter the taste of your fine brew. Contaminates that can ruin your beer drinking experience are fat or grease based residues such as lipstick residue, fingerprints, and soap or milk residue. At home, the best way to insure your glassware is “beer clean” is to only use them for serving beer, and to wash and dry them in the dishwasher.

Dishwasher detergents tend to leave little to no residue. (Be sure you buy a brand designed to leave dishes free of residue, and doesn’t have any added scents, such as lemon. Also, do not over fill the soap container.) Plus, the heated dry setting sterilizes your glasses. If you do choose to hand wash your glassware, use a mild detergent, and allow the glasses to air dry. Never dry or wipe off your beer glasses with a dishtowel because that can leave behind lint, residue, or odors that are held in the towel fibers.

Glass Styles – There are several different glassware choices for enjoying your beer. They each have advantages and disadvantages that make them more suitable for certain types of beers than others. However, ultimately your choice of glassware comes down to personal preference. Here are the most popular glass choices for beer:

Pilsner Glass – A 12 ounce tapered glass that is tall and slender. Pilsner glasses are good for showing a beer’s color, carbonation level, and for head retention. Pilsner glasses are typically used for lighter beers (such as a Pilsner).

Pint – Probably the most popular of beer glasses because they are cheap to make, easy to store, and easy to drink out of. As the name indicates, most are 16oz. glasses, but there are 20-ounce versions available. This is a great all around beer glass that works well for almost any beer. If you’re only going to use one type of glass, a pint should be the one.

Mug or Stein – Mugs come in many sizes and shapes. Steins are just mugs (often fancier mugs) with lids. Mugs are sturdy pieces of glassware with handles. Their benefits are they hold a lot of beer, and they’re easy to drink out of.

Weizen Glass – Like a Pilsner glass, a Weizen glass describes what it was intended to be used for. A Weizen glass is for Weizenbier, or wheat beer. A Weizen glass is similar in look to a Pilsner glass without a stem. They come in many sizes, but the half-liter is most common.

Tulip – A tulip glass is a tulip shaped, stemmed piece of glassware. The tulip shape creates big, foamy heads and brings out the aromas of your beer. This glass is a good choice for heavier ales and IPAs.

Goblet – A long stemmed round, bowl-like piece of glassware, which at times can be quite ornate. A goblet with a shorted stem and thicker walls is a chalice. Both offer the ability to take big drinks.

Other Glasssware – There are some choices that aren’t typically considered beer glasses, but are useful nonetheless. Champagne flutes and Tom Collins glasses both work well for lighter brews, and a large wine glass or a brandy snifter can be a great choice for a heavier beer. Many connoisseurs believe is you are doing a beer tasting, the brandy snifter is the best choice.

Pouring Your Beer – Now that you have chosen a clean beer glass of the appropriate style, you need to insure a proper pour. Never serve beer in chilled, or worse yet, frosted glassware. Beer glasses should always be at room temperature prior to use. Start pouring with your glass held at a 45° angle and target the pour to the middle of the glass. As the glass fills, allow the glass to gradually become upright. You want to allow for a nice head of one to one and a half inches, so don’t worry about pouring too fast, or allowing for some space between the bottle and the glass. This will help release the beer’s aromatic qualities, as well as add to visual presentation.

For more information about the enjoyment of fine beer, including beer reviews and microbrewery profiles, visit:   Craft Beer and Microbrews

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Popular Types of Beer Glasses

How often do you pay any attention to the glass you drink your beer from? If you think about it at all it’s probably just to check that nothing is growing in the bottom of the glass and that there isn’t any visible dirt sticking anywhere. After all, as one who home brews their own beer, the focus is on the suds and not on the glass.

This is so wrong on so many levels! The beer glass, formally know as “beer glassware”, performs an unsung but vitally important function in how much you enjoy that tall, cold one after a long day at work. There are many, many different types of beer glassware, each with its own shape designed to be used with a specific type of beer. Here is a list of the most common types of beer glassware and the types of beer they are associated with. Utilizing the beer glass developed for the type of beer you are brewing will do wonders to enhance your drinking experience.

Beer Stein: The stein is, traditionally, German. It is typically a very heavy container made from silver, pewter, porcelain, or even wood. It is often heavily decorated with elaborate scrolling and other decorations including precious or semi-precious stones. Most often it is equipped with an attached lid the drinker can raise with his thumb. The lid came about during the 1300s in response to the “Black Plague” to stop disease carrying flies from getting into the beer.

Steins were developed for use with the heavy German beers of the period. Today, because of their weight, they are more often collected and displayed than used for drinking.

Wheat Beer Glass: Made to enhance the enjoyment of “wheat beer” brewed with high concentrations of malted barley. Like the stein, this shape was also developed in Germany and is also known as a “Weizenbier”. This is a large glass, usually holding about 18 ounces although some can be as small as half that. The glass itself is tall, very narrow at the bottom and very wide at the top. The wide mouth allows room for a thick head that contains the aroma and is very nice to look at.

Pilsner Glass: Designed to be used with “pilsner” beers. These are tall, with a shape that evenly tapers from a wider mouth to a narrower base with no curves. The shape of the Pilsner glass provides a stage for the light, gold color of the traditional pilsner beer while the wide mouth allows formation of a foamy head to keep in the flavor and aroma of the hops.

Flute Glass: This glass is most often associated with sparkling wines like Champagne but is also often used for Belgian lambic beers and beers flavored with fruit.

Pint Glass: Most often associated with the English pub, the pint glass contains 1 imperial pint and is used to serve English ales and stouts. It is rather short, with a mouth just a bit larger than the base.

Tulip Glass: This is another glass originally made for white wine. It is shaped with the rim of the glass is not as large as the mid point. For beer drinkers, this shape does an excellent job of trapping the rich aroma and thick head of beers such as Scottish and Belgian ales.

Stange and Becher: These are both cylindrical glasses and are most often used to serve Kolsch or Altbier type beers. Both hold about the same amount, but the Becher is shorter and fatter than the Stange.

Yard Glass: So called because it stands about a yard (3 feet) high, the glass has a bulb at the bottom and a shaft that becomes continually wider towards the rim. Because of its height, it is not stable and is most commonly hung on a wall when not being used. This glass probably originated in 17th Century England and was as much more a testament to the glassblower who created it than anyone drinking from it.

Today, it is most often used in drinking games and not by serious beer drinkers.

When your next batch of home brew is ready for sampling, you now know which type of beer glass will be best used to enhance your drinking pleasure.

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