BJ's Glassware

Rolly · 03-22-2011, 02:15 PM

So the family and I decided to eat lunch at BJ's the other day. I was actually quite impressed with their guest tap and bottle list. Their own beers were mediocre though. Anyways, my wife ordered an anderson valley brother david and it showed up in a pint/shaker glass? Wtf? I've never seen a 9% beer served in a session glass like that. I'm not tryin to be a douche, but that's basically like serving a red wine in a pint glass.

**Revvy** · 03-22-2011, 02:33 PM

Outside of brewpubs, and a handful of bars where they actually know what they're doing, most places don't know nor care about different beer glasses. Even if they have great beer lists, places with proper glasses are more an exception than the rule.

Heck you'll probably find the majority of homebrewers/beer geeks don't pay as much attention to it as you probably do. Heck I have all manner of different glasses, and most of the time I prefer my favorite pint glass or belgian snifter or even my favorite big pilsner glass for all my beers, regardless of what's proper.

Usually the only time I'll bother to use a "proper" glass, is if I'm reviewing a beer...But otherwise, whatever glass I'm in the mood for is the "proper" glass for me.

I would just be happy that BJ's had more than just BMC, then whether or not it's in the correct glass. Hell at least they didn't just bring you a bottle and you had to ask for a glass, like half the places on the planet.

It's just so not worth getting bent out of shape about. We beer geeks sometimes get so silly getting so worked up about inconsequential things....I just count myself lucky if anyplace has decent beers.

Rolly · 03-22-2011, 04:53 PM

Yeah I was all bent out of shape. I called the 18 year old waiter over and shouted "You really expect my wife to drink this? This glass completely ruins the nose of the ester profile allowing the banana to take over while overshadowing the fig, clove, and candi-sugar, creating one unbalanced mess of a beer." She looked at me like I just escaped from a mental institution.

Okay that was total sarcasm, but could possibly be a story that would be commonplace in a wine bar. It may even been an acceptable complaint. I give BJ's credit, they have a WAY better beer selection than 99.999% of restaurant chains that i've ever seen in my life.

And Revvy, I absolutely agree with all of your thoughts. My general point was more that while we take some of these things for granted, the overwhelming majority of restaurants have absolutely no respect for or knowledge of beer. The only customers who would appreciate this sort of thing is the hardcore beer geeks, which is about .0000001% of the population, so it's not worth it. The general public doesn't aspire to learn about beer because there isn't a class/money/aspirational association with it as there is in the wine world.

**weirdboy** · 03-22-2011, 05:00 PM

I was in a beer geek bar (as in they cater to beer geeks), and the bartender there served me some 11% Belgian quad in monster hefeweizen glass. And it was happy hour, so I paid something like $5 for essentially 4 servings of that beer.

So I don't think the problem is limited to places like BJ's.

nikkormat · 03-23-2011, 11:14 PM

I got served raison d'etre in a shaker pint. it pisses you off at first, then you realize how much extra beer you're getting.

ReverseApacheMaster · 03-24-2011, 03:15 AM

I don't care so much what kind of glass I get beer served in, but it really irritates me when I go there and have to request a glass. I mean, you serve all those beers on your list and you really think I want to drink orval out of a bottle? WTF.

pelipen · 03-27-2011, 04:57 AM

I just think how often the chef actually understands what "rare" or "seared" really mean, applied to beef and fish respectively... The odds of getting the "correct" glass for beer? Forget about it.
And those are a couple of the many reasons why I almost never dine out anymore. Most just work there for a paycheck and tips, not to actually learn anything.