Proper pint glass care

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readerrabbitryo

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I'm new to this forum, as of today, so forgive me if this question seems exhausted. I take pride in the care of my pint glasses at home (I don't use them for anything other than craft beer or water). I just started getting into craft beer and I recently learned about "lacing" and how it relates to proper cleaning. Could anyone tell me the proper way to keep my glasses "Alehouse clean"?
 
The key is to avoid using rinse agents. Ideally, you should wash them by hand. Frankly, though, I find that to be a pain in the tuckus, so I just stick them in the dishwasher. Use a mild detergent.
 
You know what works great? Every once in a while, do a "saltwater scrub" on your glasses. Just moisten the glass, and sprinkle on some table salt. Scrub well, with your hand, and then rinse well with clear water. It makes such a huge difference, and gets the class "bar clean".
 
There are two things that NEVER get put in my dishwasher. One is my good kitchen knives. The other is my beer glasses.

I rinse the glasses immediately after drinking (or as soon after as is practical), and then wash in as hot of water as I can physically stand, followed by a rinse in the hottest water I can get out of my tap. (I live alone, so no kids to worry about, ergo my gas water heater is set a little higher than 'normal'. Direct contact WILL scald flesh.). I rinse long enough to get the glass too hot to handle, and place upside down on a clean flour sack towel while I wash the rest. The heat helps them self-dry, and then any remaining water is dried with a soft towel, and glasses are placed back in the cupboard upside down.
 
You know what works great? Every once in a while, do a "saltwater scrub" on your glasses. Just moisten the glass, and sprinkle on some table salt. Scrub well, with your hand, and then rinse well with clear water. It makes such a huge difference, and gets the class "bar clean".

I do this all the time. I usually just rinse the glasses and put them off to the side on the counter til I have 2-3, the grab the salt water and a bottle brush and go to town.
 
There are two things that NEVER get put in my dishwasher. One is my good kitchen knives. The other is my beer glasses.

I rinse the glasses immediately after drinking (or as soon after as is practical), and then wash in as hot of water as I can physically stand, followed by a rinse in the hottest water I can get out of my tap. (I live alone, so no kids to worry about, ergo my gas water heater is set a little higher than 'normal'. Direct contact WILL scald flesh.). I rinse long enough to get the glass too hot to handle, and place upside down on a clean flour sack towel while I wash the rest. The heat helps them self-dry, and then any remaining water is dried with a soft towel, and glasses are placed back in the cupboard upside down.

Oh, yes, my hot tap water is HOT. I don't have children at home, and my tap water approaches 150 degrees! We're talking scalding hot!
 
I generally wipe them with a sponge that has had detergent in it, and rinse thoroughly with clean hot (not scalding) water.

However you clean your glasses, you need to make sure you rinse off any detergent. Detergent kills the head.
 
The key is to avoid using rinse agents. Ideally, you should wash them by hand. Frankly, though, I find that to be a pain in the tuckus, so I just stick them in the dishwasher. Use a mild detergent.

So what do you concider a "mild detergent"?
 
Ivory is good. Dawn works well. As noted above, the real key is rinsing. Whatever you wash them with, rinse really well.
 
You know what works great? Every once in a while, do a "saltwater scrub" on your glasses. Just moisten the glass, and sprinkle on some table salt. Scrub well, with your hand, and then rinse well with clear water. It makes such a huge difference, and gets the class "bar clean".

I'm going to try this sometime.

As far as washing my pint glasses, I just wash them whenever I do the rest of the dishes with dish soap. I guess my only thing is I always wash them first, while the water is still "clean".
 
I get super lacing from my beers. Crazy lacing. Everything gets washed in the dishwasher with rinsing agent.

Two things that make a big difference (I know this for fact; I've done a lot of "scientific method" testing under the supervision of my wife). 1) water softener 2) commercial diswhwasher detergent.
 
I try to never use soap or run my beer glasses thru the dishwasher. I wash them in the same manner as Yooper mentioned. If you want to test your method of cleaning and see if you have any head killing residue you can also use salt on a moistened glass and it will show you the surface condition.

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I try to never use soap or run my beer glasses thru the dishwasher. I wash them in the same manner as Yooper mentioned. If you want to test your method of cleaning and see if you have any head killing residue you can also use salt on a moistened glass and it will show you the surface condition.

Sorry, what do those pictures indicate?
 
Sorry, what do those pictures indicate?

My apologies, I did not explain that at all. Take a wet glass, add a couple of teaspoon of table salt to the inside of the glass, tilt and then rotate. Make sure the salt comes in contact with the entire interior surface.

Pictures:
Notice the even distribution on one and not the other. The uneven salt layer shows the scale or film on the glass that will kill head and in turn give you uneven or no lacing.
 
My apologies, I did not explain that at all. Take a wet glass, add a couple of teaspoon of table salt to the inside of the glass, tilt and then rotate. Make sure the salt comes in contact with the entire interior surface.

Pictures:
Notice the even distribution on one and not the other. The uneven salt layer shows the scale or film on the glass that will kill head and in turn give you uneven or no lacing.

You are going to have to explain what is going on. If all surfaces are wet, then all surfaces should be equally likely to have salt deposited on them. Maybe you just ran out of salt when doing the uneven side.
 
You are going to have to explain what is going on. If all surfaces are wet, then all surfaces should be equally likely to have salt deposited on them. Maybe you just ran out of salt when doing the uneven side.

Maybe the idea is that some parts of the glass won't be wet due some "problem". So then those areas won't hold salt. I'm suspect of the test myself, but I have seen others do it in the past.
 
Maybe the idea is that some parts of the glass won't be wet due some "problem". So then those areas won't hold salt. I'm suspect of the test myself, but I have seen others do it in the past.
That would be my guess; a deposit or film on the glass would drive water away, causing that area to be dry, and thus the salt wouldn't stick to it.
 
I did the test. Apparently my glasses are clean. I quickly ran some water into a glass, hung the glass upside down for about 15 seconds, then dashed salt in from a shaker.

These are only washed in my dishwasher. As I stated before, I use Cascade Commercial detergent and rinse agent, and I have a whole-house water softener. I get great lacing on glasses.

For me, the story of rinse agents affecting head is bunk. Same with using a dishwasher. I suppose if you have hard water, you'll get some scale or other residue left on your glasses and that might have some effect.

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This is the video where I learned the salt trick.



And this video gave me the best tool idea to use for doing it......Even though it's an annoying video. (or at leas tthe theme song is.)



But I've yet to find as good a quality baby bottle brush to use. So I'm back to using my old bottle brush from my beer kit.
 
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I have always just run my glasses through the dishwasher and I select the steam clean and heat dry option and they come out sparking. I have never had a problem with head retention.
 
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