Beer serving glasses

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OrdinaryAvgGuy

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Just curious, what type of container do you serve your guests' beer in. I have my first batch about to be ready in 3 weeks and plan to have a handful of folks come over for a sampling of my first batch. I'm considering purchasing customized pint glasses with my name and logo. A bit cheezy? What do you think?
 
I have a collection of pint glasses from different brewery's + some with my logo on them in the freezer just waiting for guests. It's always special to get a frozen mug and fill it your self. Your guests will love it and think its sweet:)
Cheers
 
Do whatever you want man. Part of the joy of this hobby, and I think, why most of us do it. Have fun with it; if you want custom glasses, get custom glasses.
 
I have a collection of pint glasses from different brewery's + some with my logo on them in the freezer just waiting for guests. It's always special to get a frozen mug and fill it your self. Your guests will love it and think its sweet:)
Cheers

I have an obscene amount of brewery glasses. I have some favorites though for home brew. Any of my stemmed beer glasses, which I have 3 Ommegangs, a Weyerbacher (my personal favorite as a Tulip glass) a Corsendonk, 2 35th Anniversary Stuff yet Face glasses and a Magic Hat something or the other.

I'm not a fan of sharing something I love so much in shaker glasses. Something that actually holds head and aromas in instead of letting them escape all willy nilly. That said I love my shakers for display, but I prefer the beer specific glasses, like pilsner glasses, pub glasses, etc. Shakers are great for water, for mixed drinks, tea, etc. And they'll do in a pinch for beer. But I'm a sucker for beer specific glasses.

For my own tasting I want to get this LINK
 
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I'm not a fan of sharing something I love so much in shaker glasses. Something that actually holds head and aromas in instead of letting them escape all willy nilly. That said I love my shakers for display, but I prefer the beer specific glasses, like pilsner glasses, pub glasses, etc. Shakers are great for water, for mixed drinks, tea, etc. And they'll do in a pinch for beer. But I'm a sucker for beer specific glasses.

+1

Personally, I think shaker pints are the absolute worst glassware for serving beer. Head retention sucks, and there is nothing special about the experience. I would opt for virtually any other glassware than shaker pints. The only reason bars use them is that they are very durable and stackable.

I believe the glassware link he sent you is available at Target for $19.99 too.
 
We buy glassware from each brewery we visit. Unfortunately most of them only have shaker pints, but anytime they have imperial pints or tulips we're sure to grab one. That's pretty much all the glassware we have at the moment. I'm looking at getting some vinyl templates made to etch my own set of glasses. There's quite a few threads on here dealing with that. It's quite a bit cheaper than having glasses custom made, there's usually a pretty hefty setup charge for that.
 
Like some of the folks in this thread, I collect brewery glassware and make a point of visiting breweries whenever I travel. Been doing it for over 23 years and have... Well... Too many damn glasses. I keep an assortment of about 75 of my more interesting glasses in a display cabinet in my kitchen and let people chose their own glasses. It's fun... Participatory... And I get to show off my brewing obsession in my glassware obsession. Perfect!
 
I don't buy any of my glassware, but...I DO occasionally get free glassware from pint nights, beer festivals, etc. Enough now that I have a fully-stocked cabinet of various glassware with many different brewery logos on them. Which comes in handy, because when you have several people over, each of them can get a different glass from a different brewery, and then it's easy to tell whose glass belongs to whom. When all your glasses look the same, you inevitably get the "is that you glass, or mine?" problem cropping up.
 
sierra nevada's hop tulip glasses - pint glasses with a hop etched on the bottom, which aides in head retention by speeding up the release of co2.
 
One dollar tulip glasses. That way I don't care if one gets broken after a few drinks.
 
thris thread was timed perfectly. i was just wondering about this
my brother and i have a massive collection of pints, but ive found i'd rather have a smaller and different shaped glass.
i will now read up on style specific glassware.

ps- you guys don't actually freeze your glasses, do you? i hate that.
 
I don't buy any of my glassware, but...I DO occasionally get free glassware from pint nights, beer festivals, etc. Enough now that I have a fully-stocked cabinet of various glassware with many different brewery logos on them. Which comes in handy, because when you have several people over, each of them can get a different glass from a different brewery, and then it's easy to tell whose glass belongs to whom. When all your glasses look the same, you inevitably get the "is that you glass, or mine?" problem cropping up.

There's something to take onto consideration. Unique glasses solve that problem.
 
I don't buy any of my glassware, but...I DO occasionally get free glassware from pint nights, beer festivals, etc. Enough now that I have a fully-stocked cabinet of various glassware with many different brewery logos on them. Which comes in handy, because when you have several people over, each of them can get a different glass from a different brewery, and then it's easy to tell whose glass belongs to whom. When all your glasses look the same, you inevitably get the "is that you glass, or mine?" problem cropping up.
If I'm having a party big enough for this to be a problem, then I put all the glasses away and use plastic cups. That and a sharpie solves the problem too. :)
 
Leadgolem,

That's definitely the upside to having interchangeable and cheap glassware. And I say that truthfully. Some of my glasses are pretty old and/or have some sentimental value attached... or are just plain expensive. Since beer drinkers get to pick their own, I cring once in a while at their selections. I admit that I tend to be slightly OCD about it - made all the worse by my insistence that people drink different beers out of a new glass. Allows me to show off more and helps me keep my collection clean. :) One a year I have a big bash with my fantasy baseball league and I pull all the glasses out and give them all a good cleaning. It's a serious labor of love, but some of them never get used so they need a wash once in a while...
 
My moms hooked up me up with some Kustoms over Christmas last year. Not sure where she got them, but she's not very resourceful and found them online... Nice touch...

Kolsch.jpg
 
We buy glassware from each brewery we visit. Unfortunately most of them only have shaker pints, but anytime they have imperial pints or tulips we're sure to grab one. That's pretty much all the glassware we have at the moment. I'm looking at getting some vinyl templates made to etch my own set of glasses. There's quite a few threads on here dealing with that. It's quite a bit cheaper than having glasses custom made, there's usually a pretty hefty setup charge for that.

I'm finding more and more breweries are making special glasses. There's more profit in them, and they're better for presenting their beer. Who'd want to drink a big barley wine in a shaker?

I have a ton of shakers but I think I only bought two and they were a dollar. Most were giveaways from bars for brewery nights, some were tour promos (everytime you go to heavy seas you get a shaker for tasting), and some were ganked from bars while drunk, but most of the glasses I bought were beer specific, like my tulips, pilsner, etc.

BTW hands down my favorite Brewery glasses (though they're expensive) are Ommegang/Duvel

LINK

Not a single shaker in the bunch. For everyday drinking, the hennepin style is far and away the best, but I love my Ommegang Chalice pour a nice triple or quad in there and you just get a whole face full of esters.
 
I'm finding more and more breweries are making special glasses. There's more profit in them, and they're better for presenting their beer. Who'd want to drink a big barley wine in a shaker?

I have a ton of shakers but I think I only bought two and they were a dollar. Most were giveaways from bars for brewery nights, some were tour promos (everytime you go to heavy seas you get a shaker for tasting), and some were ganked from bars while drunk, but most of the glasses I bought were beer specific, like my tulips, pilsner, etc.

BTW hands down my favorite Brewery glasses (though they're expensive) are Ommegang/Duvel

LINK

Not a single shaker in the bunch. For everyday drinking, the hennepin style is far and away the best, but I love my Ommegang Chalice pour a nice triple or quad in there and you just get a whole face full of esters.

Presentation is what I am going for here. IMO the average drinker will form their opinion of a particular beer by site and smell before they even take a sip. This is why I am concerned about presentation.

My first few batches may suck as i zero in my brewing abilities but maybe I can fool most with a good presentation.
 
I would recommend investing in some plain glasses of different varieties. You can find them out there.

One example is these ones from Bed Bath and Beyond

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=132569

The 16 1/2 belgian will cover all your big beers, you can get the porter/stout as well but I think it's unnecessary since it's basically the same as the belgian. Pilsener is important if you plan on serving those, same thing with the Wheat glass for wheat beers. If you just serving various beers of the ale variety that have no wheat (or at least not a lot) then I think you only would need the belgian and the 20 oz pub

Though I can say you can find some success at the dollar store, I got a really cool wheat glass from there for a buck.

I've read Randy Mosher's book tasting beer and it's pretty awesome. Only thing you want to do aside from have the right glass is have a clean glass. Dirty glasses lead to no head and nucleation points, which aren't pretty. I'm currently experimenting on a way to clean my existing glasses of all junk becuase of 2 things, 1 I cleaned them with Dish soap (before I knew better) and 2 I have hard water (can't wait to make some IPAs) so the way I clean them shows up even worse. I've learned a ton about cleaning beer glassese as of late and intend on taking better care of them in the future.
 
I do the glass-collection thing too, mostly shakers but whatever the brewery/bar sells. Most commoners aren't going to notice the difference between a pilsner served in a pilsner glass and one served in a regular pint glass. So I just let people pick their glass. The smart ones will pick a pilsner glass for a pilsner, etc. I even keep a few 'frosty mugs' (talk about bad glasswear!). If it's beer-geeks, I pick the best glass that will show-off my beer tho.

Like many of you, I find myself cringing when they pick sentimental glasses. I had a Yuengling glass from the brewery for a long time. After it broke, it got super-glued back together and became a pen-holder. It kinda pissed me off. But in hind-sight, losing that glass was a good excuse to take the brewery tour the next trip back to Pennsylvania (I bought 6 more).

btw: Sam Adams had/has some nice glasswear with etching in the bottom and nice curvature. But these are impractical to drink out of, especially for beginners. They are too thin and easily breakable. I, myself refuse to even use my last one because I don't want to break it. That's also a good reason for using shaker/pints... they are tough.
 
I do the glass-collection thing too, mostly shakers but whatever the brewery/bar sells. Most commoners aren't going to notice the difference between a pilsner served in a pilsner glass and one served in a regular pint glass. So I just let people pick their glass. The smart ones will pick a pilsner glass for a pilsner, etc. I even keep a few 'frosty mugs' (talk about bad glasswear!). If it's beer-geeks, I pick the best glass that will show-off my beer tho.

Like many of you, I find myself cringing when they pick sentimental glasses. I had a Yuengling glass from the brewery for a long time. After it broke, it got super-glued back together and became a pen-holder. It kinda pissed me off. But in hind-sight, losing that glass was a good excuse to take the brewery tour the next trip back to Pennsylvania (I bought 6 more).

Not sentimental, but I bought the old slugger pint glass which was super awesome and had a baseball etched into the base of the glass. And it was left in the sink and something went wrong when I picked it up to clean it the bottom just fell off I think something hit it and cracked it. I was super pissed. Didn't think about gluing it back together though, cool heads didn't prevail.
 
It may not be good for beer anymore, but it can sit on the shelf with swizzle stix or pencils.

Yeah I wish I'd thought of that cause I didn't even drink from that glass that often. I collect bottle caps as well so I imagine they'd look pretty cool in that glass.
 
I like mugs. Probably the only thing more traditional than that would be horns but they don't seem to stand up on the table too well.
 
I have way too many glasses, pretty much every different glass for any particular style. I mostly serve out of 6 different style glasses that my cousin bought me for Christmas though because if they break I'm not really concerned. Some of my others are sort of collectable.
 
Not sentimental, but I bought the old slugger pint glass which was super awesome and had a baseball etched into the base of the glass. And it was left in the sink and something went wrong when I picked it up to clean it the bottom just fell off I think something hit it and cracked it. I was super pissed. Didn't think about gluing it back together though, cool heads didn't prevail.

I had Stone's Double Bastard glass (which is also great for sipping Scotch out of) and had the same thing happen. I picked it up out of the dish drainer and the bottom just came right off. I want to get another one, but I'm concerned it will happen again.
 
Just curious, what type of container do you serve your guests' beer in. I have my first batch about to be ready in 3 weeks and plan to have a handful of folks come over for a sampling of my first batch. I'm considering purchasing customized pint glasses with my name and logo. A bit cheezy? What do you think?

Everyone in the neighborhood has dogs and so there are always some flys around. So when we drink outside the beer is served in mugs w/covers that I ordered from the mainland but were made in Germany. Printed on the mugs in German is: In heaven there is no beer, so I drink mine here.

In doors I have some nice glasses from a few brewery's.
 
I could stock a small bar with the number of shaker pints I own. I recently cleared a bunch out of my cupboard and now have a large plastic tote filled with glasses in my basement. I have a lot of various other glassware as well: tulips in various shapes and sizes, snifters, goblets, pilsner glasses, kolsch glasses, imperial pints, liter mugs, a glass boot, Sam Adams perfect pints, DFH curved pints, weizen glasses. I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Most were acquired through Steal the Glass nights, but I like to purchase glasses when I visit breweries as well.
 
Brewery Rule #5:

No Drinking From Plastic Glasses

We have an assortment. When we have a lot of friends over for a brew day, we have lots of traditional pilsner glasses including some small (5 oz) ones. We also have some mugs including one traditional GastHaus 1 Litre one. We also have an assortment of micobrew glasses. My own personal favorite is an English Pub 1 imperial pint glass.
 
I run a small eBay business and run into trays of different beer glasses usually for $1-3 per tray. If you like auction hunting, its been great to me
 
I've never been much of a mug guy - I tend not to buy mugs unless that's the only option when I visit a brewery... And unique beer glasses are... Well... Unique, and so hard to come by. There are definitely more options out there now than in the past, however. At least in the US microbrewery experience.

Here's one of my favorites... A Rastal Teku 2.0 from Three Floyd's. Wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but the rim almost nestles the lower lip when drinking... I mean, it's almost comfortable to drink out of this glass. There's something to be said about that!


image-295132694.jpg
 
Saw the Niners glass so had to take a picture of the new glass I picked up for the game Sunday. RAVENS all the way

image-3920432280.jpg
 
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