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In the name of Beer
For a wine lover, everybody knows that the most important things are the glass shape and size to appreciate aroma and flavor.
Now the same things are starting to be important for well-educated beer drinkers, changing the taste and smell of beer.
In top of beer consumers are the Belgians. They even exceed Germans and Czechs. In Belgium that is a small country in size and population hundreds of craft breweries survives and competes with one of the largest brewery organizations of the world Interbrew. In this beer-loving nation, many breweries commission glass designers to cerate glasses that coax the best from the beer. If you enter in a Belgian pub you will encounter several distinct glasses. Each beer is served in its proper glass for you appreciate it at its best.
For example, Stella Artois, a very well-known beer all over the world brewed by Interbrew, tastes better when served in a chalice with a narrow opening to concentrate its distinctive hoppey aroma, and helps keep the dense creamy white head to hold for a long time. The beer smells much better in this glass than in a regular tumbler.
Wheat beers taste better when served in a thick, clear tumbler. The thicknesses of the walls keep the beer cold for a long time.
When the weather gets warm or hot there is not better thirst quencher than a fine wheat beer laced with a splash of raspberry syrup or woodruff. Belgian wheat beers are also flavoured with coriander and orange peel for an extra taste dimension.
Abbey Beers are very popular in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy and they are generally ales. Most exude fine hoppy aromas and possess a refined full body. Many are bottle conditioned and throw sediment. For Abbey Beer, chalice glasses with wide openings are recommended. This shape allows for the bouquet to fully develop and for the liquid to flow easily into the mouth.
Lager beers in general taste fine served in narrow, tulip-shaped glasses holding 300 – 400 ml of liquid.
Ales, the particularly British beers, taste fine in tumbler-shaped glasses holding 350 – 450 ml of liquid. British generally like to drink their beers with very little head thus the shape of the glass! They are also not fond of excessive carbon dioxide in their beers. All beer glasses must be impeccably clean and free of any grease.
It is also important to serve beer at an appropriate temperature of 6 - 8 C for lagers, 13- 15C for ales. Beer is sensitive to sunshine and in German beer gardens; beer is served in steins with a lid. Steins are thick earthenware contains that keep beer cold for a long time and it can fit 500ml to 1 Liter of liquid.
If you want to appreciate beer at its best, buy beer in bottles, keep it refrigerated all the time, rest if at least for three days after purchase, and use the appropriate glass. You will be pleasantly surprised by the depth of flavor of your beer, increase of pleasant aromas and enjoy it so much more.
[Author]
Alexandra Popa