Glassware
For most ales and pilsners, a standard shaker pint will do just fine, but there are indeed some beer styles that honestly do benefit from the correct type of glass.

Belgian ales, for example, are best enjoyed in a glass with a bulbous bottom that tapers up toward the top, and finishes with a slight flair at the rim. Our Belgian ale glasses allow the drinker to savor both flavors and aromas, from start to finish. The glass is constructed in this particular shape in order to keep the drinker’s nose close to the beer at all times, so that every last element can be taken in and enjoyed.

If weiss beers are more your fancy, you’ll benefit from a tall, slender glass that accommodates all of that fluffy, frothy head that’s typical of the style. Just do me (and yourself) a favor and skip the orange slice, ok?

The most important thing to remember about beer glassware, though, is to be sure it’s beer clean. If you value the head on your beer and prefer to make sure it pours and tastes right, make sure its beer clean, above all else.

Temperature
Each style of beer has an optimum serving temperature. I know that many people out there really only dig a refreshingly fridge-cold beer but honestly, unless you’re drinking some run-of-the-mill macro brew you don’t want your beer to be wicked cold.

Actually, one of the reasons that big breweries, like Coors, push drinking their beer so very cold (32-39°F) is because, if you drank it at a proper temperature for the style, you’d most likely be very disappointed. The truth is, cold inhibits taste receptors and the big boys know it. So if you’re a craft beer drinker, like me, follow these tips:

39-45°F is best for hefeweizens, premium lagers, pilsners, fruity beers, golden ales, weissbiers, Belgian whites and sweetened lambics.

45-54°F is the optimum temperature for American pale ales, amber/red ales, hefeweizen dunkels, stouts, porters, Belgian ales, schwarzbiers, Irish ales, unsweetened lambics and helles bocks.

54-57°F, also known as "cellar" temperature, works best for bitters, brown ales, IPAs, English pale ales, saisons, sour ales, biere de garde, Belgian strong ales, dubbels, bocks, Scottish ales, scotch ales and Baltic porters.

57-61°F is the temperature range that’s best for barleywines, qradrupels, imperial stouts and IPAs, doppelbocks and meads.

There you have it. Hopefully this glassware and temperature guide will help you enjoy each and every brew more that you did before.

Cheers!

TAGS [ BEER GUIDE | BEER SERVING | BEER TEMPERATURE | BEER GLASSES | BEER TASTING ]