A glass to purchase or not?
The Boston Globe had a recent article titled “With new design, foam follows function“, which is about Boston Beer Company’s recent (February) release of the Samuel Adams Boston Lager Pint Glass. Though a friend of mine dismissed the glass as marketing fluff, and the article does smell of “marketing journalism”, I wanted to hold out hope for the new glass.
Thus began my questioning of “if this new glass is so great, why hasn’t anyone done this before?” (I must be in that “2%” mentioned in the article.) What is so wrong with the pint glass (or the plastic cup in the shape of a pint glass at the ball game) Samuel Adams Boston Lager is normally served in? Hell, the pint glass has been around long enough and has suited everyone else fine. Then with a little searching, I found out the pint glass might not be the ideal serving glass for Samuel Adams Boston Lager.
How did I come to that conclusion? Well there seems to be a little debate about what type of beer Samuel Adams Boston Lager actually is, but two types I came across were Vienna Lager (beeradvocate.com) and European/Bohemian-Style Pilsener (Great American Beer Festival entry 1990, 1998, 1999). With that in mind, I thought I should try Samuel Adams Boston Lager in its proper glass environment.
The “proper glass environment” turns out to be a flute glass, Pilsner glass, or stein. As with most craft beer drinkers, I have a glass collection. Unfortunately I don’t actually have a flute glass, or Pilsner glass. (As you can tell I need to expand my collection, but my first order of business was to get a Tulip and Snifter… and those get plenty of use.) I do have a liter stein glass however. Having already purchased a six pack of Samuel Adams Boston Lager and determined to try the beer in something other then an american pint glass, I poured the brew into my stein and commenced “The Battle of Glass Ware”.
Conclusion, I did notice a difference between the stein and american pint glass. The stein seemed to make the beer a bit smoother (and lifting a liter stein feels a bit cooler too). I’m not really sure the reason (something dealing with the combination of glass mouth circumference, glass thickness, my mouth, and where the beer hit my tongue would be my shot in the dark guess) but this leads me to believe the new Samuel Adams Boston Lager Pint Glass is more then just marketing fluff.
Now I know Ben is rocking the new Samuel Adams Boston Lager Pint Glass (the Beer of the Month Club tastings were done in them and he posted a mini-review) but is anyone else? What are your thoughts? Do you taste a difference with the new glass? Should the Samuel Adams Boston Lager Pint Glass be a glass on the purchase list (along with a Pilsner glass of course)?
Enjoy your beer.
Just had: Festina Peche from Dogfish Head. An interesting beer from the “Neo-” Berliner Weisse style. Be on the look-out for it.
Author: Dave
Categories: Beer News, Sam Adams
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4 Comments »
Dave,
I think it makes a genuine difference with the Boston Lager, which is the point of spending all that money.
It’s versatile and will work with a lot of other styles. Almost anything is better than the shaker glass called a pint glass in bars. They use it because it is heavy duty and can be stacked.
I wrote about all this here:
Is the Sam Adams glass really better?
Yes, I managed to get a CASE full from a Boston Beer representative that came to my restaurant. I’ve been pouring Sam in it ever since. My regular Sam drinkers really like it – I do too. Obviously, the etched bottom is a big plus for me, since it emulates the Belgian glasses, but my favorite part of the glass is the outward turned lip which really directs the beer to your palate.
Thanks for the comments. It definitely sounds like a glass I should purchase. Maybe when I do the brew tour. Further comments by anyone else are always welcome.
[...] since I posted the article about Boston Beer Company’s new glass, one of my first posts on sevenpack, I’ve wanted to write this proceeding post, but first I [...]