Does the glass matter?

Do you care about what glass you use for your beer? I do and in recent times I have come to drinking most of my beers in a Duvel glass. The main reason is I feel it opens up the flavors of the beer in a way few other glasses do.

As an illustration I recently hosted an Imperial Stout tasting night. We had 6 stouts to try that night. The list was pretty good. We had Great Divide Yeti, Terrapin Wake-n-bake Coffee, Brooklyn Black Chocolate, Bells Expedition, Mikkeller Black Hole and North Coast Old Rasputin. After the initial tasting in the sample glasses one stout was serious lagging in everyone’s mind. The stout was the Yeti. I highly rate the Yeti but even I was surprised by how it tasted.

Since no one was really drinking it I went and grabbed my Duvel glass thinking I would have to finish it off myself. Immediately I noticed a difference in the beer. Suddenly the aroma had gained depth. There was more sweetness. The taste became more balanced and the thick chewy nature of the beer was less obvious. I passed the glass around and without fail everyone said the difference was obvious. While it was still not rated as the favorite of the night at least it wasn’t languishing at the bottom.

Now while the Duvel glass may not be the best choice for every beer it is the one I grab when trying a new beer. If you do not have one I highly recommend getting one. Then get your favorite beer and see if it changes in the Duvel Glass.

~ by alelagerlambic on February 15, 2008.