Samuel Adams brewer Jim Koch wants you to try the Perfect Pint. (
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Tasting craft beer at its source — especially after a tour of its preparation — is like trying it for the first time. And many brewers all over the US are ramping up this experience by pairing your favorite beer with a glass that perfectly showcases its best assets: look, aroma, taste. The right glass is a combination of ideal height, diameter and shape to showcase the good stuff.
Today, the first IPA-specific glasses, created by German glassmaker Spiegelau in collaboration with Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head, are being unveiled at both breweries. (India Pale Ale, first brewed in England in the 1700s to send to troops in India, is leading our craft beer craze.) Tomorrow, they’ll be featured at a lunch at NYC’s Eataly, full of Rhizing Bines Imperial IPA, a brew by Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head. Come April, these glasses — which Spiegelau describes as the HD version of a beer glass — will be sold online and at Bloomingdale’s ($24.90 for two).
But again, there’s nothing like drinking beer at the source. Whatever you fancy, here’s a brewery — and a glass — that will turn you off generic pint glasses for good.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
1075 E. 20th St., Chico, Calif., sierranevada.com
“Years and years ago, in travels through places with a long history of specific glassware, I learned that the look and feel of a glass enhances the taste and flavor complexity of beer,” says Ken Grossman, who founded Sierra Nevada in 1979. “Most people are receptive. They use the traditional shaker glass because of familiarity, but they turn quickly.”
After the 75-minute brewery tour, including tasting in mini glasses, go to the adjacent Taproom and Restaurant for a full-size experience.
Try one of 19 beers on tap, and note that they’re sticklers for proper cleaning. A properly cleaned glass, says Grossman, means beer foam will adhere nicely to the glass. That improves the drinking experience.
Tour info: Free. Daily, starting at 11 a.m. Register at gift shop.
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
6 Cannery Village Center, Milton, Del., dogfish.com
“Beer styles with complementary glasses wasn’t really explored here until recently,” says Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head. “But in the same way we convinced consumers to think beyond the light lager juggernaut, beer lovers will be evangelists and turn others on.”
Tour the brewery to see production of beers like their popular 90 Minute IPA, which refers to the continual adding of hops. Tastings follow, but the most complete drinking opportunity — more than 20 options on tap, all served in the right glass — happens at Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats (320 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach, Del.), where there’s also a full food menu and an on-site experimental brewery (special brews! exclusives!).
“Small breweries exploded the diversity in beer, now diversity of glassware is catching up,” says Calagione, who will be touring the country, giving out thousands of new IPA glasses to start spreading the word.
Tour info: Free. Schedule varies. Reserve online or 888-8DOGFISH.
Widmer Brothers Brewery
929 N. Russell St., Portland, Ore., widmerbrothers.com
Widmer Brothers Brewery tastings take place in their next-door Gasthaus Pub after a tour. They usually have more than a dozen beers on tap, and since 2009 have been pouring each into the most appropriate of the glass types in house. Their Hefeweizen (Pale Wheat Ale) has been served in its own glass since 1986.
“We don’t want to make beer precious or complicated, but we’ve always felt pretty strongly that beer should be served in a glass,” says Kurt Widmer, one of the two owner/brewer brothers. “Do you just pass a wine bottle around? It’s the same thing.”
Widmer admits that even friends roll their eyes when he dissuades them from bottle-imbibing, but those who take his advice agree that seeing the head and experiencing the full aroma enhances the beer.
Tour info: Free. Friday to Sunday, times vary. Reserve by calling 503-281-2437, ext. 7201.
Yazoo Brewing Co.
910 Division St., Nashville, Tenn., yazoobrew.com
Former Brooklyn Brewery intern Linus Hall started selling his Yazoo Brewing beers in 2003, but it was last year when he really got into matching glassware. “We did a big group tasting with a lot of our regulars. Everyone was really impressed by how the right glass improved the flavor of our beers,” says the brewmaster. “It’s pretty remarkable.”
Now he cannot imagine one without the other. “It’s a big part of enjoying the beer.”
Tours are on Saturdays, followed by tastings in the adjacent Tap Room.
You can check out Yazoo beers there Wednesdays to Fridays, too. And you will have company. This is a popular place to be in Nashville.
Tour info: $7. Kids free. Saturdays. Times vary. Reserve online or in person.
Samuel Adams
30 Germania St., Boston, Mass., samueladams.com
Typically, says Jim Koch, founder and brewer of Samuel Adams, beer glasses have been designed by marketing people. Think frat-boy-proof (cheap, durable, stackable) pint glasses with logos slapped on. Nearly a decade ago, however, after tasting his beer in dozens of different-shaped glasses, Koch enlisted sensory scientists and materials engineers to help him create the Boston Lager Pint Glass (a k a the Perfect Pint).
Shaker glasses work, says Koch, “but this [glass] makes the beer a little bit better; and as a brewer, if I can give a little bit better, I’m going to do it.”
Though it was another glassmaker — Rastal — who built the curvy Perfect Pint, after its release Riedel developed something, too. The result — a limited-edition designed for the brewery’s high-alcohol (30 percent) specialty Utopias, which Koch jokes is on “the lunatic fringe of brewing.”
For the more sane, after a 45-minute tour and tasting, head to historic Doyle’s Cafe (3484 Washington St., Jamaica Plain, Mass., doylescafeboston.com) — the first bar to serve Sam Adams on tap. Doyle’s offers trolley rides to and from the brewery. Either way, show your tour ticket, order a Sam, and the bar will send you home with your own Perfect Pint.
Tour info: Free. Monday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. Register upon arrival.