From Munich to Milwaukee, when you see heads turn over a shapely, elegant glass of hefeweizen, you’ve just witnessed the true beer experience. While taste and smell capture a lot of attention, the sense of sight is too often cast aside as a mere afterthought when it comes to beer. From striking hues to gravity-defying heads, the visual elements of beer bring an immeasurable joy to the drinking experience, too often ignored in the United States.
We’re keen on efficiency here, ruthless in our pursuit of it, often to the detriment of remarking on the value of details encountered along the way. Perhaps nothing in the beer world symbolizes this ethos better than the so-called shaker pint. With its utilitarian design and absence of flair or character, the shaker pint glass screams efficiency. Once derided by Garrett Oliver as a mere “jam jar,” the shaker pint has flourished and become a mainstay in American pubs, not for its ability to improve the products contained within its lackluster glass walls, but because it stacks evenly on bar shelves. Pouring milk and sugary sodas into these beer glasses, as well as the inevitable stacking scuffs, results in instant death to your favorite beer’s head.
So tedious is the shaker pint’s design that breweries have taken to slapping all manners of logos across them. The shaker’s uninspired design, combined with the emblem army, discourage brewers from actively considering how their beers look to the customer. If the ubiquitous, poorly treated glass is designed to kill your beer’s head or obscure its appearance, then why bother spending time ensuring sufficient protein formation necessary to well-sustained foam? If the customer cannot see foam lacing and does not expect much in the looks department, why work for improvements? The shaker pint has bred a culture of a disappointing level of apathetic indifference in American brewers to the cause of good looking pints.
The situation is so advanced that most American drinkers consider a frothy head to be a complaint worthy problem. Bartenders across the country dare to get lambasted by serving their customers with any semblance of foam. And that is somewhat understand, if entirely lamentable. While technically capable of holding sixteen-ounces of liquid, shaker pints in reality are often “cheater pints,” distinguished by their heavy, thick glass bottoms and barely able to handle fourteen-ounces. When advertised as a pint, bars manage to cheat customers an ounce or two at a time, big money over the course of a couple hundred or thousand kegs a year.
In Belgium, beer presentation is nearly considered an art form. Function and form be damned if a Brussels server takes a few extra minutes to find your beer, choose the matching glassware, present the beer to you, and slowly and methodically pout the proper beer, stopping just short of the finish to allow you to decide if and when to pour the last precious few ounces into your glass. Belgian beer glasses either can handle only three-quarters of the bottle’s contents, requiring you to stop short and give it a second pour, or offer several extra inches of room, so that the head has sufficient room to expand. And the Belgians achieve all of this without cheating you out of the advertised amount you ordered. These same bars also manage to carry several dozen, if not hundreds, of individual brands, each with their own specially designed glassware. Storage problems? Never heard of them.
While it would be great if everyday American bars followed the path blazed by the Belgians, we needn’t run before learning to walk. Bars need only select a half-dozen different glass styles, each with the qualities necessary to present their beers in the best lights, and thus encourage sales with the corresponding head-turns, and match the expectations of their customers for honest pints, tulips, and snifters. And breweries should help by discontinuing the production of the shaker pint and redoubling efforts towards promoting pretty pints. Only when these groups get together will the full beer experience be enjoyed in America.
–Article appeared in Issue 30 of BeerAdvocate Magazine…
26 Responses to “Breweries And Bars Should Kill The Shaker Pint…”
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I agree that shakers, as much because of the thick glass as the shape, do not serve the flavor and aroma many beers well. But having once spent an evening tending bar (for a story) I would argue that they are easy to wash and thus more likely to be “beer clean” than other glasses.
Part of the issue here is volume (by this I mean the volume the pub is moving, not whether you are receiving an “honest pint”). Shaker pints hold down costs. So would you pay more, which probably means a quarter because that’s the way bars work, for the proper glass?
Can you talk the woman next to you into doing the same? And the guy next to her?
Hey Stan and welcome back…
The funny thing is, as I wrote here http://www.beerscribe.com/2009.....-must-die/ , I’m not so sure the Shaker keeps prices down…I think it’s just the way we’ve always done things (in say the last twenty to thirty years) so we keep at it…
Cheers,
Andy
I like the way shacker glasses keep all those unbalanced US IPAs in their place, letting the malt come through. Plus for a Canadian, they are as exotic as any Belgian glass – many of which shapes do not show off their assigned beer so much as they just differentiate themselves from the next Belgian beer glass. Be proud of your national beery traditions, that’s what I say. And who else has a drinking vessel named after an obscure Protestant denomination?
If it’s really good beer,,just bring me a bucket?
This comment was originally posted on Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home
Let me be the first. Yes.
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That’s a tough call to make. If my waitperson told me that I could have a beer in a standard pint glass or for an extra expense I could have it in a glass that better fit the style I’d have to think about it. If the extra cost was like a quarter then perhaps, but if they would charge much more than that then I’d have to say No Thanks.
Most restaurants I’ve seen (with a few exceptions) serve up all beer in the same glass type. Typically the only choice you have is a small glass or a bigger glass.
I’d welcome more establishments to stock better glassware. I realize it would be more difficult for them to do this and it would most likely drive up the price for beer there. I can drink a beer in a non-style glass without much problem. If I want the full experience then I’ll buy some for myself and take it home to my own glassware.
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I’d pay it – sure. But I’m a big beer geek. I suspect I pay more when I go to places that serve me beer in fancy glassware, anyway.
The trick, at the bar level, is to not give your patrons the choice. Get the fancy glassware. Raise your price a quarter. Done.
How long does it take to get the return off of the cost of the actual glassware?
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Alan’s comment is a delightful reminder that, to the visitor, local culture is often beguiling–no matter how much locals hate it.
I’m with Andy on this one, though. Perhaps Alan suggests a solution: the glassware company that can create and popularize a nice-looking, full pint glass (that is to say an, ahem honest pint) of a unique, American design would be doing us a big favor.
At the smaller fairs and beer-fests in Germany, they charge a deposit on the glassware — usually pretty nominal and you get a little token to return with the glass for your refund, not a bad way to go.
Then again, Resi’s Bierstube in Chicago doesn’t allow the Maßkrugen to be served in their beer garden because of “loss,” so we asked if we could bring our own. They said yes, we did!
The other side to this question is that you have to find a place serving better beer to be made better in the proper glassware — not many around me doing that, and the ones that have the better beers, also have the proper glassware.
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Yes.
This comment was originally posted on Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home
I frequently pay extra for a better *experience*, of which decent glassware is just one element. It sends a signal: this is a pub or bar where beer is respected.
Some of the bad glassware we get in the UK is really bad — scratched, almost opaque, and dirty-looking. British pint glasses seem to be more-or-less indestructible, which is why they end up hanging around long enough to get into that state…
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I would probably pay more. I think it is worth it, but feel like the pub should only offer the best glasses. Don’t like the idea I must pay for an upgrade.
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How does the weight of the glass effect aroma & flavor? I understand shape but am in the dark on the weight.
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I should have been more concise. The issue is the thickness of the glass (and thicker is heavier). I don’t know the science (or perhaps voodoo) behind it but thinner is supposed to be better for tasting. Perhaps it is the power of suggestion but that seems to be true for both wine and at least some beers.
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So Stan, is the upshot that warmer beer due to thinner glass gives more flavor and perception of flavor?
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Delightful! I knew that wearing my bow tie when I write it would make for magic. So I will return a compliment. Jeff’s point is entirely correct. The US is big enough and gosh darn clever enough to create its own sensible standard glass – without going to the Moulin Rouge lengths of that Sam Adams thing-a-ma-jiggy glass.
I think Todd is on the money. Personally, I prefer a thicker glass for my beer, assuming I’ve served it at the right temperature. No, I’m not talking the ridiculous goblets they have at Cost Plus, but I have 2 snifters for my beer and I really dislike the ultra thin one.
Would I pay for a better glass? When you go to a place that serves better beer, they usually have something better, and if you ask, they’ll get it for you.
As for the damaged glasses that keep getting served, there’s no reason for that. Pubs and bars are always getting glassware pushed their way from the breweries, it’s free advertising. If you’re too lazy to take advantage, then you deserve to lose business. If you’re still buying pints in those glasses, tell the bartender.
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I’m going with voodoo.
Thinner glass shrinks your head, allowing your head to fit in said glass to get more aroma and flavor.
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I am still not sure, for the most part, that glasses improve the flavour although they may alter the perception of it. The discussion seems to sound a lot lot audiophiles and reminds me of one pal who had various amps rigged up – one for punk, another for thumping bass. I honestly can’t say I have been put off a beer by any clean glass. I had a fantastic brown beer yesterday from the bottle. Three in fact.
Sure, I have my favorites (an apparently discontinued shape of Petrus is most favoured these days) when I want a schnozzful of aroma. But sometimes they confirm that the particular beer in question is just not that aromatic and I could have had more than an acceptable experience with the shaker glass anyway. These can be dangerous waters which may come with signs that say “Warning: the enemy of the great is the excellent”… or maybe the pursuit of the excellent.
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So what ever happened to the cool pewter mugs with glass bottoms? What happened to just pewter mugs period? Bad flavor reality and perception?
The glass or container a beverage is served and consumed from is supposed to affect flavor and perception. Look at the Moscow Mule mugs of old,,,they are heavy copper,,,for flavor and temperature “correctness”.
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Oh, I forgot. Look at the cost of each of these mugs,,pretty pricey. Is cost why pewter ale mugs and Moscow Mule mugs aren’t used for serving now?
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Glassware became more popular when you would actually want to look at your beer. Mugs were a better choice when beer was dark and cloudy.
And ceramic mugs certainly have a following today. Not everybody needs to “study” their beer while drinking.
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I was just at Dark Horse in Michigan and they seem to encourage the use of clay flower vases. I don’t know if I was that attracted by the idea.
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Alan – You know you’ve had enough to drink when you ask if it is OK to wear one home.
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Amen to the end of shaker pints and "steal me" logos.
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I think maybe a compromise is in order. Keep the shaker pint and create special glasses for special beers. I’m of the opinion that the shaker pint glass is a quite good all-around, default beer glass. It works well for most beers. As for it being a head killer, well, I don’t get it. I first read this a week or so ago, then went to a cafe in Belgium. I noticed that not a single beer around me had retained its head as it was drunk, so I’m not so sure the glass is the culprit. I also noticed that the lace left behind was not nearly as nice as what remains on an American pint glass.