Ideal shapes for craft beer styles

How SPIEGELAU Beer Glasses Changed the World

The Spiegelau Craft Beer IPA glass is positioned on the left of the image unfilled with the Spiegelau Beer Classics Tasting Set positioned on the right side of the image filled with their style-specific beer.

Every style of beer has its own balance of characteristics. Besides knowledge on the ingredients and procedures used in the brewing process, the characteristics of appearance, aroma and taste are basic to understanding a beer.

Appearance

A thin and clear glass held against a white background will show some of the most prominent virtues of a beer at a glance: Expect to see the distinctive colour generated from different malts, see the carbonation – those little bubbles created during fermentation – and finally make sure if the beer shows a little haze (as desired for example in a Hefeweizen) or looks clear filtered.

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Discovering beer

The beer tasting wheel helps to identify specific elements in a beer‘s aroma and taste profile.

The volatile aromas tend to be soon on their way out of the glass and the beer. A well designed glass with the appropriate shape and a thin wall and rim helps to underline the characteristics of a given style and offers an optimized tasting experience!

Aroma & Taste

Aroma

The delicate aroma of a great beer is determined by the specific aromas of malted – and sometimes roasted – grains as well as the abundance of noble hop aromas. These can reach from floral and herbal to fruity and are typically accompanied by aromas derived from byproducts of fermentation. If not presented in the right type of glass most of these virtues of a beer are lost.

Taste

A well designed glass will underline the characteristic balance of malty sweetness and hop bitterness that are found on different levels in different beers. The malt will contribute a great deal to the mouthfeel although the right amount of bitterness can enhance the full bodied character. If the beer is sampled from a glass that matches its character it will show how refreshing, fruity or herbal, full bodied or dry it really is.

The Problem

Many mass-produced beer glasses do not only lack elegance, they also ruin the tasting experience: Beers served in these glasses do not fully release their delicate aromas and often taste bland and uninteresting.

A poorly designed glass can also destroy the spritzy refreshing character of a beer and let the head collapse too soon. It is partly due to the wrong choice of beer glasses that many beers are perceived as tasting pretty much the same.

Benefits of the right shape

Two SPIEGELAU Craft Beer Glasses for American Wheat Beer and Witbier on slate trays. The glass in the foreground is filled with Wheat Beer, in the background are potato chips and a blackboard with a beer menu on it.<br/>

Laser cut rim

Crisp, clean delivery in every sip

Mouth opening

Wide mouth allows drinker to nose the beer comfortably for hightened aroma and delivers beer evenly across palate to enhance mouthfeel and harmony of sweetness and acidity

Bowl

Bowed shape amplifies aroma

Thin walls

Maintains proper beer temperature longer

Refresher

The edge aerate beer into and out of the glass to blance flavors as you drink
The with beer filled SPIEGELAU Craft Beer Glasses on a table in front of a blackboard with a menu. The glass for Barrel Aged beer and the Stout glass are standing on a slate plate, the IPA glass and the American Wheat Beer glass next to it on the table.<br/>

The solution

Spiegelau is using its 500 years of experience in producing fine crystal glass to improve the enjoyment of beer drinking.

Spiegelau has developed different beer glass shapes to enjoy the unique characteristics of specific beer styles.

The beer specific glass shape supports the beer in releasing its full spectrum of flavours and delivers them to the nose.

Exquisit raw materials deliver a perfectly smooth and brilliant clear surface.

Thin blown glasses keeps the beer cool and fresh.

Discover the SPIEGELAU beer glasses

SPIEGELAU Craft Beer Glasses SPIEGELAU Beer Classics