This Is My Blood: Sam '76

Let's take a break from the coronavirus turning your life upside down and talk about THE BEER GLASS.

I am dubious of the fact that different beer glasses make that much of a difference with the taste of a beer. I'm all about pageantry and tradition, so if some weird fucking tankard gives you jollies, then I don't really care if it makes the beer taste better or worse or whatever.

Is there pageantry and tradition behind the typical pint glass? No, not really. This is the glass of choice in most bars simply because it's practical to store a bunch of them by stacking. That's it. Tasting Beer actually calls it "the worse possible beer glass." I don't really care, but let's explore why.

Beers glasses with rims that curve inward do a great job of trapping the aroma of a beer inside the glass (think of a wine glass). Beer glasses with rims that curve outward do a great job of regulating the foam in the glass, and for allowing the beer to touch more of your lips when you drink it. Beer glasses that are wavy (curve in and then curve out), do it all. A pint glass does not curve, and so it does not do itself any favors.

Jim Koch, the trumper we discussed a while ago, seemed to be obsessed with the idea of a "perfect beer glass," and thus took two(?!) years to develop this monstrosity:

I get it. It's easy to hold, it traps aroma, it allows for wide sips, which I guess all adds up to a better drinking experience? But don't you kind of look like an asshole drinking out of it?

To prove to Samuel Adams that I don't care about his fancy fucking glass, I bought a Samuel Adams product and poured it into my favorite beer-drinking receptacle. Check it out:

Pam and I got this at Free Beer Stein Night at the Las Vegas 51's game in 2012 (sidenote: FUCK I miss baseball already), and it has survived multiple rounds of home minimalization. It doesn't add to the experience of tasting a beer by any measure, but I'll argue that it doesn't subtract much either, and shit, man, do I look cool drinking out of this thing.

There are times when Tasting Beer dips into snobbery, and the discussion of beer glasses is one of them. Drink out of your shoe, for all I care.

NOTES

BEER: Sam '76

GENRE: American Lager

ABV: 4.7%

BREWED BY: Boston Beer Company

LOCATION: Jamaica Plain, MA

PURCHASED AT: ABV Beverages

PAIRED WITH: Chicken and red sauce over pasta, but more importantly, TEXAS TOAST

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5

BEER COUNT: 106.5