Getting the most out of your beer drinking experience seems like something that all craft beer aficionados would gladly embrace. I mean, what is the point of opening a bottle of Trappist Westvleteren XII and just drinking it straight from the bottle? You just wouldn’t do it.
The point is, proper glassware is essential when imbibing on the myriad styles of brew out there in order to fully appreciate the subtle nuances of the particular style that you’re drinking.
American IPA’s have seized a fair amount of the craft beer lover’s attention, and up until now, these minions of the style have had to endure consuming these hoppy bad boys from a generic pint glass.
But no more.
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. have teamed-up to bring the craft beer world an appropriate vessel from which to drink your beloved hop-forward brew from!
These two breweries hooked up with Spiegelau USA in order to produce the IPA glass pictured. The funky design is actually quite easy to get used to, especially after experiencing the benefits of this glass. The unique ridges function to aerate the beer as it exits the glass while the tapering, narrow shape assists in amplifying hop aromas and focusing them right at your nose. There is also a laser-etched logo on the bottom of the glass which aids in sustaining carbonation and head retention.
Two bottles of Pliny the Elder were the sacrificial lambs for Blog About Beer’s experiment, which would pit a standard pint glass against this exotic new piece of glass!
The new glass is advertised as having a 19oz. capacity so it takes a bit to fill it up. Right away it is obvious that this glass really does a wonderful job at showcasing the aroma! The design allows the drinkers to really get their nose in the glass and smell all of the subtleties which are present in the beer. The flavor of the beer is consistent with the Pliny I have had in the past, but it’s the intense aroma that really calls out to be noticed.
We have all had brew out of a pint glass so there is not much to report in that area. There is less head in this glass, but the biggest difference is that Pliny’s huge citrus hop notes in the aroma are way more muted in the pint glass.
The flavor is still essentially the same in both vessels, but with the new IPA glass the aroma of the beer benefits greatly from both the wide mouth for nosing the beer, and the ridges that allow the beer to aerate as it cascades from the bottom of the glass onto the palette of happy consumers.
So get the most out of your IPA!
Get your own IPA glass on Amazon here.
Have any of you tried the IPA glass? If so, what are your thoughts?
