Next Round: The right glass matters

For your next round, let's take a few moments to consider not just the beer you pour into your glass, but the glass that you pour your beer into.

I can tell you that brewers are thinking about it. Most breweries and brewpubs have different glasses for each style of beer they make.

Lately, it's become more likely that in other places of beer worship, such as bars and restaurants, you will be served your brews in a growing assortment of glassware, usually chosen to enhance the enjoyment factor.

Firestone Walker Brewing Co. has begun encouraging restaurants and bars that serve their beers to consider the same glasses used at the Paso Robles, Calif., brewery and Buellton, Calif., tasting room.

"I don't know what happened, but for some reason we adopted the martini shaker glass as the craft beer pint. That glass was never intended to be consumed from. It's straight-sided and captures no aroma," said Matt Brynildson, brewmaster at Firestone Walker Brewing Co., in some notes about glassware he sent for me to experiment with.

He suggested pairing Firestone Walker's Pivo Hoppy Pils with the tall, cylindrical Pivo glass because it helps maintain a head on the beer and keeps bubbles rising from the bottom – something that also delivers aroma.

Firestone Walker's DBA (British Pale Ale) and other ales would be poured into a nonic glass, which has subtle curves and can also have etching on the bottom, as the Pivo does, to prolong bubbling.

Hoppier, boozier and barrel-aged beers are naturals for a tulip-shaped glass because the aromas, captured and concentrated in the bowl of the glass, release as you bring it up to drink.

For the growing menu of wild ales and sour beers, including Firestone Walker's Bretta Weisse, Brynildson recommends the beveled tulip-shaped Teku glass. With that beer and Almanac Beer Co.'s Farmer's Reserve Pluot, the glass funneled the beers' tart smell and put the unique concoctions on a pedestal.

The proper beer glass suggests that the brewer or the bartender considered "the right vessel" to enhance your experience, he says. But looks are important, too, because we also "drink with our eyes," Brynildson says. (You can order the glasses for use at the company web site.)

At a recent visit to one of my favorite restaurants, Matchbox, a fairly new addition to the Washington, D.C., area, I saw Boulevard Tank 7 farmhouse ale poured into a Boulevard Brewery-logoed tulip snifter and Lagunitas IPA served in a special Mason jar glass with a dog's face in bas-relief, the logo on the back and "Beer Speaks" etched into the bottom.

I'd like to see more establishments deploy the IPA glasses that Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. teamed with glass maker Spiegelau to make two years ago. After much prodding from my online beer buddies -- you can follow our weekly beer discussions on Twitter with #beerclub -- I broke down and bought a pair ($16.99 on Amazon.com).

I tested the glass with Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s Lake Erie Monster, a tasty Imperial IPA, and Kona Brewing Co.'s Castaway IPA, as well as Sierra's own Torpedo Extra IPA and Nooner Session IPA -- two beers I'm more familiar with. The surprisingly light glass felt good in the hand and, maybe it was my imagination, but seemed to bring out the best aromas in each ale.

"So much of what we perceive as taste actually comes through our nose," says Dogfish Head founder and president Sam Calagione. "We came together to design a glass that's perfect for enjoying IPAs. It has got a very unique hourglass type of shape with a balloon lip that really intensifies the aromatic experience of hoppy IPAs."

If there isn't an IPA glass handy, Calagione says, "I pretty much put every beer in a stemless red wine glass, because in general what you should be looking for is a glass shape that is wide in the middle and gets closer at top. That is going to capture more of the aromatics of whatever you are drinking, whether it is beer, wine or even spirits."

Stone Brewing Co. CEO and co-founder Greg Koch agrees that the search for a proper glass is worthwhile, to a point . "It just really enhances the experience. Brewers have determined that they feel the glass represents the style, the aromas, the flavor profile and just the look of the beer," he says. "So it's fun to sort of experience it through the brewers' senses, if you will."

But, Koch continues, "if I have just a regular glass to pour it in, well, then I'm pretty happy to do that as well."

Next Round takes a regular look at new and recently released craft beers. If there's one on your radar, or if you have suggestions or questions, contact Mike Snider via e-mail. And follow Snider on Twitter:@MikeSnider