The Types Of Beer Glasses That Are Must-Haves For A Home Bar, According To An Expert

If you're the unfussy type of beer drinker, chances are you just crack open a can or bottle and suck it down right from the container it came in. If you want to be slightly fancier, though, you might pour it into a souvenir pint glass you obtained at some festival or other or perhaps got as a freebie with a 12-pack. If, on the other hand, you're the kind of connoisseur who has a dedicated home bar (which is not the same thing as a beer fridge in the garage), then you may wish to stock it with a selection of different beer glasses. If you have no clue where to get started, that's when you turn to a craft beer expert — or have us do it, which we did, you're welcome. The expert in question is Stephen Alexander, who works as the sales and marketing director at Midland, Texas-based Tall City Brewing and serves on the board of directors for the Texas Craft Brewers Guild.

While Alexander admits, "With all the types of glassware out there it can get pretty pricy and take up a lot of space at your home bar," he nevertheless feels that you should have at least four different types on hand. In addition to that all-purpose pint glass (an American pint or shaker glass, he calls it), he recommends obtaining a pilsner glass, a tulip glass, and a beer mug. He does, however, allow that goblets and schooners are unnecessary.

The type of glasses you need may depend on what types of beers you typically consume. If you're a craft beer aficionado but you really only tend to favor one specific style of beer, then you may only need one type of glass from which to drink it. As Alexander notes, certain types of glassware are beer-specific, telling us they "highlight and showcase not only flavor but the aroma of the beer." With that in mind, if you're strictly an ale drinker, you might get by with a tulip glass alone as he says these are suited for all types of ales. The more multi-purpose pilsner glass, however, works with American lagers, Japanese rice lagers, blonde ales, bocks, helles bocks, maibocks, California commons, and witbiers in addition to its eponym.

If your budget or bar space is limited, there are two all-purpose glasses that you can use for just about any kind of beer. The first is that aforementioned pint glass — Alexander says you "can't go wrong" with one of these. For something more fun, though, you could try a mug instead. As Alexander puts it, "Who doesn't like to drink from a glass mug?" What's more, in his expert opinion, "Mugs don't discriminate what beer you have in it."