DiningBuzz! - Samuel Adams Glasses For Samuel Adams Beer

I had a beer in the DFW D Terminal Admirals Club Sunday while waiting out a delay caused by a canceled flight. And to my surprise and pleasure they served my Samuel Adams Boston Lager in one of the brewery's new glasses (http://www.samueladams.com/Promotions/PerfectPint/default.html). It's common for European brewers (especially Belgians) to have custom glassware they've designed to maximize their beer's enjoyment but it's still a rare thing on this side of the pond.

I hadn't heard of any promotional efforts by Boston Beer Co. to get these used in airline clubs but I think their glass design does improve the beer experience over a beer of this style that's served in a standard Shaker pint so I was happy to see it.

By the way, you don't necessarily have to steal these glasses from an Admirals Club if you want some of your own. They're sold on the Sam Adams website (http://estore.samueladams.com/product_details.aspx?item_guid=45f013f8-7d56-4853-8136-cfd1c3ea3a45).

to maximize their beer's enjoyment

That is great marketing. ;)

I'll be on the lookout for the glasses.

A friend of mine received a set of these glasses as a birthday present; they certainly make a world of difference when drinking from them. Included in the set is a detailed description of the "science" behind the making of the glass.

Really cool stuff!!

That is great marketing. ;)

Actually, when Boston Beer Co. first came out with these glasses I and several other writers were invited to do a comparison tasting between the new glass and a standard shaker pint. We all agreed that you really can taste the difference the glass makes.

It's not a big surprise; think of the way you use different glasses for red or white wine. The design of a wine glass is intended to highlight certain characteristics of the wine, so why would the design of a beer glass be any different?

We toured the Sam Adams brewery in Boston a little while back (great tour- I highly recommend it). Learned something interesting there. While some beer glass shapes are "tuned" to specific beer types, to enhance the qualities, a number of the shapes have absolutely nothing to do with the beer- they just look cool, and that's why they were made.

Cheers.

One of my favorite places to drink beer in NYC -- a place at which I often would meet, until I got a new girlfriend (sorry, friend!), a particular highly knowledgeable FTer who, despite his significant contributions to this board, no longer is welcome here -- is Markt, a Belgian restaurant with an all-Belgian beer list on 6th Avenue and 21st Street. They serve each beer in the specific glass chosen by the manufacturer to go with it. I agree that there is a lot of good science to this, but there's also a lot of equally good marketing.

http://www.marktrestaurant.com/pdf/beer.pdf

(I highly recommend the steamed codfish and the "lobster served in the pan" if you go. http://www.marktrestaurant.com/pdf/dinner.pdf)

Boston Beer Co currently uses contract brewing through SABMiller to brew and bottle most of their beers.

If you want to fully maximize the glass make sure you wash it correctly. Odds are when you soap it and put it in a dishwasher, you're going to corrupt the beer's taste. The soap will leave a finish on the glass - since where talking about Belgian beers here, notice how your glasses are cleaned if you get pints at a Belgian brewery!

With all due respect to our Belgian friends, I don't believe the concept of dedicated glassware is at all peculiar to Belgium. For example, I've never had a beer served in anything but a dedicated glass in Germany or Poland (and I've had more than a few), and I seem to recall the same treatment in France and the Netherlands. (Britain does seem to use generic pints, though, don't they?)

All in all, an excellent practice, and kudos to Sam Adams.

Boston Beer Co currently uses contract brewing through SABMiller to brew and bottle most of their beers.It is quite common for smaller brewers and microbrewers to contract out the brewing, bottling and distribution of their beers.


If you want to fully maximize the glass make sure you wash it correctly. Odds are when you soap it and put it in a dishwasher, you're going to corrupt the beer's taste. The soap will leave a finish on the glass - since where talking about Belgian beers here, notice how your glasses are cleaned if you get pints at a Belgian brewery!I believe that in the industry, it's referred to as a "beer clean" glass. A properly cleaned glass will maintain a head much better than one with soap or other residue on it.


With all due respect to our Belgian friends, I don't believe the concept of dedicated glassware is at all peculiar to Belgium.I didn't mean to suggest that it's unique to Belgium. I agree that it's a common practice throughout Europe.

With all due respect to our Belgian friends, I don't believe the concept of dedicated glassware is at all peculiar to Belgium. For example, I've never had a beer served in anything but a dedicated glass in Germany or Poland (and I've had more than a few), and I seem to recall the same treatment in France and the Netherlands. (Britain does seem to use generic pints, though, don't they?)

All in all, an excellent practice, and kudos to Sam Adams.

We (Britain) vary... more and more places serve beer in a glass with the beer name on it, but it's not uncommon to get a Stella in a Grolsch glass, or god forbid, a Peroni in a Fosters glass! Usually the more upmarket the venue the more likely you will get (the correct) branded glass. My OH works in marketing for (SAB) Miller Coors and is desperate the get branded glasses in the US, but apparently bars and restaurants are very reluctant even to give it a try. So she is just trying to promote the Grolsch swing top bottles as much as she can instead!

Boston Beer Co currently uses contract brewing through SABMiller to brew and bottle most of their beers.

If you want to fully maximize the glass make sure you wash it correctly. Odds are when you soap it and put it in a dishwasher, you're going to corrupt the beer's taste. The soap will leave a finish on the glass - since where talking about Belgian beers here, notice how your glasses are cleaned if you get pints at a Belgian brewery!

Actually, Boston Beer Co. has been steadily reducing its contract brewing, most recently by purchasing and renovating the old Rolling Rock brewery in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Combined with expansions at their existing operation in Cincinnati, they now brew the majority of their own beer and are moving toward ending contract brewing altogether in the near term.

Being the Boston Beer Co. they do have a small brewery in Boston with the corporate offices, but it's primarily for R&D and the occasional small-batch specialty beer.

They'd looked at building a big brewery in Massachusetts but it proved most cost-effective to buy and modernize the brewery in Latrobe.

And that's very true about not letting soap near your beer glass. Use hot water and just hot water. I'm not a total purist about this; I've been known to take a soapy sponge to the outside bottom of a beer glass, but it gets nowhere near where any unspilled and drinkable beer would be.

...or god forbid, a Peroni in a Fosters glass!

How to fix this:
1) Look at the glass, then the bartender
2) Slap the bartender and ask "Really?"

Sorry but I was fortunate enough to live abroad for a short while. I came back with a much higher respect for beer. What ever happened to bartenders taking pride in their job?

That being asked, thats why I'm not terribly surprised to see these glasses being used in Admirals Clubs. Ive never had anything but good service in there.

Actually, Boston Beer Co. has been steadily reducing its contract brewing, most recently by purchasing and renovating the old Rolling Rock brewery in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Combined with expansions at their existing operation in Cincinnati, they now brew the majority of their own beer and are moving toward ending contract brewing altogether in the near term.

Being the Boston Beer Co. they do have a small brewery in Boston with the corporate offices, but it's primarily for R&D and the occasional small-batch specialty beer.

They'd looked at building a big brewery in Massachusetts but it proved most cost-effective to buy and modernize the brewery in Latrobe.

Not that I doubted you at all, but your credibility in the beer industry just went up with this post. Either that,or you recently took the tour as well,because this is dead-on accurate :D


And that's very true about not letting soap near your beer glass. Use hot water and just hot water. I'm not a total purist about this; I've been known to take a soapy sponge to the outside bottom of a beer glass, but it gets nowhere near where any unspilled and drinkable beer would be.

The same is true of wine glasses. Hot water rinse and dry with a lint-free cloth.

Cheers.

We all agreed that you really can taste the difference the glass makes.

Cool.

After the first post, this turned into an OMNI thread.

In order to save this thread and tie it in to the other about Corona, I wish they would serve Sam Adams in flight(bud, bud light, that Heineken and amstel just doesn't cut it). what would be really neat is if they served Sam Adams with the special glass inflight

what would be really neat is if they served Sam Adams with the special glass inflight

Sure would be nice...

But what you'll really get is a plastic cup, washed in Madge's Palmolive and dried with a lint infested towel!

Not that I doubted you at all, but your credibility in the beer industry just went up with this post. Either that,or you recently took the tour as well,because this is dead-on accurate :D

Actually, I've never taken their tour in Boston. I have drunk beer with Jim Koch a few times; most recently last fall at a bar in Denver when he came over and asked to join the table I was at so he could watch one of the Red Sox/Rays American League playoff games without blocking anyone else's view of the TV.

But mostly, it's because I'm a reporter whose beat is the brewing industry.

Actually, Boston Beer Co. has been steadily reducing its contract brewing, most recently by purchasing and renovating the old Rolling Rock brewery in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Combined with expansions at their existing operation in Cincinnati, they now brew the majority of their own beer and are moving toward ending contract brewing altogether in the near term.

Being the Boston Beer Co. they do have a small brewery in Boston with the corporate offices, but it's primarily for R&D and the occasional small-batch specialty beer.

They'd looked at building a big brewery in Massachusetts but it proved most cost-effective to buy and modernize the brewery in Latrobe.

And that's very true about not letting soap near your beer glass. Use hot water and just hot water. I'm not a total purist about this; I've been known to take a soapy sponge to the outside bottom of a beer glass, but it gets nowhere near where any unspilled and drinkable beer would be.

Sorry I didn't know how much of what Boston Beer is doing is public knowledge so I didn't want to accidentally put something here that shouldn't be put out in public.

I don't work for a brewing company but I've done some work for brewers. I'm still going to not comment because I like my job!

About the only two beers I find served consistently (or should I say most commonly) in the correct glassware in America are Guinness and Stella Artois. However, in general I've found a surprising amount of bars where I live actually have the correct glassware. I do however, live in a major city.

Moving this to DiningBuzz! at the OP's request.

Salud!! :)

____________________

Cholula
OMNI Co-Moderator

Getting back to the first post...I was given a couple of cases of these glasses to give away with every Sam Adams purchase at one of my stores a couple of months ago.

New Belgium Brewery (distributed by Budweiser around here) just entered the Wisconsin market at the time (still only 22oz bottles, no 6pks), and SABMiller countered by making it worth our while to carry 22oz Sam Adams bottles and giving away the glasses.