You can enjoy any beer straight from the bottle and be happy. A true beer connoisseur knows that to fully enjoy beer’s flavor profiles, it’s best to keep three things in mind:
- Proper temperature for serving beer
- The correct pouring of beer
- Most appropriate beer glass
Well, we just want you to have the best beer experience possible and with these three elements covered, your beer experience will be unparalleled. We are sure that once you taste your favorite beer in this way there will be no going back.
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Don’t you believe us? Do your own experiment. Take your favorite beer and drink it straight from the bottle, then try serving it according to the serving suggestions below. We think you’ll see a big difference in how the flavors and aromas of the beer are presented. The hops will be more hoppy and the malts more malty and that’s not what we all want.
Proper temperature for serving beer:
When it comes to beer temperature, the common belief is «the colder the better.»
This is not always good advice. Beers served too cold can numb the tongue and deaden the taste buds to the delicious flavors within.
Letting a beer warm up a bit can unlock the flavors and bring to life the character of a well-brewed beer.
The temperature at which you serve different beers is often a matter of personal taste, but if you’re looking for guidance, here are some serving suggestions that can bring out the individuality of certain types of beer.
Frozen: (35-40°F or 2-4℃)
American Adjunct Lagers (also known as macro beers)
Ales Cream
Low alcohol beers
Very cold: (40-45°F or 4-7℃)
belgian witbier
Berliner Weissbier
Hefeweizen
Kolsch
light lagers
Pilsner
wheat ale
Cold: (45-50°F or 7-10℃)
Altbiers
Amber/Red Lagers
APA (American Pale Ale)
IPA (Indian Pale Ale)
Porters (American and English)
stouts
Cellar: (50-55°F or 10-13℃)
Baltic Porters
belgian ales
bocks
bitter english
Lambic / Gueuze
Scotch Ales / Wee Heavies
Sour/Wild Ales
strong ales
Trappist Ale
Warm: (55-60°F or 13-16℃)
barley wines
Belgian quadruplets
Strong Belgian Ales
doppelbocks
Double IPAs / Imperials
Double/Imperial Stouts
old ales
The perfect beer to pour:
We thought the best would be a visualization of how to pour the perfect beer.
Using the right beer glassware:
There are 3 basic types of beer glasses:
- big and wide
- small and round
- long and narrow
Each group has a variety of glasses inside and they are designed with specific features in mind.
Let’s start big and big. Yes, we know that sounds redundant, but it really is the best way to describe them.
Large and large beer glasses
The American pint glass or shaker glass that holds 16 ounces and is completely smooth.
English pint glasses called imperial or nonic glasses that hold 20 ounces. These cups have a little bulge near the top that makes them a little easier to grip.
These types of glasses are standard pub and restaurant favorites because they’re cheap, easy to clean, and stackable, but they don’t really do much in the way of enhancing the flavor of your beer.
The beer mug or Stein:
You know about these huge Oktoberfest mugs if you’ve ever been or even seen a picture of the Beer Maids having to carry these big, heavy mugs, but that’s exactly why people like them.
They contain a large amount of beer normally around 1 litre.
These mugs are best for beers that are served very cold, cold, and fresh because the handle prevents your hand from heating up the beer.
Small round beer glasses
Tulips, cups, cups and calyxes:
Yes, we know they all look fancy and make you feel like we’re turning your precious beer into wine again, but these glasses are really great for beers with strong malt or hop profiles.
They will take your beer and make it even more precious. Give it a twist and as your beer moves, the bowl shape of the glass concentrates the aroma and enhances the flavours.
These glasses are best used with Belgian-style beers and high-alcohol beers, such as Barleywines or Russian Imperial Stouts, because they’re best drunk in small amounts so you can enjoy the beer without falling halfway.
Long and narrow beer glasses
flute cup:
These long, narrow glasses are used for champagne because their shape enhances carbonation and when you drink, the nose is also directed inward and the aromatics are directed directly at you. Try these types of glasses with Champagne-style or heavily carbonated beers, as well as lambics and crisp fruit beers.
Weizen Glass:
Made for wheat beers, Weizen glasses start out narrow at the bottom, which brings out the beers color, and get rounder at the top. The carp helps to retain that large amount of fluffy white head that is characteristic of wheat beers.
Pilsner Glass:
Similar in size to a Weizen glass, but the narrow part leads to a wide mouth instead of a round, bulbous top. Like Weizen glasses, Pilsener glasses are designed to help you take big gulps to quench your thirst. While they work great with Pilseners, hence the name for other light beers that are also great like Helles, Vienna, or Dortmunders.