The interest in the beer industry in developing new glassware designed specifically for the enjoyment of beer is an exciting advance. Some may have seen it as a conceit, that brewers shouldn't adopt the wine industry's demand for proper glassware.
That may have been a more valid point in the past, beer was meant to be drank from a bottle or a can, and that's the way we liked it.
But as consumers begin to develop greater interest in investigating the inherent qualities of beer-it's aromas, the different flavors created by hops, yeast and malt (and now spices) the relative turbidity and color-and the variety of beers now available, a proper glass is just what the brewer ordered.
In fact, rather than the brewing industry adopting wine culture, proper glassware is a brewing throwback. There is a reason the denizens of Cologne enjoy their thin-walled 50 centiliter glasses. Those Bavarian masses have their place. Belgium, of course, has always had a great variety of glassware to enjoy its draught.
However you quaff your pint, just make sure it's beer-clean.
