Beer glasses

A series of illustrations I did for burrp.com in Oct 2012. 

http://know.burrp.com/drinks-and-nightlife/chug-mugs/44634

Are you bored with the dimpled mugs beer is usually served in? Sandhya Ramachandran suggests beer glasses you should consider trying instead.

 Thistle cup

Perfect for sweet heavy-bodied brown ‘Scotch’ beers, these thistle-shaped glasses compliment the taste. The rounded bottom helps to swirl the beer well and agitate it, releasing an intense aroma. The flared top allows for easy drinking. If you always prided in being a beer connoisseur, refuse to drink from any cups but these.

Tankard

A tankard is a roughly cylindrical cup with a lid and is made of silver, pewter, glass, wood, ceramic or even leather. Stylish, yet full of old-world charm, these vessels have been around for over 2000 years.

Yard of Ale

A yard of ale or yard glass can carry almost 1.4 litres of beer making it the perfect glassware to get you tipsy in a hurry. Originating in England, this yard-long-glass was popular amongst stagecoach drivers and was often used in feasts and to raise a toast. Drinking a yard glass of beer is a popular pub game and, the record time clocked so far is, hold your breath, five seconds. There’s a show we’d like to watch.

Beer Boot

Legend has it that a Prussian General promised his soldiers to drink out of a beer boot if they were successful in battle. When they won the war, the smart General got a glass boot fashioned and drank out of it to keep his word. Some others narrate that during the First World War, German soldiers passed around a leather boot filled with beer as they could not source glasses. Drinking out of a boot became a symbol of luck.

Since then, beer fests around the world have people drinking out of glasses shaped like boots as a challenge. It is made out of manufactured pressed glass or mouth blown glasses.

Kwak

The Pauwel Kwak is an amber ale that has its own branded glass held in an upright wooden stand. It is said that the innkeeper Pauwel himself served coachmen who stopped by his brewery in this glass he designed. The bulb at the bottom stays filled for long and once air reaches the still-bulb, a large amount of beer gushes towards the drinker with a ‘kwak’ sound. Now this is drinking your ale and hearing it too.

Toby Jug

Now this is how we think one should be getting royally drunk. A Toby Jug or Philpot is a pottery jug originally shaped in the form of a seated English King, although these days you might even Fidel Castro or Charles Dickens. Some say that the name originates from a jovial drunk character Sir Toby Belch, from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night while others attribute it to a Yorkshire drinker, Henry Elwes, who was known as ‘Toby Fillpot’ or Philpot. There is an American Toby Jug Museum in Illinois.

So grab the coolest glass you can lay your hands on and redefine fashion when it comes to beer glasses. Chug away, in style, and celebrate the ‘spirit’ of Oktoberfest!

Illustrations: Sandhya Ramachandran