The Glasses You Should Never Serve IPAs In

Tilting your head back and drinking beer out of the bottle is a great way to down a frosty brew on a hot day. But when you really want to appreciate a good beer, the right glass brings out the best of it while the wrong one will dampen its potential. Chris Cusack, level one sommelier, cicerone (beer sommelier), and owner of Houston's Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, spoke with The Takeout about the best and worst glasses when it comes to IPAs.

Cusack gave a thumbs-down to two common beer glasses. "Pints and mugs are fine for a quick pour, but they do nothing to highlight what makes an IPA good. Too open, too wide, they lose aroma fast," Cusack told The Takeout. "Steins are worse — thick glass insulates the beer too much and dulls your senses." Pints and mugs don't actually do much to enhance any beer's flavor (not just IPAs), but mugs and glass steins, with their thick walls and side handle, will do the job well when keeping your beer cold is a priority.

Cusack also rejected other beer glass styles for IPAs: "I'd skip weizen glasses or anything oversized and narrow — wrong vibe, wrong delivery." Weizen glasses are tall, curvy glasses meant for wheat beers which have a narrow base that comes in before flaring out wide and curving back in at the top. The shape helps develop wheat beers' characteristically frothy head while the curved-in top captures the flavor-enhancing aroma.

Tulip glasses are at the top of Chris Cusack's list of his go-to glass for IPAs. "Tulip glasses trap aroma and give you a better sense of the hop profile — you're smelling it while you sip it, which is kind of the whole point with IPAs," he said. "The flare at the top also helps with head retention, which releases more of those citrusy, piney, tropical notes." Tulip glasses have a bowl bottom, short stem, and subtle flare at the top. The shape enhances the iconic, hoppy taste of IPAs, which comes from the beer-flavoring flowers of hops.

Cusack said he'll also use a Teku glass, an angular version of a tulip with a stem not unlike a wine glass. He continued by saying, "A simple nucleated shaker glass will do, but it's not ideal." Nucleated glasses are etched on the bottom to help beer carbonate quicker, creating more bubbles for a better head.

The ideal beer and glass pairing will enhance its flavor, but any glass has the edge over a straight bottle or can. Glasses let a beer's aromas release more thoroughly instead of getting trapped inside. They also give you the experience of drinking through a foamy head, which you can practice to perfection with several pouring techniques. There is one beer glass rule you should always follow: Put down the beer if it's being served in a frosted glass.