Drinkin' vessels

"How do I love thee Beer, Let me count the ways"

There are many ways to consume this wonderful liquid.

Traditional Aussie beer glasses such as the Schooner, locally there's also a middie, a seven, or a 100ml taster from a paddle. Further outside of state is a Pot and all different size Pints, an Imperial and then there's Lady waists, Tankards, Tulips and Steins.

Then there's Growlers and Squealers, jugs, beer bongs, beer towers, yard glass's at a 21st and a half yard for the ladies.

We drink from bottles, throw downs , stubbies and long necks , swingtops, cans and sometimes straight from a beer gun at a keg party.

Caught a friend drinking from a bucket once and another from an esky lid ( don't ask ) and I've even been known to drink beer from a jug through a straw on a pub dancefloor and the bouncer was ok with it.

We can serve from a bottle, a keg tap, a growler or straight from a bright tank. As a home brewer I sometimes drink from a beaker so I can taste before lunch, and look like it's purely for scientific purposes. No mater the vessel, the beer will always be the same, but the experience varies.

Belgium has a different glass for every beer, there's goblets, flutes, tulips and chalices even glasses shaped like a boot or a horn, all designed to accent different characteristics of the beer from foam retention to aroma release. But also as a marketing tool to advertise their special product.

Probably the most recognizable of these is the Guinness pint glass with its engraved harp logo. I have owned a few special beer glasses over the years and even scored some litre steins from a beer tent in Germany one night, only to be charged excess baggage at the airport. Though I don't condone the theft of pub glassware it is sort of expected, and they are 'usually' supplied by the brewery in their advertising budget and not at the bar owners expense.

The Mesopotamians in the 5th century brewed beer in large clay pots and drank through a long krausen piercing straw. So drinking from a jug through a straw on a pub dancefloor is kinda a nod to beer tradition.

Beer straws and flying goats.

I do have a pottery tankard at home with a built in whistle so you can alert your host when your drink needs a refill, a couple touristy steins from my first European trip and an old Pewter from my dad with a glass bottom where you could see his teeth and tonsils as he drank. Pretty scary for a 7 year old. My number one choice of glass now is a Teku, a tulip shaped glass with a beautiful fine stem, designed by a couple of Italian beer 'expert judges' and made by Rastal in Germany. Described as "an equal-opportunity glass as there is not one beer that won't benefit or shine from being served from it"

That's my beer shining in a Teku.

Brew Love. Andrew.