Photo via @torst_nyc
As more bars and restaurants start to focus on craft beer, glassware is becoming an increasingly important way to stand out and provide a better experience for customers. Whereas in the past it was common for bars to use glassware provided by distributors and breweries, it's now increasingly common for bars to take glassware into their own hands.
Instead of just offering standard strength beers in pint glasses and stronger beers in smaller glasses, more and more leading craft beer places are offering all draft beers in three sizes. At first, it sounds like a pain in the neck, but read on to learn why it's worth it.
Bar Great Harry was one of the first places in my neighborhood to start offering three pour sizes (8oz, 12oz, and 16oz). The result is customers get to try more beers during each visit (just order 8oz if you're not sure), bartenders get more tips (people tip per drink and many more drinks are ordered with smaller pour sizes), and the bar is able to charge more per ounce with the smaller pour sizes. I also go to The Owl Farm more often because it's such a better experience so this approach also gets customers to come back in more often.
In order to provide multiple pour sizes, you need to make sure you have enough glassware for each of the three sizes. If you've been primarily offering the glassware you get from beer distributors and breweries, it may be time to invest in your own glassware to support the additional smaller sizes.
Proletariat, consistently ranked one of the best beer bars in the country, recently started pouring all beers in Teku glasses. Tekus were designed by Rastal in collaboration with Italian brewery Baladin and have received extremely positive feedback. The unique design and popularity among the top breweries in the US has made these extremely popular in bars looking to provide the highest quality beers and glassware. Proletariat's rare and obscure' beers typically come in smaller pour sizes so they are able to fit all beers in Tekus.
Photo via @proletariat
Strong Rope Brewery, one of my favorite new local breweries, is a great example of a place offering multiple pour sizes in high quality glassware. They give you the option to order each beer in 12oz or 16oz Nonic glasses, or a 4oz snifter tasting glass.
Nonic glasses are increasingly popular at the best beer places and are a great replacement for the Shaker pint glass. As you may know, the Shaker pint glass was designed for mixing cocktails, not serving beer. Switching to Nonics is a step in the right direction towards giving beer it's much deserved own glassware.
12oz and 16oz Nonic glasses. 4oz stemmed tasters. Photo via @strongropebrewery
One of the first great beer bars I saw doing this was Churchkey in Washington, DC. They offer any beer in a 4oz pour instead of offering beer flights, which require paddles and lots of pours all at once (which can back up service).
This allows you to charge customers for samples, instead of giving away free samples. It also has all of the same advantages of offering multiple pour sizes: customers get to try more beers during each visit, bartenders get more tips, and the bar is able to charge more per ounce of beer.
These 4oz mini snifters are the perfect glassware for taster pours.
Photo via @churchkeydc
Torst, one of the top rated bars in the World, has taken high quality glassware to a new level by printing their own custom designed glasses. They use all stemmed glassware that are color-coded based on the pour size. To make pouring easier, the geometric shapes on the glasses also help bartenders measure the pours, as the correct pour size goes up to the bottom of the geometric patter on their glasses.
Photo via @torst_nyc.
Snifter.
As mentioned above, these glasses are perfect for 4oz tasters or for beer flights.
Nonic Pint.
A personal favorite. This versatile British-style glass comes in a wide range of sizes. The curved lip near the top redirects aromas towards the center of the glass concentrating and amplifying beer aromas. This glass is a great replacement to the Shaker pint glass.
Available in a range of sizes these can be used for 20oz, 16oz, 12oz, 10oz, or 8oz pours.
Teku from Rastal.
Available in one size that can be used for smaller pours (10oz, 8oz, 6oz, or 4oz pours).
Will Stephens is the Co-Founder of BeerMenus. He's a Certified Cicerone®, regularly proctors Certified Cicerone® exams, is the co-organizer of the Road to Cicerone Q&A series, is a regular homebrewer whose beers frequently pop up on the BeerMenus HQ page, and a huge proponent of dry-hopping cold-brew coffee.