Opening a new can of worms.

Today I got a new delivery of beers which I'm pretty excited about. They have come all the way from Maui, Hawaii. I've got an American IPA called "Big Swell" and a porter with toasted coconut called "CoConut Porter" (the weather is probably too hot to be creative). I got them via Mikkeller in Denmark, and felt I had to bring them to Estonia - 1) because they are pretty great beers, and 2) because there really couldn't be two opposing climates to drink beer in. It's currently raining in Tallinn, but lets hope these tropical beers let a bit of sunshine into our Baltic summer.

I almost didn't order them. In truth, I'm still a bit nervous that I did. Ok, I've only got 15 cases of each, but what makes me nervous is that I might not even be able to sell this small amount. "Why?" I hear you ask. "But you said they were great beers?" I hear you cry.  "Because they are in cans" I mutter in a casual back handed, slightly sheepish sort of way.

Beer in cans - that's cheap beer to you and me isn't it? We've all been conditioned into thinking that cans are commodity and glass is premium. I mean - you don't look as cool drinking a Corona out of the can at the local "venue" bar do you? And I've got to admit, when I saw that the Maui beers were available, and then looked at the packaging column on the excel spreadsheet and saw "355ml Can", my heart sank. I really wanted this beer. Estonia really wanted this beer. But does Estonia know anything about quality beers in cans? I thought back to the last beers I had in cans, and fortunately, they were from the Oliver Twist bar in Stockholm - the leading supplier/stockist of craft American beer. Dales Pale ale, Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi, New Belgium to name but a few. When I was in the UK, I was very partial to Bass pale ale in cans - which was specially brewed with more hops for the canned version.  So I took the plunge and ordered some. After all, I had the same feelings when I placed my first order for Brewdog....


Revolution is a word Brewdog are fond of. They are revolutionising the beer market as we know it with "out there" beers, and styles that differ from the norm. On the cans by Maui Brewing, they use the word revolution too. Here's what's written for you to read.....


WHY CANS? WELCOME TO THE MICROCANNING REVOLUTION...
Cans eliminate light damage and help reduce the risk of oxidation, keeping this craft brew fresher than in bottles!
Cans are lighter, chill quicker, and can be enjoyed on beaches and in sensitive environments. Aluminium is the most re-cycled and eco-friendly material.


The "Metallic" Myth.

Bottles are fine, I guess, if only because so many beers I love come only in bottles. But the thing that matters most—taste—doesn't change a bit in a can.

The next time someone says canned beer tastes "metallic", cut a can in half and ask him to show you where the metal ever actually touches the beer. Then he'll point at the inside of the gleaming can and say, "Right there geek. I'm guessing all the metal."

What your friend is missing is the epoxy lining that is sprayed on the inside of every can, the same stuff that has been used for about 40 years.

Keg beer.

Think about the new wave of craft draught beer. That comes in a keg, right? A big, metal keg that is lined with the same type of coating as your humble little can. In fact, back in the '30s American brewers started selling beers in cans they advertised it as "keg-lined."  It took a little longer in the UK, as the market was still dominated by cask, but in the late 70's early80's, Watneys brought out a 7 pint keg, and it was swiftly followed by a glut of canned beer.

Is it possible that canned beer tastes better than bottled beer? Well, sure, depending on circumstances.  But that's often because of the way beer is transported from the brewery to the store. Light will accelerate the oxidation of beer—that's why most brewers use brown bottles, not green—but it's not the only way a beer develops off flavors like that of the aldehyde trans-2-nonenal, which can make light-colored beers off - a little skunky, and in some cases a bit like lipstick (don't tell your wife/girlfriend/partner that she tastes like stale beer next time you are in the throws of passion. I don't think she'll see the geeky side).

Heat's actually just as big a factor. If your beer stays refrigerated from the brewery to the bar or shop, without sitting on a shelf somewhere at room temperature, everything should be great. But of course that is in the make believe world. It rarely happens in real life. This is all worth bearing in mind that a canned beer won't be subject to light oxidation like a bottle beer would.

Of course it doesn't really matter if it's a generic lager, or lesser hopped ale. But those who have read my previous blogs, know that hops don't like sunlight once they are in the beer. This is why IPA's - especially heavily dry hopped beers, are in dark bottles. The sun makes the essential oils in the hops break up and give off bad aromas. Fine for a beer like Corona or Sol with very little hops (think about the colour of these bottles), but very bad for an IPA, especially an American IPA which is packed full of the plant.

Green - but not green glass.

Canned beer's benefits don't stop at freshness. Cans are easier on the environment. They are nearly 50 percent lighter to ship than bottles, which greatly reduces their carbon footprint.  Aluminum is infinitely recyclable, and recycled cans can be back on the shelf with new product within eight weeks. 

It's easier to store and transport.

Got some friends coming over for a bbq? They'll be drinking beer of course. Lots of it. Better stock the fridge to the max. How many times have you played Jenga with your beer bottles? Trying to stack them in the fridge without them rolling around, is a skill in itself. With cans, you don't have that problem. 6 pack or 4 pack, you just slide them in. Being in aluminium chills them down faster than glass too. And although I don't advocate ice cold beer, the quicker it is to cool an IPA down to 12 degrees the better.

Going into the forest with some mates? Don't fancy glass rolling around the boot of your car or backpack? Cans are safer. Going down the beach with the guys and girls - don't want to run the risk of dropping some glass bottles on the rocks? Take some cans. At least, if you drop them - you can probably salvage a few drops, or at the very lowest, enjoy spraying beer over everyone.

So I've got to admit, I have a changed viewpoint. As I said right at the beginning, I thought of the great beers I tried in can, and used these to sway my decision to bring them to Estonia. But up until then - those beers have always been "novelty beers". Beers that are "great beers but in a can".  I spoke to one of the guys at Oliver Twist and they told me that they tried New Belgium Fat Tire amber, side by side in both bottle and can. The can won hands down. It tasted fresher, more creamier and had a much more roasted pallet than it's bottle counterpart. Punk IPA is available in cans. Who knows - if I get good feedback about these beers, then I can really join the "microcanning" revolution and bring Brewdog in metal over to Estonia.

So put the thought about canned craft beer being blasphemous to one side and try these two new beers that are available to you. You'll also have to leave the "canned beer is cheaper" mindset behind too, as these beers are the same price as craft beer in bottles. Buy them with an open mind - thinking about how much fresher they may be. How quicker you'll be able to drink them at the right temperature, and how they won't smash into a million pieces when you drop the bag onto the road on the way home. Maybe even find the geek in you, and serve them to someone in a glass without telling them that the beer came from a can. (Important note - just because these beers are in a can, doesn't mean that you can drink it from the can. These beers are full of wonderful aromas and freshness - you absolutely must pour them into a glass).

Whatever you do, this is about breaking new ground in beer drinking, and it's nice to be a part of it isn't it? Now that's something I CAN relate to. (I'll get my coat. And my backpack complete with 6 pack).

The glass is always cleaner on the other side...

I went to a pub the other day, ordered a draught beer and it was served to me in a Weston's cider glass.  Now, there's two things wrong with this. The cider glass has something called an "activator" on the bottom of it which enhances the gas in the liquid (more on this later). Basically, it makes it more fizzy. Unfortunately, I'd ordered a pint of Abbot ale - which isn't meant to be fizzy. The second thing wrong, is that it just didn't look right. I like my beer to be served in it's own branded glass.

Its a bit like sticking a Citroen badge on VW. You know it's a VW, but it doesn't look right, and the car would perform so much better with its correct badge on the bonnet.

Glasses are designed to increase or enhance the performance of your drink. Take a wheat beer glass for example. Tall, 50cl, narrow at the bottom widening at the top. It looks nice, but this design has a purpose. The width allows for the aroma to be channelled towards the drinkers nose, and also accommodates the thick fluffy head that wheat beers have.

In the UK, until the end of the Victorian era, pub-goers mostly drank out of pewter tankards, which hid the bits of sediment that used to float around in their beer. Then two things happened: dark pubs began to be better lit, and modern filtration methods started to produce a clearer drink. As newly enlightened drinkers took more notice of the clarity of their pint, the modern beer glass was born.

The first mass-produced beer glass – the 10-sided, handled pint mug – arrived in the 1920s.

                         An advert showing a typical 10 sided handled glass
                                 

After the war, it was replaced by the dimpled beer mug which was cheaper to make, made of thick glass patterned with indentations, oddly resembling a hand grenade. This design change fitted in with changing drinking habits: dark beer had acquired an unfashionable image as an old working-class man's drink, and its substitute, amber bitter, looked lovely in the refracted light of a dimpled glass.


Then, in the 1960s, the dimpled mug went into a long, terminal decline because (or so the brewers told us) drinkers preferred a lighter, straighter glass. The invention of a new type of glass, with a bulge about an inch from the top, also solved the perennial problem of straight glasses – their tendency to chip near the rim when being washed together. The bulge prevented this from happening, and the glass was called a "Nonik" (no nick) glass.

The UK only really produces two types of beer: Lager and ale. These can be served in the same type of glass. It's when you go to continental Europe, that you'll see the different types of glasses really coming into play. Belgium is a great example.

I was in Bruges a couple of years ago and walked into a tiny little bar. This bar boasted over 200 different beers - I've no idea where they put them all. I ordered a beer, and is customary in Belgium, it arrived in it's correct branded glass. That got me thinking about their storage problem. Not only do they need space to store the beer, but also (if they have glasses for each beer) all the glassware too. So I did a test. The first beer I ordered was pretty mainstream - big brewers have money to spend on glasses. The second beer I ordered, I chose a much smaller brewery from the list, and sat back to see what glass it arrived in. Lo and behold, the glass matched the beer (it was a "De Graal Tripel in case you are wondering). The next beer I had, was a "Satan Red", which also arrived in it's own glass. I was suprised about this, not because I didn't think that the glass would be available, but suprised because THEY had any available. The problem with interesting glasses, is that they get stolen.

The iconic glass from Kwak is the worlds most stolen beer glass. The glass is distinctive because it stands upright in its own wooden holder. Legend has it, that this glass was used by a 19th century coach house, and that the wooden holder was designed to fit into the stirrups of the drinkers horse so that he could drink on the move. No such thing as drink driving laws back then.

The second most stolen glass in the world is also produced by the same brewery - the Tripel Karmeliet glass is a wonderful looking item, but once again it's designed with practical intentions. It's tapered at the top to allow a big creamy head. The only thing unpractical about it, is trying to sneek it into your wife's handbag when no one is looking (although seeing as it's a very popular glass to steal - it can't be that difficult).

I actually don't serve either of these beers at Drink Bar. While they are very good beers, whoever drinks them always wants the correct glass. As I've said, these are the two most stolen glasses in the world, so I think that if I did start stocking both the beer, and the glasses, in a short space of time I'd only have the beer. And there's nothing more disappointing than if you ordered a Kwak and it came in just a regular glass. The glasses are pretty hard to come by, and although I'd get some for free on my first order, after that I'd have to start paying for them. In Belgium, is a tradition that if you want a Kwak in a Kwak glass, you hand over your shoe as a deposit. I don't want to do that either - we're a small bar and the smell of ripe feet might put people off their drink!

Beer glasses aren't always beautiful. In many traditional pubs in the UK, you'll find an unusual item hanging up behind the bar - the "Yard of Ale". A yard of ale or yard glass is a very tall glass used for drinking around 2.5 imperial pints (1.4 l) of beer, depending upon the diameter. The glass is approximately 1 yard long, shaped with a bulb at the bottom, and a widening shaft which constitutes most of the height.^[The glass most likely originated in 17th-century England where the glass was known also as a "Long Glass". It is associated by legend with stagecoach drivers, though was mainly used for drinking feats and special toasts.Drinking a yard glass full of beer is a traditional pub game. The fastest drinking of a yard of ale in the Guinness Book of Records is 5 seconds. You wouldn't want to be in a round with him.

There's also a boot you can drink out of.  Beer boots, or Bierstiefel, have over a century of history and culture behind them. It is commonly believed that a general promised his troops to drink beer from his boot if they were successful in battle. When the troops prevailed, the general had a glass maker fashion a boot from glass to fulfill his promise without tasting his own feet and to avoid spoiling the beer in his leather boot. Since then, soldiers have enjoyed toasting to their victories with a beer boot. At gatherings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, beer boots are often passed among the guests for a festive drinking challenge. 

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It is an old joke to hand the boot to a young novice drinker with the tip pointing away from his person, which will result in beer pouring over the drinker's face uncontrollably when air enters the tip Experienced drinkers always point the tip towards their body until the glass is sufficiently drained. It's the same with a yard - an experienced drinker will rotate the glass, to prevent the beer coming up from the bottom of the bubble and drenching them.

The general rule is that if it's a lager, then a regular nonic glass can be used. If it's a Pilsner, then it's best to use a Pilsner style glass which gradually taper outwards to let all those aromas out. Weiss beer is the same. If you're going to be drinking an ale, again a nonic or straight sided tulip glass can be used. No need for a stemmed glass - because the ale isn't going to be cold. The darker the beer, the more aroma you want to get from it. You might want to think about using a glass similar to what Chimay use. This allows for maximum air to get into the glass, and maximum aroma to come out. And if it's a very strong beer, you might want to think about using a smaller glass. Quite often, the stronger beers come in 33cl or even 25cl bottles. Something to sip and not gulp down is the order of the day here.

While lots of glassware dates back to tradition, there has been lots of new modern technology to help enhance your drinking experience. It is increasingly common to find pint glasses which contain markings on the base; very often these glasses are branded to one particular beer. The markings themselves are formed from small etchings which aid in allowing the gas within it to more readily release and thus preserve the head. Without the aid of these pits a regular pint glass will keep a head for only 3 or 4 minutes before appearing 'flat'.The markings come in a variety of styles ranging from a simple circular or square hatched pattern to more complicated branding messages.

                                                  An activated glass for Harp Lager.

I'm actually carrying out a consumer survey with Saku on this topic. The glass etching technology was new to them, and even though nearly every lager glass in the UK uses this system, Saku were still unsure of it's benefits.  I got some of their glasses mocked up with the Saku logo, and we're currently testing how drinkers think of the glasses compared to normal ones (go into Dubliner or Karja Kelder in Tallinn's old town and ask to take part - you'll get a free pint!). If the results are positive, then Saku will look to use activated glasses across their range. I must point out, that it's only for lager. There's no need for bubbles in ale. Here's a short video I made in my shed, proving how geeky you can get about glasses.

And keeping on the geeky theme - do you know how to spot a dirty glass in the bar? There's the obvious glass handed to you with lipstick smudges on it, but the less obvious can still mean the glass is dirty. In the video I explained about rising bubbles from the bottom of the glass showing the sign of a quality beer, but if you see bubbles on the side of the glass - then you should really hand that beer back and ask for a fresh one. The bubbles clinging to the inside of the glass, are actually trapped on particles of dirt. Yuk. You might sometimes see it on your glasses at home, because home dishwashers aren't as good as industrial glass cleaners. 

                                                 DISCLAIMER: That is not me.

Something else that ruins your beer inside the glass is milk. You should never wash a beer glass and a coffee cup in the same machine. The lactose in the milk makes the glass oily, and will kill head retention.  Same with fabric conditioner - let your glasses air dry, don't towel dry them if you want to keep the foam on your beer

A good way to identify a clean glass, is by "lacing". Lacing is the definition of the latticework of foam left on the glass after a drink has been taken. This is normally found when drinking ale, as ale is much more creamy and less carbonated than lager.  It's said you can tell how good the beer is , by counting the amount of sips (or gulps) to finish the beer.

                                    I finished this pint in 9 sips. I must have been tired.

So armed with this information - you're now going to send back any dirty glass you get served with aren't you? No, I didn't think so. Unfortunately, it's still a problem area in most bars. Many bar staff don't know the signs of a dirty glass, so will just shrug their shoulders and say that it's not their problem. Just as bar staff should be educated on which beer goes into which type of glass, they should also be taught how to correctly clean, dry and store glasses.  The main problem is, that many people still consider beer to be a cheap drink that gets you drunk. A dirty glass isn't going to prevent this from happening, so what does it matter if the glass is dirty, chipped or the wrong size? Quite a lot to my overall beer experience thank you very much. Cheers for the beer, but I won't be coming back to your bar again. 

Beer is a food. To serve it, you need a food licence and a health and safety certificate. I don't think many (although I am sure some do) serve food on dirty plates.

As Stella Artois say in their adverts "You wouldn't serve champagne in a teacup", and the more people who start to understand what they mean by this, the better. Demand more from your beer and it's glass!

I'll raise my glass to whoever starts the glass fightback!