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!

The cost of going organic.

Right, let me set the record straight! I am NOT against Estonian beers! Point taken that I generally focus on imported beers, and point taken that Saku/A Le Coq focus on beers that make them more money because more people drink them than anything else. However, my point is that if I just reviewed beers that are all the same, then my reviews would be.........all the same!

I've pointed out before that Estonian beer is pretty much driven by two brewers. I don't need to say who they are. And like all brewers, they are focussed on market share. They need it, they want it. they want to keep it. And in order to do this, they must produce beer exactly like their nearest competitior. Now, in Estonia, seeing as the market is almost 50/50, that means almost 100% of the beer tastes exactly the same. They produce a fruit beer, then They produce a fruit beer. They produce a wheat beer, then They produce a wheat beer. And so it continues. The good thing about this is: They produce a shit beer, then They produce a shit beer. What happens then is that both sets of  "loyal"  customers complain and threaten to start drinking something alternative like Stella Artois instead, and Saku/A Le Coq then decide that they need to produce something which will get their bedmates back onto their pillow.

What pleases me about Estonian beer drinkers is that they are always willing to try something new out. I guess thats the same reason why Estonian guys always have a different good looking girl on their arm each month.

I used to be in charge of deciding what beer was sold in all of the Rimi stores. When I had put some new beers (not neccessarily import beers - I was playing the game back then), on the shelves, it always pleased me that a large amount of shoppers baskets contained these new beers. Estonians like to try something new. Maybe it's because of years of communist regime, but really I think it's because Estonians buy new things because they want to say they don't like them.

It's the same in Drink Bar/Shop. If we've got something new, then I am almost certain that it will sell very well, simply because it's new. Ok -  maybe a bit is down to the marketing on Facebook etc, but I don't promote beers that I am not proud of, and I don't import beer that I don't think the Estonian market will
drink.


Of course this promotes change and drives customer expectation. If there is a lack of new products on the market, then the customer gets restless and demands something more. And the new product is going to be judged on previous products. If the product before it was good, then the bar is raised and the new product has to be of similar or preferably higher quality. If the product was bad, then the new product better be good, because the guns will be out before it's even hit the shelves.


Which brings me to a new product that Estonian brewer A Le Coq have released. Not only is it a new product, but it's a first to market for the producer - an organic beer. This is a brave move in my opinion, because organic products are very fashionable at the moment, and in most people eyes - because you can't actually see anything different, many people think its just a way of being current and in touch with the environment, while at the same time being able to charge a lot more for your product.  It's even more difficult with beer, because in essence, the producer is saying that their beer is healthy beer. So what makes a beer organic?

Beer is made from four main ingredients: Malted barley, hops, water and yeast. The first two of these ingredients are grown across the world, and it's actually these two that dictate the price of beer (if you don't include the Government taxes). If hops and barley are plentiful, then everyone can have access to the ingredients they need to make beer. If hops and barley are in short supply, then it becomes a case of supply and demand, with prices rising because of this. Last year, the UK had it's worst barley harvest in forty years due to the lack of rain. The barley failed to grow in the drought, leaving many of them unsuitable for harvest. Fertilisers were used in some cases, but the knock on effect is that fertilisers produce too much nitrogen in the barley, which means that there is too much protein in the sugar resulting in longer brewing times and erractic germination/fermentation. 


It's not just the UK either. Global production of barley was 43% down on last year. Hops too has it's problems. If the weather is too dry, the hops reacts the same way as the barley and simply can't grow. If the weather is too wet, the hops is very succeptible to rotting, and if the weather is too cold, then the hop vine will refuse to flower. And it's the flower that the brewers use. 2007 was a very dark year for hop and barley growers. Many couldn't produce the quantity of hops they wanted, which meant that not all the brewers got their quota. In worse case scenarios, the hop producer went out of business. Not only does this have an effect on price, but also taste. Brewers that had been using a specific type of hops in their beer, had to change their recipes because the hop wasn't available. This in turn affected sales, because the consumer noticed the difference. Another scary thing is that the big brewers - AB for example, cut out their risk by buying up all of the next years crop in advance. They can afford to do it, but that leaves little behind for the smaller producers, who have to fight over what is left and pay through the nose for it.

Simply put, if there isn't some intervention or help in growing these crops, then they are not going to make it. Fertilisers, and other steroids are needed to give the crops a boost in times of bad weather to ensure the farmers meet their quotas. And of course, many of these chemicals are not natural, which means they can't be certified organic.


To be certified organic, you have to use farmers who are signed up to producing hops and barley without the use of chemicals. Water too can be softened using a variety of chemicals, so if you want to produce organic beer, then the water you use in the production must also be chemical free. The yeast used in the beer is not allowed to have been used in the production of any non organic beer previously. This yeast has to be seperated from the other yeast. It's not a fun guy to be with (see what I did there?).


All of this increases expense due to a lot of factors. Yield and time being the two main causes. If you're not using fertilisers to boost growth, then it's going to take a lot longer to grow. You won't produce as much as your neighbour who is using chemicals either. And don't forget the constant fight against disease and pests. I grew some hops a couple of years ago and maintained the fact that I wanted them to be organic. I didn't use fertlisers, but used organic materials instead (fish bones), but when I had an attack of green aphids, I automatically reached for the bug spray. Fortunately I checked the ingredients before I pulled the trigger, and found out I couldn't use it if I wanted to be organic. Instead I had to resort to picking them off by hand, or use a sugar and water solution which only seemed to make the aphids more hyperactive than dead. Imagining doing this on an industrial scale?

So now you know why it's only a small quantity of beers that call themselves organic. It's hard enough producing quality beer, but very hard producing something that pushes the cost up and production scale down.


The UK has been on the organic trail for about ten years. If first started off with health foods, then premium foods - mostly meat, then just about everything including beer became organic. When I first started working for Rimi, I suggested that we should devote a small section of each category to organic produce. I was met with looks of bewilderment and questions asking what benefit if would bring to the store. Six years later and there are still very few organic products in the main retailers, and the market is still very much in it's infancy. Dedicated organic stores are growing the category, and provide wines that have been produced organically. I'm guessing that A Le Coq saw a potential gap in the market and decided to fill it.


You can get organic beers in Estonia - Shepherd Neame (Whitstable Bay organic ale), Fullers (Organic Honeydew Ale) and a few German beers are available. As is organic cider, with Westons offering both organic apple and perry. This is the first time an Estonian beer has been produced that has been fully certified as organic.

The CEO of A. Le Coq, Tarmo Noop, says that the popularity of organic products is increasing all over the world. "There are increasingly more consumers and companies that want to do something for the environment and preferring organic products is an option," said Noop when explaining the reasons why the brewery decided to launch this new beer. "As a leading Estonian brewery, we feel responsible for the development of the beer market and believe we also have to introduce the concept of organic products in the beer segment," he added. The brewery also wants its new product to be a beer that offers something new and unique that no other local brewery has done yet and to show that an organic product does not have to be expensive and something that cannot be bought in ordinary shops.
Noop explained that the malt and hops used to make Organic Beer are grown according to organic farming standards, and that the production of organic beer is highly regulated. "We have made the necessary changes in our production process and passed a thorough inspection carried out by the Veterinary and Food Board," said Noop. "As a result of this, we were issued with a special certificate for the production of organic beer"

They buy their malt from Finland and their hops from Germany. It's described as a light tasting lager, with some "oomph" from well balanced hops and a toasty flavour from the beer yeast. I suspect that the last comment might be a typo. Toasted is not one of the flavour profiles I've ever come across when describing yeast. 

So, let's see what it's like.

The bottle is actually quite nice. Organic products seem to have to carry an air about them - nothing too flashy, quite basic and reserved, but looking reassuringly expensive and, well, organic. On the label is a picture of some barley - although it's not the type of barley that is used in brewing (brewing barley is generally two row barley or 6 row barley - which have a lot more husks than the one on the A Le Coq label), but what do designers know? I actually think it looks more like wheat than barley. Maybe this barley gives a yeasty taste...

On opening, there is not the "oomph" of hops I was expecting. In fact, I couldn't really detect any hops at all. There is a faint yeasty, bread smell and quite a strong smell of sweetcorn. This sweetcorn smell is due to dimethylsulfide. I could go into this in more detail, but I suggest you have a read of this if you are interested   http://www.picobrewery.com/askarchive/dms.htm 

It looks nice. A pale straw colour with a decent sized head. It's pretty fizzy too.

So what does it taste like? Does it taste organic I hear you ask? To be honest, organic beer doesn't really taste or look any different from other beers. Because yeast gives off it's own flavours, as does hops - you aren't really going to notice anything different. Certain other organic items are different and you can tell. Eggs are a good example. Look at the yolk of an organic egg compared to a regular egg. Happy chickens lay much more yellow yolks. But at least you can be happy drinking this beer safe in the knowledge that all the aphids on the hops were removed by hand. Probably.

The taste is quite different from other A Le Coq lagers. It's certainly dry, but this dryness comes across as quite metallic. It's not a dry, bitterness you asscociate with hops, but more like heavy metals. It's quite sweet too, but the finish is of an overall, quite unpleasant metallic dryness. Strangely, it also tastes quite greasy, and my mouth was left feeling like I had just eaten a bag of cold French fries. Again, it sounds like I am saying it's bad - it's not great, but I'm very happy there is at least some flavour from the hop.

It's quite a smooth beer, and the carbonisation that we there on opening quickly settles down. The head stayed for most of the drink, making it quite easy to drink combined with the  4.5% abv.

Overall I'd say there is more hop profile than usual, but unfortunately it's all hop bitterness and no hop aroma. In my opinion, it tastes as though it's been overboiled, resulting in the DMS profile giving a skunky dogfood aroma and metallic taste. The finish leaves a stale beer taste in your mouth, and while you expect that the morning after, you don't expect it during the actual drinking. Not a bad beer, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I think it's great that A Le Coq have taken the bold decision to step out of the mainstream and into a niche market. Unfortunately, it's almost as if they are trying to do mainstream niche. It only cost me .98€ a bottle from the store.  This beer is only going to appeal to those who actually care about the organic concept. Other regular drinkers don't care if the aphids were struck off the hop with a nuclear bomb, as long as their beer tastes the same and costs the same. In this respect, A Le Coq should have gone fully organic and charged a premium price. Make the beer unfiltered, keep it unpasteurised and sell it as a "live" beer. Number it, make it collectible. This way, you are really bigging up the process of making beer, and promoting the fact that beer is special, and if produced with the minimum amount of process as possible, it can be treated, stored and matured the same as wine. You've also got to ask yourself, if other organic products are more expensive than their non organic versions, how did A Le Coq do this so cheaply?

As much as I applaud their efforts, I still can't help but think that this is just another way of trying to outdo Saku. It's not a suprise that this week, Saku have announced that they too will be producing a new beer. Not an organic one, but a beer that is named after their founder. It's a historical beer.

Same old story I am afraid.