Beer glasses – how important is this?
Making beer is a long and painstaking process. It consists of many inextricably linked parts. It begins with the cultivation of the grain, then it is germinated in the malt houses, and finally it arrives in the holy of holies: the brewery.
A brewery can be compared to a maternity hospital, because this is where “liquid happiness” is born. I like to compare brewing beer to the birth of a child. After all, what genes its parents pass on to it, that is how it will be, unless, of course, it ends up in bad company. Then the fermentation (raising the child) begins. The child may be raised right (in perfect purity) or there may be a careless brewer (they are human beings too) and no “genes” will save the beer. Usually everything happens well, because no one will buy bad beer…
At last the beer has arrived to the store, and then to you, dear beer lover. And its future fate depends only on you. I’ve written more than once about how beer should not be overheated and kept in the light, and I’ll say it again now, because it’s very important!
Then it’s the turn to taste the magic drink. Firstly you need to cool it, but not to overdo it, because too cold beer loses its taste and becomes like water. You have to drink beer from a glass, not from a bottle or can. Why? – Because otherwise you deprive yourself of a lot: you can’t enjoy the beauty of beer, its transparency, and the snowy foam. You also can’t feel the magical aroma of hops and ripe grain. The taste of beer will also “pass” by you, because “pouring” beer into yourself from the bottle, it is impossible to savor it, and all this creates the image of beer!
Many have put their heart and soul into creating a drink that brings people joy, and there is very little left to complete the process. The final touch in its creation is quite prosaic and depends on you – clean beer glasses. It is the clean glasses that will allow you to bring this long race to the final. Yes, yes I did not misspell the point, it is a dirty glass that will ruin all that magic.
Once the glass is filled with beer, the gas bubbles tend to rise. As they rise above the liquid, they create a beautiful foam, enhancing the flavor and feeling of the “body” of the beer. It is the CO2 that the sculptor uses to give life to his creation.
A dirty, or even poorly washed, glass stops the bubbles from moving to the top. They stick to the dirt on the inside of the beer glass and destroy the foam. This dirt is often not visible in an empty glass unless you look hard. Gas bubbles cling to the walls of the glass in the dirty areas and create the illusion of a fogged up glass, only such a glass “fogs up” from the inside and these bubbles cannot be wiped off.
What to do? – Don’t break the chain. Throughout the entire beer-making process, it is Cleanliness that has always been at the top of the list and we need to add two final touches: properly chill the beer and thoroughly wash the beer glass. It’s best to wash beer glasses by hand, using a soft brush and a soapy solution with a neutral detergent, and then rinse them thoroughly with running cold water. That’s all. It is not difficult at all.
As a final note, the easiest test to determine if a glass is clean: Dip the glass completely in water. If the glass is clean, when you take it out of the water you will see that it drips evenly down the sides. If it isn’t, then water droplets will linger on the dirty areas. Another test: sprinkle the inside of the wet glass evenly with salt. The salt will not stick to areas covered with a greasy film.
As an illustration, I suggest watching a short video on how to properly wash beer glasses.