Getting Great Custom Glassware

A Step-by-Step Guide to Selecting the Perfect Beer and Wine Glasses

Finding the perfect glassware is no easy challenge, especially considering the sheer amount of styles and sizes of glassware available. Each shape is specifically designed to capture the perfect sip of your serving, and each event demands a different glassware.  After reading through our how-to on all things glassware, you’ll understand what glass your occasion needs! Pun intended.

Understanding Glassware Types

To better understand your drinkware needs, we’ll start with a brief library of common glassware used for beer and wine. Once you’ve read it, you can refer to it to make the best decision!

Beer Glassware

A Pint Glass is a conical shape moving slightly outward as it reaches the mouth of the glass. It’s straight, tall, and ready to pour a brew into. The average pint glass can carry about 16 fluid ounces at a time. It leaves the possibility for customization to be fairly larger than on other styles of glassware.

A Tulip Glass is named for its round and bulb-like shape. It’s a short but robust glass that narrows slightly near the mouth of the glass before a final flare back out at the top. Tulip glasses have a thick, short stem and a slightly wider foot, making it ideal for holding it underneath the ‘bulb.’ 

The Pilsner Glass is a rounded glass that starts narrow near the bottom of the glass and opens slightly wider at the top. The base is solid and is significantly thicker than other glassware. A pilsner glass is shorter than a pint glass, holding about 12-14 ounces on average.

The Snifter Glass is a short glass similar to the tulip glass, with a short stem and wide bottom. However, it narrows but does not flare out at the top. It marries perfectly with more aged brown spirits like whiskey and brandy.

Wine Glassware

Red Wine Glasses are stemware with large bowls and wide tops. They are purposely larger to better aerate the wine directly from within the glass.

White wine glasses are stemware with tall, narrow bowls designed to preserve the cooler temperature for a longer period of time.

Sparkling Wine Flutes are tall, narrow glasses with longer stems and smaller feet. They have an especially delicate look, significantly narrower than red or white wine glasses.

Stemless Wine Glasses are just as they’re named: wine glasses that do not have a stem underneath them. They’re fairly wide in shape but are a more universal option for the kind of girl with a library of wine she likes to pick from after a difficult work week.

Factors Influencing Glassware Selection

Beer Characteristics

A good beer makes for a good time—that’s a universal trait for all varieties of beer. However, each brew has its unique table of flavors that all contribute to how you experience that brew.

•   Aroma: Beers can have different scents, from fruity to breaded to sour. The base, such as barley or wheat, heavily influences the aroma.
•   Carbonation: Everyone loves a good foam at the top of their beer glass, and that carbonation can affect how much foam is at the top and how bubbly your beer will be once you pour it.
•   Appearance: Like any great drink, the rainbow of amber colors different beers have is always a delight to the eyes. Some glasses are thicker and make the beer’s color slightly off, so it’s best to marry your glass with your beer’s look.
•   Temperature: The ideal temperature for a beer is 45 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re like me and can completely lose yourself in conversation, you don’t want to return to a warm beer, so it’s good to keep that in mind when looking at different glassware.

Wine Characteristics

There are wine-tasting parties for a reason! Wine has many combinations and factors that contribute to making an ideal pour.

•   Aroma and Bouquet: You are first introduced to a wine’s aroma and bouquet when holding the glass. The strength of this flavor begins as a smell, and the end flavor can be determined even before you take a sip of wine.
•  Flavor Profile: A wine’s flavor profile breaks into four sensations: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Once we become more familiar with wine profiles, we can break these categories down even further.
•   Acidity: Like the sensation of eating a sour candy, the acidity of a wine is the tartness that the wine carries. This is also known as its puckerability.
• Temperature: The ideal temperature for still wine is about 60-68 degrees Fahrenheit. Sparkling wine is served around the same temperature as a beer, about 45-55 degrees Fahrenheit.

How to Choose the Right Glassware

Selecting a Glass Shape for Beer

Each beer uniquely combines carbonation, color, and temperature. So, we serve beer in a glass that maintains these characteristics as much as possible. Taller glasses are ideal for beers with lighter colors, like lagers or ales. The taller, thinner glasses allow those beautiful colors to shine through and sustain the carbonation as much as possible. Not all beer is brewed equal in alcohol content: the stronger the drink, the smaller the glass in which you want to serve it. It’s particularly why tulip glasses are great for strong, hoppy drinks.

Selecting a Glass Shape for Wine

Wine is almost always associated with a wine glass, also called stemware. Stemware is any glass with a longer, narrow stem below the bowl built with enough space to hold with one hand.

The bowl shape is the key to the best flavor profile for your wine. Red wine is much better served in a glass with a larger bowl, thicker and usually bolder flavors. If a bowl is shorter overall in size with a longer stem, you can expect those wines to be spicier, and the bowl is meant to make those flavors shine through. White wine is more delicate in smell and taste; a smaller bowl helps those softer scents reach you. White wines being more acidic also means that the narrower bowl helps express that acidity even more. More delicate still than white wines are carbonated wines like champagne. Glassware like flutes are made to prevent carbonation from escaping your glass for as long as possible.

Selecting Your Glass Material

While a good wine and dine at home doesn’t call for anything but a standard traditional stem glass, there are moments when a more delicate glass may make the time perfect. Surprisingly, Glass isn’t entirely clear, even though the term is used to define clarity in almost every other literary phrase of the English language. It is mostly clear, slightly thicker material. And it’s a lighter material and easier to hold in the hand. Crystal, however, feels heavier when in hand and leans more into quality and refinement than standard glass. Crystal is much thinner and easily cut into for extremely intricate glassware decorations. However, that thin material is also an issue as much as a benefit; it is easy to cut and break. An accident-prone friend may not have crystal glasses, at least not for nearly as long as they’re worth.

Glassware Care and Maintenance

Who else has parents and grandparents with entire dressers dedicated to their glassware? It’s a simple enough reason: glassware demands more delicate handling than your standard dishes for cleaning and storage. By storing them separately, you can prevent the glassware from being scratched by other materials. It also prevents breakage if stored in solid, heavy spaces like a larger cabinet.

Once you have had your soiree or Sunday brunch, you’ll want to pour out any excess liquid from inside the glass down the drain. Wash your glasses with warm water and a delicate detergent to prevent your glassware from staining. But be honest, who has time to hand wash dishes with what we have in our busy lives? It’s probably best to also browse through thicker, tougher glassware that is dishwasher-friendly.

Recommended Glassware Brands

A multitude of glassware is essential to giving guests a great tasting experience. The person who pours will be the person who picks! Fortunately, we have some great glassware brand options that we would love to recommend to you:

• St Regis is one of our largest glassware libraries, and it is great for wine and beer glasses.
• Moderne Glass Company is a great resource for various wine glasses and offers options for beer glasses.
• ETS is one of our top resources for stemless glassware, perfect for the everyday! They have some of our favorite casual glassware.