To Tilt or Not to Tilt: How to Properly Pour a Beer (and Why)

We’re going to get right to it: you absolutely want to tilt the glass that’s about to become the vessel for your favorite brew. This frees the glorious elixir from its bottle, can, growler or crowler captivity, allowing the foamy head to form and bring forth the beer’s aromas to give your beer-drinking experience the right start.

Sound like a big fuss over foam? Like wine drinking, getting the most enjoyment from beer means starting with a deep sniff, so your beer glass must be the correct shape and size to allow for adequate foam. At Luigi Bormioli, we call this part of our carefully designed beer glasses the aromatic chamber or head space. Our beautiful and functional Birrateque Collection’s Foam Control System maintains an adequate head while you’re drinking to ward off oxidation and ensure that every sip is perfect.

Drink in Our 6 Top Tips for the Perfect Pour

1. Always use a glass. You don’t drink wine from a bottle, do you? Of course not; your wine is in one of our pieces of exceptional stemware. Using the correct glass releases all of the beer’s goodness for a memorable beer-drinking session. With Birrateque, there’s a glass for every occasion—and beer style.
2. Use a fresh glass for each pour. Leftover residue from your previous beer will inhibit the head on your current beer, and that will change the aromas and tastes from one beer to the next.
3. Tilt the glass 45 degrees. You didn’t have to ace math in school to nail this one: grasp the glass and tilt it to the side roughly halfway between upright and horizontal.
4. Slowly pour. Aim so the beer hits around the middle of the glass. With most beers, you can pour with some vigor, but beware Belgians and IPAs, which tend to foam up quicker. Those require a gentler stream.
5. Start to right the glass when it’s about half full. This may take a bit of practice (and a few beers!), but by keeping an eye on the growing head we’re confident you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly.
6. Finish with an upright glass with about ½” to 1½” head. If the frothiness takes up 2” or more, you poured too aggressively for the beer style. If you ended up with a skimpy layer of foam, try pouring just a bit more aggressively. You’ll just have to try again once that beer’s drained (a tough “job,” but someone has to do it!).

We’re proud to say we’ve done some of the work for you with our six Italian-crafted Birrateque glasses created to enhance the organoleptic properties of the most popular craft beers and cider. To get techie for a second: Organoleptic properties are what you experience through your senses—including sight, smell, touch and taste—when it comes to food and drink. We developed these next-level glasses in collaboration with international sensory analysis specialists the Centro Studi Assaggiatori because when the moment matters, the glass matters.

You’ll also love admiring your favorite brew’s color and clarity in our gorgeous, lead-free, eco friendly transparent and sparkling glasses thanks to our proprietary SON.hyx. Like all Luigi Bormioli products made with SON.hyx, they’re backed by our 25-year guarantee against chipping of the rim or foot, as well as any discoloration due to automatic dishwashing—4,000 dishwashing cycles. We also snuck in a Beer Tester glass—fantastic for flights—with our proprietary TITANIUM Reinforced stem to keep it strong and beautiful while safeguarding the drink’s perfect temperature.

Congrats—you’re a beer-pouring boss. Want to rule the conversation, too? Download our Birrateque Collection Specs and check out the science behind the glass. Cheers!

 

Luigi Bormioli, the designer label of glassmaking, is synonymous with Italian Lifestyle. Our proprietary glassware formulas allow for an exciting fusion of elegance and technology.  Designed to enhance the tabletop and elevate the entertaining experience, these machine blown glasses are made in Italy, lead-free, durable, have laser cut fine rims, and will maintain their clarity after thousands of dishwashing cycles. You will enjoy their quality, brilliance, and strength for many years to come.