A range of glasses tailored specifically for beer has been launched by Austrian stemware specialist Spiegelau.
The Riedel-owned company claims the glasses help drinkers get the most out of beer's characteristics – appearance, aroma, taste and finish.
They are made from extra-thin glass and shaped to match the world's most common beer types.
The range includes a tulip-shaped Stemmed Pilsner glass, which the company claims allows for a fuller release of flavours, a 0.5l Lager glass with a mouth wider at the top to accentuate aromas of pale lagers and ales, and a tall Wheat Beer glass (right).
Rupert Ponsonby, director of the Beer Academy, an organisation dedicated to education and training in the understanding of beer, believes the glasses will help bring about a new appreciation towards beer tasting.
'It's about time,' he said. 'There is a massive lack of knowledge about beer in this country, and huge anti-beer snobbery. Glass size and shape is as important for beer as it is wine. The subtleties in different flavours of beer are as great, if not greater than wine. In hops, you can find everything from lime and lychee to blackcurrant.
'People are missing out madly if they don't look into different styles of beer. The beauty of these glasses is that you wrap your lips around them and they are so thin; it makes the tasting experience more sensuous. Brewers are artists, and these glasses allow the different flavours in beer to be appreciated the way they should.'
Spiegelau designed the range after investigating the effect of glass size and shape on the flavour profile of beer.
The glasses retail at £6.
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