Tips for a nice clean glass to drink beer from

I’ll be completely honest about this: as an enthusiast, I have high standards for how I drink beer. I consider a festive, generous head of foam in my glass of beer an absolute must . You should feel the same way, because you deserve it. As a guest in a pub or restaurant, but also when enjoying a beer at home.

A beautifully frothy beer is only possible in a glass that is truly spotless. In a bar or restaurant that genuinely loves beer, things are generally fine. At home, I pay real attention to getting the glasses I drink my beer from nice and clean. As a beer sommelier, I know the do's and don'ts, of course. But sometimes things still go wrong.

As dead as mutton

I had pulled a clean tea towel from the kitchen drawer. A brief moment of reflection followed when I had rinsed my favorite beer glass under the hot tap. That clean tea towel was still dry; that glass was the first thing I would reach for. So I assumed I could safely dry the inside of the glass with it as well. That evening at dinner, I poured a fine abbey beer into it. Only to discover that I probably shouldn't have dried the inside. Because the beer went flat as a doornail immediately.

It drew my attention back to an important question: how do you clean a beer glass so that the beer is enjoyed to its fullest potential?

culprits

Let's start at the beginning. There are a number of things your favorite drink (beer, non-alcoholic or alcoholic) cannot handle in a glass. Culprit #1 is grease. Soap or starch residue and dust follow closely behind.

Grease, soap, or starch leave an invisible layer behind on the inside of the glass. That is an efficient killer of a beautiful head on your beer. (I will explain why that head is also better for the beer another time.)

Dust causes the carbonation in your beer to form bubbles on the inside of your glass. Such a speck of dust forms a nice point of effervescence. It might foam up well in the glass, but you can tell by those bubbles that it isn't perfectly clean. I always have to chuckle at that: when I see a slickly styled photo of a beerfluencer on Instagram. Everything is perfect, but carbonation bubbles are visible on the curve of the glass… Close, but no cigar…

In the machine or by hand

Beer glasses can be washed in two ways: by hand or in the machine.

In the café, they often use dishwashers exclusively for cleaning glasses and tableware. These are often advanced machines that utilize technologies such as reverse osmosis. In this way, the dishes inside become cleaner than clean. Even nuisances like the coronavirus cannot withstand such washing power. The glasses are dried with hot air, ensuring they emerge from the machine truly optimally clean.

If you have a dishwasher at home that you want to use to clean beer glasses, make sure the inside is thoroughly clean. Often, your dishwasher smells fresh, and plates, cups, pans, and cutlery come out sparkling clean. Nevertheless, invisible grease and starch residues float around inside the appliance. You are not doing your beer glasses any favors with that.

Exclusively for beer glasses

Even if I had a dishwasher, I would still prefer to wash beer glasses by hand. In clean soapy water, as hot as you can tolerate to keep it workable. If you do all the washing up by hand, tackle the beer glasses first. Do not use a dish brush that you first scrubbed clean a dirty lasagna dish with. Or one that you used to go through the frying pan after frying bacon in it. I have a dish brush in my kitchen cupboard that I use exclusively for beer glasses. That works perfectly.

Wash a beer glass thoroughly, not only on the inside but also on the outside. This prevents (greasy) fingerprints on the outside of the glass, or a rim with lipstick residue where your girlfriend put the glass to her lips. I find that a real turn-off in bars and restaurants, and at home it doesn't exactly enhance my beer enjoyment either. But if you clean beer glasses with real care, it is easy to prevent.

Another tip: rinse your washed beer glass thoroughly with hot water. Again, from the outside and the inside. Check if all soap residue is really gone.

Dry off

And then: dry them. I say: with a clean tea towel, only the outside. Next, place the washed beer glasses upside down on a clean drying cloth or a folded piece of kitchen paper. Let them drip dry; the cloth or kitchen paper will absorb any remaining moisture. After a while, place them upright again so that the inside can air dry. This also prevents the material of your drying cloth from leaving lint inside the glass.

Finally, one last pro tip . Make it easy on yourself. After drinking beer, rinse your beer glasses briefly before leaving them on the counter. This prevents the foam that remains on the inside of the glasses from drying out. And then, when washing up, you won't have to try quite as hard to get them properly clean.

By the way, are you still looking for a favorite beer glass? I saw that Raoul found a beautiful model of glass in which the aromas and flavors of most beer styles come into their own perfectly. If I didn't already have a huge collection of beer glasses myself, I would definitely have ordered a few. Because this model of beer glass is really well-known among beer connoisseurs.