Glass Warfare

From today's WSJ (subscription required):

British pubs have long been known for serving lager or bitter in all-purpose pint glasses whose only adornment was a government stamp attesting to the fact that they held exactly 20 fluid ounces. Now, in order to boost beer sales, pubs are swapping that iconic glassware in favor of specially shaped glasses with unusual features. Among the new frills is the "nucleator," a laser-etched "S" on the inside of a Stella Artois glass that creates a steady stream of bubbles after the Belgian lager is poured from the tap.

The "nucleator" sounds like something that Duff Man would be promoting.

Behind the change is an effort to stimulate British beer sales, which have fallen 7% since 1997, while spirits sales have increased 50% and wine sales are up 36%, according to the British Beer and Pub Association, a trade group. Sales of beer in pubs and restaurants, as opposed to stores, are down more than 20%.

The time when pubs served customers a plain pint glass filled with warm beer is long gone," says Pete Dalzell, operations director for Pathfinder Pubs, the division of Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries PLC that includes the Pavilion End. These days, "the presentation of our drinks is as important as the presentation of our food."
The Brits are taking their cue from Belgium, where bars and cafes have traditionally matched glasses to specific beers to complement their aroma or appearance: inverted cone shapes for pilsners, tall and narrow glasses for wheat beers, stemmed goblets for ales. Many come in half-pints rather than just pints. The United Kingdom's beer industry likes the smaller glasses, too, because they help its efforts to attract more women drinkers.

I experienced the same thing in Germany a few years back. As opposed to the U.S., most bars and restaurants only served one brand of beer, while offering the different styles of beer from that brewer (hefeweizen, lager, etc.) in appropriate glasses which sported the brewer's label. Holland follows this pattern to a certain extent as well, although seemingly not quite as rigidly as the Krauts.

As much as I love the Imperial Pint glass, I applaud the change. Different styles of beers are quite distinct and each deserves its own unique glassware.

As part of a campaign it calls "Beautiful Beer" to improve beer's image and attract more female drinkers, the British Beer and Pub Association this year began producing goblets that are shaped like wine glasses and hold one third of a pint. The trade group's research showed that glass shape and size greatly influenced the perception of beer, particularly among women.

At lunch at the Bierodrome in London, Chloe Wright, a 23-year-old marketing executive, and her friend Clare Cruickshank, a personal assistant, 24, ordered Hoegaarden. "I like for it to come in its own glass," Ms. Wright says. "If it looks pretty, I'll drink it."

That just happens to be Atomizer's motto as well.