Monday, July 23, 2007

Beer Glass Testing

Some of you may know, by now, that my brother-in-law Jim is not exactly an innocent bystander in my traipse through degradation. Here is my first post upon the start of this downward spiral"

Saturday, January 01, 2005
The First Small Steps

Well today was the start of my 1,000 bar epic. It was a bit touch and go as to whether or not I would get off to any kind of a start today. Last night my wife and I went over to my mother-in-law's house for New Years Eve and spent the night. A sister-in-law and my brother-in-law were also there. Today two more sister-in-laws showed up along with another brother-in-law and three young neices. Prospects were bleak until late in the afternoon when we decided to make coffee to go with desert and realized we were out of milk. My brother-in-law, aware of my quest, suggested that we go out to buy some. On our trip we managed to stop at three bars in New Rochelle, New York.


Well, without even having the opportunity to take a nap, who shows up but the usually late, but this time early, Jim.

Hello, Am I Early


So, here we are. I have a refrigerator full of beer and Samuel Adams has sent me two of their newly designed glasses. Hmm, this is a tough call.

Free Glasses


Jim and I were not about to just dive into the hype of the new glasses. We had to test these glasses against our usual glassware.

Belgian Ale Glass


Stolen Beer Mug


But we soon got down to the serious tasting.

Quaffing With A Purpose



Having tried out the old style glasses we then tried the new and improved Sam Adams vehicles for beer delivery system.

Not Just Your Grandfather's Mug


They give you about half a dozen reasons why this mug is superior. Some of which are just poppycock. For example, they extol the "innovative" lip whereby the lip on the inside of the rim creates turbulence that releases the flavor and aroma as the beer enters the mouth. Well, all of my beer glasses have this, and I think it is just a by-product of how glasses are made.

The top-most rounded shape is supposed to collect the aroma of the beer, and this I tend to believe. But then, this is nothing new.

One of their claims, that the thinner walls and rounded shape maintains proper beer temperature longer is simply balderdash. How can less insulation maintain temperature better. Every beer delivery system that I owned seemed to keep the beer colder then these glasses. They get a failing grade on this one. Thinner glass means your beer gets warmer faster.

But, who lets beer sit around long enough to get warm anyway. They were kind of cool looking, and they were free.

Beer drinking always get a bit competitive at times. Please note the redness of my face has to do with my day in the sun at the Yankees game, not my straining to beat Jim at our arm-wrestling drinking competition.

And The Objective Is?


After an evening of testing we decided, we decided...Hell, I have no idea what we decided.

The Aftermath


The poor beleaguered Mysterious Chinese Woman moved through ashamed and abashed to downright horrified.

The Horror, The Horror



By the way, my brother-in-law Jim is an accomplished artist. Here is a piece of his that I have hanging on my wall.

A Piece Of Work


A very talented fellow who sets up stages and installs sound and lighting systems and got stoned just walking into Willie Nelson's bus to get his roadies to help with the heavy lifting. He brought me back a guitar pick when what I really wanted was a spittle coated roach right from Willie's lips. Ah, but I love him anyway. However, if he ever does any work for a Snoop Dogg concert...

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