Historically, different beers have been drunk from differently-shaped glasses. For example, Germans created the tall pilsner and the handled stein. The British prefer the pint glass. Belgians favor a globe glass.

It turns out that the Belgian glass may be the best for enhancing the flavor of beer.

Like a Champagne glass, a good globe beer glass has etched lines at the bottom of the bowl that help to create a continuous stream of bubbles.

Wine glass expert Riedel—which makes a different-shaped glass to enhance the unique qualities of each type of wine—sells a modified globe glass for beer.

If you’re in the market for new drinking glasses, check out the globes.

See the different types of beer glasses.

The Belgian “globe” glass may deliver the
tastiest beer. This glass is from Spielgau.

One of our editors doesn’t care for wine: She’s strictly a beer and spirits gal.

There are many people like her. No wonder beer cocktails are on the rise.

Beer has been mixed for centuries. The Black and Tan is a mix of stout plus lager or pale ale; Shandy is a mix of beer and lemonade; the Boilermaker is beer and a shot of whiskey; the Michelada is beer with lime, salt, picante sauce and sometimes, tomato juice.

Now, Nation’s Restaurant News reports a trend in beer cocktails, mixing beer with absinthe, coffee, port and other mixers.

The photo shows a Muddy Puddle, the signature cocktail of JoeDoe in New York City.

Bourbon, iced espresso and simple syrup are shaken and poured over ice into a pilsner glass rimmed with crushed peanuts. The drink is then topped off with Sierra Nevada stout.

Other recipe ideas:

A beer cocktail with stout, bourbon, iced
espresso and simple syrup, garnished with
peanuts. Photo courtesy Nation’s Restaurant News.

 
Call up your inner mixologist to develop your own ideas.

Try a spicy beer with your fruitcake.
Photo courtesy CraftBeer.com.

Here’s an idea for Christmas dinner or New Year’s Eve: Treat guests to a craft beer tasting.

As we relayed last week, a Wakefield Research survey shows that more than 60% of men would prefer to toast the New Year with beer rather than Champagne. By implication, they wouldn’t mind having that beer at Christmas as well.

And by further implication, they wouldn’t mind tasting some exciting craft beers instead of the same old, same old.

So go to your closest depot of craft beer and get six or so different brews for a tasting. If you don’t know where to begin, the sales associate can help you. One place to start is with the same style of beer (pilsner, dark ale) from six different microbreweries. Or, purchase six different styles of beer from the same brewery.

Serve the beers in order from lightest to darkest style, giving everyone a two-ounce pour. This nets out to one bottle of beer consumed per person. One 12-ounce bottle yields 6 pours. Discuss the aromas and flavors in each beer—they’re complex and much more flavorful and aromatic than mass-marketed megabrands.

Craft beer continues to be hot. In 2010, craft breweries nationwide were unable to keep up with demand from enthusiastic beer lovers.

While many of the top-selling beer brands from the large breweries saw a decline in sales in 2010, 200 new craft breweries opened and almost 500 more are reported to be in the planning stages.

Here are highlights from the ever-changing beerscape, according to the Brewers Association, which represents America’s small and independent craft brewers.

Support your local brewery. Meet friends at your nearest brewpub for some holiday cheer.

Understand the types of beer in our Beer Glossary.

Infinium is a most glam beer gift. Photo
courtesy Boston Brewing Company.

A Wakefield Research survey shows that more than 60% of men would prefer to toast the New Year with beer rather than Champagne. Enter Sam Adams’ new Infinium ale.

The handsome, engraved bottle looks like Champagne; but it’s a special sparkling ale from Boston Brewing Company, makers of Sam Adams beers. It’s been created in partnership with Weihenstephan Brewery of Bavaria, Germany, the oldest surviving brewery in the world (since 760 C.E.).

And it’s made with the thousand-year-old brewing technique called Reinheitsgebot (“The German Beer Purity Law”), which requires that beer be made with only malt, hops, water and yeast.

Pop the cork and you’ll find a deep golden, full-bodied ale. Fruity on the nose, Infinium is mellow, round and malty on the palate. The ale has fine bubbles, which have led to the company calling Infinium a “Champagne-like beer.”

A special treat for beer lovers, Infinium contains 10.3% alcohol by volume, twice the amount of an average beer. A 750 ml bottle has a Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price of $19.99.

Infinium is available at retailers nationwide. You’ll thrill the beer drinkers at your party by pouring it to toast Christmas and the New Year.

Love of beer has caused the drinking rate
to edge up slightly. Photo by Odelia | CSP.

The annual Gallup poll of American drinking habits, conducted last month, reveals that drinking rates have edged up slightly to a 25-year high. Beer is the beverage of choice among the largest group of drinkers, followed by wine and then liquor.

Sixty-seven percent of U.S. adults drink alcohol, a slight increase over last year and the highest reading recorded since 1985 (by one percentage point). Thirty-three percent of the responders said they were total abstainers.

The survey asked the question, “Do you have occasion to use alcoholic beverages such as liquor, wine, or beer, or are you a total abstainer?”

One of the most significant predictors of alcohol consumption is church attendance. Those who seldom or never attend church are substantially more likely to say they drink than frequent church-goers. Those who have no religious affiliation, Catholics and non-Christians are more likely to drink than Protestants. Those with the lowest education levels and lowest incomes are less likely to drink than others.

Abstinence is not necessarily a good thing. Medical research shows that moderate drinking is associated with a lower probability of heart trouble, and Gallup has recently confirmed that the incidence of heart attacks increases substantially with age.

Still, the data indicate that many older Americans are not taking advantage of the prophylactic benefit of drinking; 59% of older Americans drink alcohol, substantially lower than the percentages among those who are younger.

The percentage of Americans who say they drink alcohol has been remarkably stable over the 71 years of the Gallup tracking study. The lowest level, 55%, was recorded in 1958. The high point for drinking came in 1976-1978, when 71% said they drank alcohol.

While the study did not address it, the composition of what is drunk may well have changed over the years. Comparatively few Americans drank wine before the California wine explosion of the 1970s, for example.

Americans like to celebrate their independence with beer:

July 4th is the biggest beer-selling holiday in the country. Supermarkets alone are projected to sell 24 million cases for a total of $41 billion in retail sales.

If you’re serving beer, look for craft brews for thematic names:

You also can contemplate George Washington’s own hand-written recipe for beer (the original is in a notebook owned by the New York Public Library):

Take a large Siffer [Sifter] full of Bran Hops to your Taste. — Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 Gall[ons] into a cooler put in 3 Gall[ons] Molasses while the Beer is Scalding hot or rather draw the Melasses into the cooler & St[r]ain the Beer on it while boiling Hot. let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm then put in a quart of Yea[s]t if the Weather is very Cold cover it over with a Blank[et] & let it Work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask — leave the bung open till it is almost don[e] Working — Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed.”

That’s too much work for us—we’ll just head for the Samuel Adams in the fridge.

Enjoy THE NIBBLE’s Beer Glossary.

Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and
George Washington loved their beer! Photo
courtesy Yards Brewing Company.

Growlers are the new “in” and green
packaging for microwbrews. Photo courtesy
SimpleSteps.org.

“Growler” doesn’t sound too friendly. But up through the 1890s, it was a pretty amiable half-gallon glass jug used to transport draft beer home from the tavern.

Thanks to the growth of craft beer, there’s a growler resurgence in the United States. You can find them at breweries and brewpubs that sell take-out beer: Take-home growlers are filled from the tap. Some homebrewers use growlers as well, as an alternative to kegs or standard bottles for carbonating and storing beer.

In the old days growlers had hinged porcelain gasket caps. Today a screw-on cap is as likely (and less expensive). A properly sealed growler will hold carbonation indefinitely, like any other sealed beer bottle.

And it’s more economical to buy beer in a growler than go through many smaller bottles. Most places that sell growlers will re-fill them for you.

Why “growler?” As the story goes, in the late 19th century, before the appearance of the glass growler jug, fresh beer was carried home from the local tavern in a galvanized, lidded tin pail. The claim is that the sound made by the carbon dioxide escaping through the lid as the beer sloshed back and forth sounded like a growl.

Expect to see more growlers (glass jugs, not tin pails) as craft beer fans demand to take home brews on tap.

One of the newer Whole Foods Markets in our area sells a reusable growler filled with your choice of beers on tap—a constantly changing selection. When the growler is empty, bring the growler back for a refill and pay for the beer only.

In addition to being able to try fresh microwbrews that aren’t available in bottles, the idea of reusable bottles that can be refilled time after time—instead of going into landfill every time—is appealing. In fact, Whole Foods market now offers 32-ounce growlers in addition to the 64-ounce.

Looking for palate excitement this year? Like eating on the cutting edge?

McCormick’s 2010 Flavor Forecast offers 10 new ways to pair food and spices. How does a spice company decide what’s hot? The flavor experts at McCormick team up with leading chefs, food writers and other culinary authorities to identify the top flavor pairings and key trends that are poised to shape the way we eat.

This is the 10th anniversary of the McCormick Flavor Forecast, so join the celebration and try the recipes (THE NIBBLE has been publishing them since 2008). We’ll present one a day for the next 10 days.

The first pairing is almond and ale. You might enjoy nibbling on almonds as you drink an ale; now see what it’s like to put almonds into the ale.

Why does this pairing work?

You like ale, you like almonds; so how about
an Ale Almond Spritzer? Photo courtesy McCormicks.com.

The Recipe:

The bittersweet character of both ale and almonds makes a congenial, cozy and hearty match. Invite friends to try this recipe for an Almond-Ale Spritzer, a moderately sweet beer-based cocktail. Enjoy it with a good food-themed movie.

And come up with your own recipes: ale-steamed shrimp with toasted almonds, for example.

Love hops and malt? Get to know India Pale
Ale. Photo courtesy New Belgium Brewing.

New Belgium Brewing, the third-largest craft brewer in the U.S., rolled out its new Ranger India Pale Ale this month. The brewer’s hoppiest offering to date, it’s named after the brewery’s sales team, known as the Beer Rangers, who lobbied long and hard for an IPA.

This 6.5% ABV IPA has hops for days: Cascade (citrus), Chinook (floral/citrus), and Simcoe (fruity). IPA lovers will relish the intense, dry hop flavor.

The ale is brewed with pale and dark caramel malts that harmonize with the hop flavor. Will you be singing after your first sip? Try some and find out!

Hoppy and malty are the cornerstone flavors of India Pale Ale, which was first brewed in 18th-century England as a heavier style beer that could make the long trip by boat to British troops and government officials in India. Though it’s not new on the scene, IPA is currently one of the hottest styles in American craft brewing (hence, the Beer Rangers’ plea).

Read more about the different styles of beer in our Beer Glossary.

To celebrate the launch, New Belgium Brewing held a beer pairing lunch with a menu by caterer Sarah Tomsic. The hoppy IPA was paired with:

So, grab some Ranger India Pale Ale and schedule a dinner party. Variations on all of the recipes above can be easily found in your favorite cookbooks or online.

* Pulverize hops into hop dust. If you can’t get your hands on hops, substitute fennel pollen.
**Chile caribe, is a concentrated chili powder.

Make a gift of a wine-tasting course or a home microbrewery kit even better: give it in tandem with a subscription to a relevant magazine (for wine, we love Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate—subscribe at eRobertParker.com).

The recipient will enjoy being able to build on his or her expertise on an ongoing basis.

Forget the stein: This is the classic
Pilsener glass.