Glassware glassware glassware

Glassware, glassware, glassware. It’s the accepted truism that the right glassware for the right beer is the right thing for the right time. In a bar at Taunton today with fellow Guild member Bill Bradshaw (pretty good snapper, see his pix here) and, in order to wash away the taste of fusebox dipped in water that the beer of a local micro had given us, I order a Staro for myself and Bill gets an Estrella Damm. Look at the glass, one of the best I have seen, the right glass etc etc. Unfortunately you get to taste the beer: vanilla ice cream in a lagered beer is not something I am familiar with. My Staro is a plain old nonic isn’t bad, but the Damm is…well damned awful. Moral of the story, get the glass and the beer right. You can spend a lot of money on the externals but if the internals aren’t right then what’s the point…

I quite enjoy a glass of Estrella at La Boqueria in Barcelona when I’m practising my dreadful Spanish before moving onto the Mahou Negra but in the middle of Taunton…