*Special thanks to the wise men at Beer Advocate for the source material.SNIFTER
Snifters are most closely identified with brandy or cognac, but these wide-bowled, stemmed glasses with tapered mouths are ideal for capturing aromas of strong ales—think barleywines, tripels, imperial IPAs. You will look awesome swirling your beer in a cool snifter; for added effect, inquire abour recent fluctuations in the yen, or ask loudly where you can find a gross of canvas bags with dollar signs printed on them. Everyone in the room will assume you're Scrooge McDuck's more successful, human cousin. In short: snifters capture and enhance volatiles and make you look like the guy from the Monopoly game board, so you should buy one.
Which beer styles are suited to this type of glassware?
- American Barleywine
- American Double / Imperial IPA
- American Double / Imperial Stout
- American Strong Ale
- Belgian Dark Ale
- Belgian Pale Ale
- Belgian Strong Dark Ale
- Belgian Strong Pale Ale
- Braggot
- Eisbock
- English Barleywine
- Flanders Oud Bruin
- Flanders Red Ale
- Foreign / Export Stout
- Gueuze
- Lambic - Fruit
- Old Ale
- Quadrupel (Quad)
- Russian Imperial Stout
- Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy
- Tripel
- Wheatwine
Pier 1 comes through again, by far the best price on these (which they call brandy snifters, but they should hold beer satisfactorily as well). The very idea of enjoying a Sierra Nevada Bigfoot in the appropriate glass should send you running for the nearest Pier 1 like Drew Carey at Cracker Barrel's Sunday brunch when they roll out the build-your-own Belgian waffle cart.
Next time: the stange. Never heard of it? Don't worry, that's what this blog is all about.
