Scientific American posted an interesting article this morning entitled Does Your Beer Glass Matter?. Part of their “Anthropology in Practice” section, in it author Krystal D’Costa takes a look at the beer glass through history from early man up to the recent new glass designed by the Boston Beer Co. for their Samuel Adams Lager.
The section on 20th century beer glasses (starting with the paragraph “The 1920’s…” [which was the Prohibition era in the US] and it’s 10-sided mug, dimpled mug and up to the discussion of the unnamed “Nonic”) seems simply cribbed from a UK source, and has no relevance to the common US beer glasses -or elsewhere in the world for that matter- of the era discussed.
Also, the concept that the “standard” pint glass “…leaves enough space for a nice head” is laughable – since one of the many negatives of the shaker pint is that is leaves NO space for the head- not if one expect 16 ounces of beer when they order a pint.
The only beer glass that matters is one that doesn’t leak.