Mug vs. Super Glass: A scientific test.

The classy gent Bull E. Vard at KC Beer Blog posted about this article, which examines the history of what people drink beer out of. Mentioned in the article was the Sam Adams Perfect Pint, and Bull offered a couple up as a prize if you posted on his Facebook page with a picture of your favorite beer glass.

I tossed Mug up, and was rewarded with one of those Super Glasses.

Which means I had to find out: how much of this glassware is bullshit, and how much is nerdy douchebaggery.

So here you go, the results of my very scientific taste testing.

CONTROL: Water

You'll likely believe this, but I failed to notice a difference in the taste of water between sexy Mug and fancy Super Glass. I guess I should say, I failed to notice taste. It's water. I'm not a fan of water in general, probably because it reminds me of working out. By the end of this I was thankful I was not working out.

Winner: No one. Here's to the control.

WHY THE FUCK NOT: Orange Juice

I think everyone will agree that every restaurant known for breakfast will fuck you right out of your money to give you a shitty amount of OJ. I'm pretty notorious for drinking a lot, though, so maybe my perception is a bit off. The mug held quite a bit of OJ, and it was likely that rage I have for breakfast joints that made the Perfect Pint taste a bit worse. I can't give you any information about smells or if either glass made the acidity hit harsher or softer, or if one was smoother than the other. I just know that the glass least like a breakfast joint was my sweet Mug.

Winner: Mug

OTHER THINGS: Chocolate Milk

I fully planned on doing this, but we ran out of chocolate milk. I love chocolate milk. Another day...

Beer

Green Flash's Hop Head Red IPA

(Pictured above!) I did this beer first because I've never had it. I know it just started getting to KC recently, so it seemed like the right thing to do. So I pour it in the Super Glass, and the nose of it (can you say that when you're drinking beer?) was very sweet. Not a lot of head on it, and it had that just-syrupy enough fruit scent that good IPAs have, that not-quite-a-double aroma that I love. The taste was excellent, and very active with hops/rye/what have you. I looked this up online later and saw a lot of people who all say said "well, they claim it's an IPA" like it was some sort of issue, but I full on support the IPAness of it. Probably because I'm a huge Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye fan.

For Mug, it had a whole lot of head going on. The sweetness was more faint than in Super Glass, and the bitterness of it was a little more on the overwhelming side. Being that it doesn't have the tapered opening like Super Glass, drinking it pretty much poured that head straight into my mouth before the beer could slip through. This was a good sample to give Super Glass a shot.

Winner: Super Glass

Lagunitas's GnarlyWine

So here we go: high alcohol, quick-settling head, enjoyable to sip with an ABV that suggests you sip (provided you're not in a bad mood). The beer gets out of Mug without too much head interference, and the head is consistency-wise thick and smooth enough that I actually like the way it tastes. There's a lot of habit, a building tradition even, in there that makes me weigh favor towards Mug, but Super Glass impressed me with the last beer, so fuck it, right?

Well, Super Glass had more going against it than I thought. See, there was a comment not too long ago by a KC beer nerd or three about how some beer companies have a certain "taint" that runs through them that essentially ruins all beers from that brewery for them. Lagunitas has the same thing for me, except it's something in all of them that I really like, but makes all of them taste a bit similar. The most different beer I've had of theirs was the Imperial Stout, but I could even pick up a little of whatever it is that makes them familiar. So Super Glass, for me, had to make Gnarly Wine (my favorite of what they offer) taste even more different. And it really didn't. It was still strong, the nose still had that Lagunitas smell to it, and I was happy to drink it. But especially with this beer, I love my Mug.

Winner: Mug

Tallgrass's Halcyon

People think this is one of my favorite beers. It is not. It is, however, the only unfiltered wheat beer I fully support, and it opened me up to trying more. Wheat beer was, essentially, what pilsners are to me now: something I've never enjoyed, and therefore am unwilling to try any more without a real good kick in the ass. Halcyon kicked my ass.

And I'm glad it did, and during summer. Drinking it out of Super Glass brought out more of the fruitiness of its flavor, and let me admire a lot of the color and cloudiness of the beer that I never really see. It's not going to win any beauty competitions, but it is still cool to see for something that I rarely look at (unfiltered wheat beers, that is; not just Halcyon).

So when it was time for Mug, I was sad to not really get a view of it. And what was even weirder to me was that the carbonation seemed a little more intense. It was like having the soda fizzies with that big open Mug-top. But it was still good.

Winner: The Can. Halcyon needs no glassware. Why fuck up the blue-collar aesthetics of drinking beer out of ugly cans? I mean, c'mon: Homeless people drink this stuff.

In The End

So I've been watching Oz & May Drink to Britain, and something that Oz keeps saying is that to really judge a beer, you have to burp it. This is going to sound more stupid than "glasses matter" even sounds, but for whatever reason: speed of consumption, the amount of head, some bullshit "awakening of flavors," the way the glass made the liquid pour down my throat; whatever it was, drinking from the glass produced better burps each time. I know it sounds stupid, but the Super Glass burps were more flavorful, and more in general.

So you win, Super Glass. Be it over-active imagination or science, there were things I noticed in Super Glass that I didn't in Mug, and that's certainly not a bad thing. Though I'll likely utilize Mug more often than not, Super Glass is nice to have around, and I'm sure it'll get plenty of not-OJ play.