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| Bubbles on the glass is a sign of a dirty glass |
TIME TO COME CLEAN—Guest
Blog by Julia Herz, Brewers Assn.
Why are bubbles in your beer
glass a red flag to enjoying your craft beer? Appreciation of any
food or beverage should be free from detergent (yikes!), food residue (yeesh!),
oils (ugh!), lipstick (ew!) and other unseemly sensory assaults. No-brainer,
right? However, this is often not the case both at home and in out-of-touch
dining establishments.
It’s great that we are finally getting the culinary world to
pour beer into an actual glass—thank goodness—but now we have the issue of
remnant-riddled glassware.
Dishes, cutlery and glassware sometimes have residue that
we, the thirsty and hungry innocent, simply cannot see. So, here’s the trick to
immediately know if your glass is dirty: Look for carbonation bubbles on the
inside of your glass. Beer’s carbonation colonizes on the what should be
forbidden funk clinging to the interior of any beer vessel.
With the exception of laser-etched glassware, clean glass
should be smooth enough to leave none of the irregularities on which bubbles
like to form. When bubbles cling to the sides of your beer glass, it is a huge
red flag signaling that residual food and often soap (yuck!) is present in your
beer and entering your body.
If only it was that easy to tell what still lingers on our
plates while we eat.
Carbonation
Yes my friends, carbonation is one mighty and magical
ingredient in beer. Besides calling attention to foreign matter that did not
come from the brewer or beer, carbonation also:
Produces that aroma-enhancing collar of foam
Livens up a beer’s mouthfeel
Dries out a beer’s finish as a flavor balancing element
Scrubs the tongue, preparing it for the next bite of food or
sip of beer
So if you see bubbles clinging to the inside of your glass,
send it back to the manager for more cleaning. Beer lovers should not be forced
to consume the evidence of any vessels’ previous affairs—no matter how intimate
we like to get with our craft beer. You can quote me on that.pullquote
Industry Insiders
Here is what some in the craft brewing community had to say
on the topic of dirty beer glassware:
Claudia Faulk | Partner/CFO/Chief glasswasher
Aztec Brewing Company | Vista, CA
I was just served a nitro stout with bubbles lining the
entire side of the glass. These bubbles were forming on contaminants. First,
residue muddles the flavor of the beer. Who knows how it alters the taste? If
I’m serving beer I am proud of, I want people to taste that specific beer.
Dirty growlers that have been stored with the cap on are scary too. You open
them up and they go poof. I keep waiting for a dirty anti-beer genie to come
out. Rinse them out when you are done.
Tom Schaeffer | CEO
Black Cloister Brewing Company | Toledo, OH
There is nothing quite as disappointing as ordering at a bar
that features craft beer and receiving it in glass that is not beer clean. When
you lift the beer to your nose and just smell chemicals, or visually have a
beer that has a quickly dissipating head, it greatly detracts from the entire
drinking experience. It does the brewer a great disservice.
Know the bar and the staff. You can certainly request for
your glass to be rinsed, or complain about it not being beer clean. I’ve done
it many times—usually I’m just seen as a snob. But, if I know the bar and the
staff, then they know me. In those situations, rarely do I receive a glass that
is not beer clean, and, when I do, the relationship is there that they replace
it without question.
Mike V. Sardina | Rule of the Underworld (assistant
executive officer)
Societe Brewing Company | San Diego, CA
Brewing and packaging beer is all about cleanliness and
sanitation in the brewery. We literally spend our working days cleaning—whether
that be cleaning the brewhouse, sanitizing fermentors, prepping bright tanks,
or sanitizing or sterilizing hoses, clamps, valves and kegs. Why should the
attention to cleanliness stop once the brewing is finished?
A beer-clean glass is the only way to properly respect beer
that is born from clean practices and processes. A clean glass ensures that the
sight, aroma and taste of the beer is exactly what our brewers intended it to
be. You don’t see a world-class chef allow their meals to be served on a dirty
plate, so why should a brewer allow their beer to be served in a dirty glass?
Just like cleaning in the brewery, you need to take the time
to clean glassware properly. Be sure to teach those folks who serve your beer
how to properly wash glasses, either manually or with an automatic washing
machine. Be sure to use the correct detergents and sanitizers. Once the glass
is clean, be sure to handle clean glassware properly. And finally, make sure
that you are periodically testing for beer-clean glassware.
Put Your Glassware to the Test
Whether you’re serving beer professionally or at home,
it’s easy to check that your glasses are properly clean. Here are the three
methods outlined in the Brewers Association Draught Beer Quality Manual (page
48):
Sheeting Test: Dip the glass in water. If the glass is
clean, water evenly coats the glass when lifted out of the water. If the glass
still has an invisible film, water will break up into droplets on the inside
surface.
Salt Test: Salt sprinkled on the interior of a wet glass
will adhere evenly to the clean surface, but will not adhere to the parts that
still contain a greasy film. Poorly cleaned glasses show an uneven distribution
of salt.
Lacing Test: Fill the glass with beer. If the glass is
clean, foam will adhere to the inside of the glass in parallel rings after each
sip, forming a lacing pattern. If not properly cleaned, foam will adhere in a
random pattern, or may not adhere at all.
For more information on beer-clean glassware, visit
DraughtQuality.org and download a copy of the Brewers Association Draught Beer
Quality Manual.
SOURCE:
http://www.craftbeer.com/craft-beer-muses/coming-clean-about-dirty-beer-glassware
AUTHOR: Julia Herz, Craft
Beer Program Director for the Brewers Association, is a homebrewer, BJCP beer
judge and Certified Cicerone®. Despite her extensive experience, she will
always consider herself a beer beginner on an unending journey to learn more about
craft beer.
Julia has also penned a companion article on the five deadly
sins of craft beer service.
http://www.craftbeer.com/craft-beer-muses/5-cardinal-sins-of-craft-beer-service
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