Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Glassware Stories

I don't really have an extensive branded glassware collection, and even less of an unbranded collection, though I am sure Mrs Velkyal would beg to differ and then regale you with stories of my obsessive care for said glasses. In some ways she is right, I am somewhat overly attached to my glasses, but each one has a back story, a link to a beery event or to the generosity of brewers or some such moment of nostalgia which makes me fond of them. I don't have any chalice style glasses for Belgian style ales as that would be largely pointless because I rarely drink Belgian beer, beyond the Trappists that is. Here then is the full, branded collection.


A motley bunch to be sure, a few Czechs, a couple of Brits, a German and an American.


The glass that features very regularly on Fuggled is of course my Lovibond's half pint, actually it is one of two glasses, and I think I most fussy about what gets done with this pair. When I lived in Prague, I wrote a couple of reviews of Lovibond's excellent beers that I had bought in the UK a while back, and the owner of the brewery, Jeff, very graciously sent me a couple of glasses, which I think are the most beautiful in my mini collection. When we moved over to the States, I was worried that these glasses wouldn't survive the journey, so I was very relieved when it came to unpacking boxes and there they were, good as new.


Chodovar is a family brewery in Western Bohemia that I have liked ever since I tried their Skální Ležák at PK, first in the bottle and then on tap. This glass though I picked up in a pub on the other side of Prague, simply by asking how much I could pay them for it, and they said "take it", so I took it. The glass itself is pretty much like the vast majority of half litre beer glasses you get in the Czech Republic, and fits perfectly in the hand for swilling glass after glass of amber nectar.


I bought this hefty mug at the Slunce v Skle event hosted by Purkmistr back in 2008, on the day I had the pleasure of meeting, and getting royally rat arsed with Pivní Filosof for the first time. I also bought a delicate little goblet glass which I did all my beer tasting with that day, and which again survived the trip from Prague to Charlottesville, only for me to break it by missing the cupboard shelf by half an inch. Purkmistr also make a lovely weizen glass that I would love to get my hands on - so my Czech readers, get me a new goblet and a weizen glass, post them to the US (address will be provided by email) and I will send you the money to cover said purchases.


Beck's reminding you of a renowned craft brew pub in Dublin just sounds wrong, but it does. When Mrs Velkyal and I went to Ireland for my birthday back in 2008 we arranged to meet up with The Beer Nut and Barry, of Bitten Bullet fame, in the Bull and Castle. We drank plenty, had a good feed, and the manager was trying to get rid of these Beck's Vier glasses, so Mrs Velkyal said she wanted one, and I claimed it would never survive the flight back to Prague, I was wrong, as you can see. One thing I didn't realise with this glass is the laser etched bottom which extends the life of the head, something I still think is intrinsically wrong, hence I refuse to purchase a Sam Adams glass, despite it looking so fabulous.


The Devil's Backbone glass was a give away to celebrate their first anniversary back in November, and a nice glass it is too, though I think I will have to buy one of their goblets at some point in the future, just because they look so nice. My Everard's glass is another which is very close to my zythophilic heart, and again shows the generosity of the brewing world. You can't buy Everard's lovely ales in the US, which is damned shame in my world because I would love a pint or six of Tiger almost every Friday, but I enjoyed it in Oxford when I was last there, and had the pleasure of showing one of their brewers around several of Prague's best brewpubs a while back. The glass is another celebratory souvenir, but this time for the company's 160th anniversary, and Everard's were good enough to send one over to the US for me - such lovely people, who make such lovely beer!


I am hoping that I am not the only person who attaches memories to my glassware, in fact I am sure we all do it, hence the sepia tinged picture above, with the unbranded glasses chucked in for good measure. Of course, one should never look back too much, so I have a growing list of brewery glasses I want, but that would be telling!

10 comments:

  1. Cool post, and nice collection. Mine isn't too vast, but it is a great feeling to add one to the bunch. love the design on everards

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  2. I love the pinky sticking up - it is a great glass!

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  3. Quality stuff. How many of these were "robbed"?

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  4. Precisely zero. On our spirit glass collection it would be a different story.

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  5. I've two of those Beck's Vier glasses, received the same time as yourself, and I've never use them. I keep meaning to give them away to make room for something else :D

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  6. That DB glass is sweet. I can't help myself either, I'm a total sucker for glassware. I think we all are!!

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  7. If you didn't rob 'em I have to suspect the Beck's glass was collecting tokens off boxes of supermarket lout. My becks's glasses came from tokens from 2 boxes of discounted lout from Tesco. Nice work fella, and good to see another appreciator of cheap supermarket grog. Well Done.

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  8. Barry,

    The Beck's glass is very useful for those times with homebrew when you are not sure that the carbonation was enough to generate a good head - the laser etching does the trick! However, not to be recommended with a well carbonated weizen or similar, unless you like the cappuccino equivalent of beer that is.

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  9. Nice post. The glasses we've got that always bring a smile to Boak's face are the Urquell glasses she negotiated purchase of in rudimentary Czech on the trip to Prague when we met you. They're nice enough glasses, but it's the memory that makes 'em really special.

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  10. Great post! I am also very fond of branded glasses, and some of my favourites are also Czech.
    My favourite at the moment is a champagne like Lobkowicz glass.

    By the way, I was at Purkmistr a few weeks ago. I also bought the mug on your picture. A great glass!

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