This is my first post to the Indiana Beer Barons blog, so I thought it would be a good introduction if my first post focused on something that I'm very passionate about…
Just when you thought beer geeks couldn’t get any geekier,
there’s a new niche beer geek. We’re the guys you see at brewery anniversary
parties looking for the special glassware to commemorate the event, or seeking
out the Three Floyd’s merchandise tent among all the beer whale carnage for the
annual Three Floyd’s/Intelligentsia taster glass. We’re the glassware geeks.
So where did we come from? I’m sure there’s always been a
few of us around, but as the scene has exploded and new breweries open every
day, there’s been a proliferation of brewery glassware and naturally an
increase in collectors. Certain breweries produce a vast variety of glassware, such
as Stone Brewing Company who as of this post had 18 different glasses in their
online store and at their last anniversary party produced no less than 4
different glasses just for that event.
Unlike beer, breweries can ship you their glassware directly
if they’re willing to (not all are for various reasons) and in some cases it’s
as simple as visiting their online store. Also, breweries like New Belgium,
Samuel Adams, and Terrapin commonly give away glasses at events. The abundance
of available glasses makes it seem like an easy item to collect, but that’s not
always the case.
First, beer glasses aren’t as widely distributed as beer and
are generally only available at the brewery, sometimes at liquor stores, or at
specific events. Secondly, certain glasses are only made in very limited numbers.
For example a new brewery out of Oregon only made 71 of their tulip glasses
available, and a very popular Oregon brewery made 500 glasses available for
their most recent anniversary party.
Glasses like the Cantillon Iris wine glass, Left Hand Brewing
“Wake Up Dead” snifter (I get unsolicited offers for mine all the time), Pretty
Things “Our Finest Regards” wine glass, and several Three Floyd’s glasses are
what we call glasswhales; the rarest
of the rare. These glasses are rarely seen and usually cause a frenzy when they
are offered up for trade, and their owners can demand a lot in return. The
extreme rarity and/or demand for certain glasses has spawned a burgeoning glassware
trading community somewhat similar to the beer trading community.
Just like with beer, people mule, hoard, and ransom glasses
and unfortunately as the scene grows we get more and more people doing the
latter. Trading glasses can also be more difficult than trading beer; because
the community is newer and smaller, consensus values on rare glasses and
trading protocols haven’t been firmly established. It can get complicated too
when there are multiple versions of a glass and there’s not a common lexicon
among traders or no fancy beer label to simply reference. This has bitten me
before when I expected a certain Russian River “-tion” glass to arrive in a
trade, but got the wrong glass because the trader incorrectly identified the
glass he sent me.
That said, I
have found the glassware trading community to be very generous and very
welcoming to newcomers.
I’ve shown my collection of glasses (pictured below) to many
people and among the many compliments and exclamations of “my significant other
would kill me!” I frequently get asked: “Why do you have so many glasses?” While
I can only truly answer for myself, I have several reasons that I believe
reflect other collectors’ thoughts as well.
First, some of us are just habitual collectors; whether it
was baseball cards, action figures, dolls, or probably what a lot of you
reading this now collect, beer, there’s always some focus that provides the
“thrill of the chase.” Secondly, there’s something that
just feels right about having the matching glass to go with the beer and so
this means you need a lot of glassware! Lastly, and probably most important for
me, there are memories attached to the majority of my glassware- when the beer
is gone the glass remains!
You’re probably wondering “Who is this guy? How do I know he
has street cred?” well in my collection I have over 250 pieces of glassware… It’s gotten to the point where I’ve had
to institute 2 rules (there are occasional exceptions made): 1) I’m not allowed
to have glassware from a brewery that I have not visited or have at least had
beer from; 2) No more shaker pints! It’s the standard conical glass you see
everywhere- I hate those things and I don’t buy them anymore, but I’ll talk
more about that in another post probably.
I’m assuming that everyone reading this is excited to go out
and collect glassware now! Since I mostly focus on collecting non-shaker pints,
there’s not a lot that I’ve purchased around Indy recently, but here is a quick
rundown of what I think the better local and easily obtainable glasses are:
-Upland Brewing Co. Snifter (taprooms)
-Sun King Can Glass (taproom)
-Bier Brewery Snifter (taproom)
-Daredevil Imperial pint and tulip (Daredevil’s online shop)
-New Day Snifter (Taproom; for the mead fans out there)
-Most of the other breweries will have some type of shaker
pint to purchase.
So the next time you see that crazy guy at Three Floyd’s
Dark Lord Day (because there’s only one right?) looking for that year’s special
event glass, point him in the right direction and think about getting one for
yourself, because it won’t come cheap when you want the proper glassware for
your Dark Lord.
