Why You Should Pour Pilsner Beer Into A Stange Glass

Few drinks top the appeal of a crisp, light pilsner beer post-hike or while catching a football game with friends (feel free to insert your preferred outdoor activity here). You may already appreciate this underrated beer style for its hop-forward, just-right bite of bitterness straight out of the chilled can or bottle. However, you can enhance your pilsner drinking experience by simply choosing the right glassware. The stange glass is the perfect beer complement, especially for more delicate styles such as kölsch, lambic, gose, bock, and pilsner.

Derived from the German word for "rod," stange glasses have a narrow, cylindrical shape and hold about 6 ounces of beer. Since the stange holds less volume than the average 16- or 20-ounce pint glass, the beer will remain crisp and cold, while the narrow design preserves carbonation and concentrates the beer's smell. Stange glasses also help maintain the pilsner's tight foam head and emphasize its pristine golden clarity.

Did we whet your appetite for a pilsner yet? Good. The next step is knowing how to order the beer like a pro during your next bar visit. If you encounter a draft menu full of unfamiliar names, let the bartender know your flavor preferences, and they'll pour a pilsner catered to your palate. If you're enjoying a round of lagers with friends at a craft brewery, you'll likely benefit from the bartender's slow-pour method. A slow pour takes up to seven minutes, accentuating the pilsner's subtle flavor notes (often described as herbal and floral) and softening its fizzy effervescence.

If you want to give the slow-pour method a try at home, start by pouring the pilsner hard straight down the center of the glass to create a dense head of foam, then pause to let it settle before topping it off repeatedly. Since good home bartending starts with having the right tools (even if you're only pouring a beer), it's best to build a collection of different types of drinkware. Traditional stange glasses are hard to find, but the hand-blown Footed Stange set by Burns Glass (available on Amazon) and the accessibly priced $6 Big Grove Stange Glass are great riffs. Crate & Barrel's highly rated stange glass dupe is an excellent option, too, with one pleased reviewer describing it as "just a glass that happens to be perfect."