Beer drinkers know that there’s nothing quite like sipping an ice-cold beverage from a clear glass. It creates a more enjoyable drinking experience because the beer’s aroma and flavor are more pronounced.
Previous research has found that consumers of beer prefer to have their beverages as cold as possible. But the problem is that glass does not retain the crisp chill of beer very well.
Typically, beer drinkers will use foam sleeves or add handles to reduce direct contact with the glass to prevent the beverage from warming up too quickly.
To solve this issue, beer glass makers have taken a more extreme approach and come up with various designs to retain coldness for a long time.
A professor of thermal and fluid sciences at the Federal University of São João del-Rei in Brazil named Claudio Pellegrini has determined the best shape for a beer glass to keep the liquid cold for as long as possible.
He calculated the optimal glass design based on the principles of physics. He did not take external factors into account, such as the warmth of a hand holding the glass or the types of glass used.
Instead, Pellegrini tested several shape designs to evaluate heat transfer rates. To figure out the ideal shape, he started with the most basic model, which was a glass with a smooth curve and fixed around a vertical axis.
It had a standard height, radius, and base-to-top ratio. In addition, it had an insulated base to make sure heat loss would only occur from the tops and sides.
For testing purposes, he assumed a fixed starting temperature for the beer and that the glass would have negligible thermal resistance so that any changes in heat transfer would be solely due to modifications in shape.
monticellllo – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
Pellegrini found that the best shape was also the most popular among beer drinkers. The ideal glass had a small base that grew wider the closer it got to the top.
The most traditional beer glasses already contain these features, like the imperial pint, the Brazilian tulip, and the Weizenbeer glass.
Aside from minimizing heat transfer, there are other important factors to consider when designing the shape of a beer glass.
For instance, the size and shape of the top of the glass controls how much foam will form when the beer is poured. The foam traps flavor molecules, which will influence the drinking experience.
Pellegrini also lamented over the cheapest and most widely used beer glass in Brazil, known as the Nadir Figueiredo glass.
It only has a volume of 190 millimeters, meaning that the beverage is consumed in just a couple of gulps.
“It maintains the beer cold through the most primitive of the processes: due to its low capacity, the beer is consumed so quickly it has no time to get warm,” he said.
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