A Glass Worth Celebrating

So today my girlfriend celebrate 3 years since we started dating. Naturally this is a good excuse to pull out a special beer, which in turn is a great excuse to use proper glassware. 

Poured a Prairie Bomb! (A massive imperial stout aged on vanilla, coffee, and peppers) into a Prairie mini-snifter. Prairie glassware is fairly difficult to acquire, but I found a trader in Oklahoma to get me some beer, and of course glassware. 

What: Prairie Mini-snifter

How: BA Trade

Beer Tourism- Cincinnati

So today's blog is centered around something I do a lot and will be featured a lot on this blog: beer tourism. 

On a whim we decided to go to Cincinnati and hit a couple breweries and IKEA (to appease the girl). Today I'll be talking about Rhingeist and later Rivertown. 

First I'd have to say that rhinegeist is not in the best area, but the space itself is pretty awesome; it appears to be a converted space taking up the entire 3rd floor of an old warehouse. Lots of picnic tables, corn hole, and a ping pong table. The brewery focuses on hoppy beers and had a hoppy wheat, an English mild, a few pale ales, and an IPA on. I tried the wheat and the pale ales. Overall the beers were pretty good and I ended up taking home one of their Monogamy single hop series pale ales featuring Mosiac Hops. 

Naturally I picked up a glass featuring their cool teardrop skull logo. 

What: Rhinegeist Brewery Snifter/Tulip

How: From the brewery

Westbrook Snifter

Yeah sorry no catchy title for this one. Got this from another BA trade. I really like Westbrook's branding and the glass does a good job of tapping into that without being complicated (like the bottle and can artwork). Eventually I need some Mexican cake for this thing. 

What: Westbrook Snifter

How: BA Trade

Glassware Advocacy

A few months ago I got over my fear of the Beer Advocate forums and started contributing here and there, mostly in the breweriana forum. Like with any online forum you've got your great people and your not so great people. Today I received a package from one of the former containing 2 nice pieces- a half acre "squidowl" willi becher glass and a Kane snifter; both are glasses that I was looking for. The BA sent them to me out of generousity and wanted nothing in return- that's glassware advocacy at its finest. 

What: Half Acre "squidowl" willi becher

Kane snifter

How: A very generous BA

A Cycle from Florida

Over the last few days I've gotten inundated with new glasses- 17 in total! This nice medium snifter from Cycle Brewing is one of my favorites and it came with a whale of a beer. The glass has a great logo and a very clean yet fun look. It was a bonus that the Rare Dos that came with it was not infected. 

What: Cycle Brewing Snifter

How: BA Trade

Like it or Not Pumpkin Beers (and Glasses) are Here.

The leaves are... well still green, there's a chill... wait no its still hot, well pumpkin and Oktoberfest beers are here! I finally caved today and cracked open my first pumpkin beer of the "season". Of course I needed the proper glassware for it. Luckily a BA sent me an Elysian "Great Pumpkin Beer Festival (8th Annual)" mini- snifter. I believe each year has a different jack-o-lantern design... Tempting to get each year! 

What: Elysian Great Pumpkin Beer (8th Annual) Festival mini-snifter 

How: BA Trade

Attack of the Belgians

Had 3 nice Belgian glasses show up in the last week. Unfortunately I still haven't had beers from 2 of the 3 breweries (Brouwerij Drie Fonteinen and Cantillon), but maybe someday! The fantome glass is not the best quality (wobbly and has specks on it), but how could you not love a glass with a ghost on it? The other 2 are beautiful pieces- I just need some beer for these things!

What: Cantillon gold logo glass, Fantome solid ghost tulip, and 

Brouwerij Drie Fonteinen "3" wine glass. 

How: BA trades