Most people drink craft beer from whatever glass is closest. A pint glass, a mason jar, sometimes straight from the can. And while no one's judging, you're leaving something on the table. The shape of your glass has a measurable impact on how your beer tastes, smells, and feels to drink.
Different glass shapes direct beer to different parts of your palate, influence how carbonation reaches you with each sip, and change how aromas hit your nose before the liquid ever touches your tongue. Since around 80% of what we perceive as taste is actually smell, that last point matters more than most people realise.
Here's a rundown of the key types of craft beer glasses and what each one is actually designed to do.
The IPA Glass
The IPA glass is one of the newer additions to the beer glass family, developed specifically to handle the complexity of heavily hopped beers.
Its defining feature is a narrow base that widens dramatically toward the top. The narrow bottom concentrates the liquid and keeps it cooler for longer, while the wide, open top creates maximum surface area for volatile hop aromatics to escape. The result is that every sip is front-loaded with the citrusy, piney, and tropical aromas that make IPAs worth drinking in the first place.
Best for: West Coast IPAs, hazy and New England IPAs, Double IPAs, Pale Ales
→ Shop the Classico IPA Beer Glass
The Tulip Beer Glass
The tulip is arguably the most versatile specialty glass in craft beer. Its curved body flares outward at the top before folding back in slightly, trapping and concentrating aromas while still giving enough room for a generous foam head to form.
That foam head isn't just aesthetic. It acts as a lid, capturing volatile aromatic compounds and releasing them slowly as you drink. For complex, layered beers like Belgian ales and sour styles, this makes a significant difference to the experience.
Best for: Belgian ales, saisons, sour beers (Goses, Berliner Weisse, Flanders Red Ales), strong ales, barleywines
The Pilsner & Lager Glass
Tall, slender, and tapered toward the base, the pilsner glass is designed to show off exactly what pilsners and lagers do best: clarity, colour, and carbonation.
The narrow shape maintains a foam head throughout the drink, while the thin walls let you appreciate the beer's colour and the steady stream of rising bubbles. There's a reason this is the classic European lager glass. It's elegant, functional, and built specifically for lighter beer styles that deserve to be seen.
Best for: Pilsners, lagers, Kölsch, blonde ales, wheat beers
→ Shop the Pilsner & Lager Glass
The Beer Can Glass
The beer can glass is the outlier on this list. It's not optimised for a specific style so much as it's designed for a specific kind of drinker.
Shaped to mimic the feel and weight of holding a can, it's immediately familiar. But unlike drinking from a can, you get the visual experience of seeing your beer, the aroma benefits of an open vessel, and a noticeable improvement in how carbonation comes across. It's the gateway glass: the one that converts can drinkers into glass drinkers.
Best for: Any style: lagers, pale ales, session IPAs, anything you'd normally crack from a can
What About the Standard Pint Glass?
The pint glass is the most common beer glass in the world, which makes it worth addressing directly: it was not designed for craft beer.
The wide, straight-walled shaker pint was designed for bars - stackable, durable, cheap to replace. The shape does nothing to concentrate aromas, the thick glass warms your beer quickly, and the wide mouth dissipates carbonation and foam faster than it should. For a mass-produced lager at the pub, it's fine. For a hazy IPA or a complex Belgian ale, you're selling the beer short.
This isn't about being precious. It's simple: craft brewers spend a lot of time and money developing aroma and flavour in their beer. A glass that was designed for convenience rather than drinking experience undoes some of that work before the beer reaches your mouth.
The good news is that specialty glassware doesn't have to be expensive or complicated. Even one purpose-built glass makes a noticeable difference - and if you're not sure where to start, a curated set covers all the bases at once.
→ Browse craft beer glass sets
Which glass should you start with?
If you're new to craft beer glassware, start with a set. Individual specialty glasses are great once you know your favourite styles, but a curated set lets you experiment across different beers without committing to one shape.
Our craft beer glass sets are built around the styles most people actually drink, so you're covered whether you're pouring an IPA, a sour, a pilsner, or something stronger. The All Rounder covers everyday styles from $95, and the Craft Guru is our most complete set for the serious enthusiast.
If you already know your preferred style, go straight to the glass that suits it. Your next beer will thank you.