Glassware glut. First let’s backtrack a little. I went to a brewery sponsored event recently. Got to taste the beers from a lovely Picasso-esque, sharp angle, almost a wine glass branded subtly with the brewery name on it.
Upon leaving said event, I was asked if I forgot my glass. Now I had a choice to make. Honestly answer that I literally had no place to put another glass. Or I could go with the snappy comeback of my wife would crown me over the head with it if she found out that another glass had found its way home. Maybe christen is the term instead of crown but either answer is correct.
Hats and shirts and bottle openers as swag has been replaced with a branded glass of late. A person who goes to one event a month could wind up with a full display collection in one year. I probably land in the upper middle of the glass collectors and I have one large storage container filled with all shapes and sizes that just do not get used at all. Not to mention the ones in the back of cabinets that are a bit dusty as I type this. Or the glasses that I have gifted away. All in just seven years of blogging about beer.
Keep in mind that the number in storage could be higher if I hadn’t left more glasses at events or handed them off to others. Over the last year, unless the glass was of a style that I could actually use or had sentimental value, I would leave it on a table at the exit and go on my merry way without the souvenir. In my recent trip to the California Craft Beer Summit, three glasses were used over the long weekend. I only brought home two and almost decided to just bring the one fancy wine glass.
This avoidance comes from a person who fully understands that certain makes and models of glassware can bring out different aromas and can show off the true color of a beer. I received a Bruery Terreux glass that I think is so pretty and fits my hand so well that I have hissed people away from using it.
I guess the time will come (probably already has and I have ignored it) when I will have to take a box of shaker pints to Goodwill. The one plus from Golden Road selling out was that I could take those glasses out of the mix without feeling bad.
But even with that, my space limit has been far surpassed and I fervently wish that breweries would start swagging socks or pencils instead.
That’s a we–tthoughllout answer to a challenging question