2.25" x 5.5"
Glass
GERMANY

The majority of Americans enjoy drinking beer; they drink beer more than any other alcoholic beverage. Still, consumption wise, this only ranks us as #13 in the world behind Slovakia and Finland (Czechoslovakia ranks #1). Of course, Germany is one of the worlds beer hubs (ranked #3) and actually, although I do enjoy a cold beer every now and then, after our trip I really understood the difference between a good beer and a beer. I'm a slow, light drinker which means by the time I get to the bottom of a drink the liquid is painfully lukewarm. For me, the best beer I had was at the beer hall Päffgen in Cologne, largely because it was served in these glasses. The glass, called a Kölsch glass or a Kölsch-Stange, only holds .2 liters; a bit less than half a pint, which meant by the time I got to the bottom of the glass, my beer was still perfectly cold. Kölsch is the type of beer served on Cologne (Köln) and the brew is protected so that only beer produced in the area can be called Kölsch, as is done with champagne in France for instance. What happens at the Päffgen and other beer halls in Cologne is the bar staff walks around the room with a circular tray with holes for the glasses and a handle in the center. They walk around and around, filling and refilling their trays from the casks of fresh beer out front, replacing your glass when it is empty and marking your coaster for each beer given. This pattern of repetition can lead to quite a drunk evening! An upturned glass indicates you are done for the evening. So different from the beer hall in Munich where I had to use two hands to hold the damn beer stein! (A different kind of living.) Please note the etched marks on the glass relate to the coding on chemistry glass, it's a really nice detail.