How to Properly Clean a Beer Glass

Without properly caring for your beer glasses, you won’t be able to taste the beer correctly, or how the brewery had intended it to taste. To get the most out of your beer, we’ll tell you exactly how you can properly clean your beer glasses below!

Why do beer glasses require special care?

The term beer clean is commonly used in the industry to describe a glass that is free of any residue, fragrance, oil, or other contaminants that give CO2 a place to cling to. The Brewer’s Association Draught Beer Quality Manual (DBQM) defines a beer clean glass as one that: "Forms a proper foam head, allows lacing during consumption, and never shows patches of bubbles stuck to the side of the glass in the liquid beer." If this concept is new to you, no need to worry, we’ll teach you how to clean beer glasses below!

How to properly clean a beer glass

1. Wash: Before you start washing your beer glass you’ll want to make sure the sink and work area are clean. Then, start by cleaning the glass in hot water with a bar glass detergent, these kinds of detergent are not fat or oil-based, so they do a great job at ensuring no residue is left over. You can use a hand held glass washing brush or an electric one for faster cleaning time. After you have gotten all of the stains off, be sure to rinse it with cold water.
2. Sanitize: Sanitizing your custom barware is a very important step since it gets rid of any bacteria that could still be present. When sanitizing glassware be sure to use water that is at least 75 degrees Fahrenheit, this will ensure you are following Federal sanitation guidelines while also sanitizing your glasses to the fullest extent.
3. Properly Dry Your Glasses: Instead of using towels to dry your glasses, air dry them on corrugated drain board and let them fully dry between uses to prevent any mildew.

Bonus Tip:

To ensure you have beer clean glasses, make sure they are used specifically for beer, no juices, milk, or soda should be served in beer glasses to prevent any residue from building up.

How can you tell if your beer glass is clean enough?

To check how well you are actually cleaning your branded beer glasses, here are some quick tests you can do:

Salt test

In order to use the salt test, sprinkle some salt on the inside of a wet glass, if the glass is clean it will have salt covering every inch of the glass, if there is an invisible film, it will not stick to those certain areas.

Lacing test

Fill a glass with beer, pour out a bit to the foam settle, if it creates parallel rings it is clean, if not, you’ll need to re-clean the glass.

Now that you have learned how to properly clean your drinkware, you can avoid compromising the taste, aroma, or carbonation of your beer, and drink it the way it was intended. Enjoy!