The teku glass and why craft beer bars like it

The teku was built as a beer tasting glass

The teku came out of the Italian craft beer scene in the 2000s, designed by people who wanted beer taken as seriously as wine at the table. The result is a stemmed glass with a sharply angled bowl that narrows towards the top and then flares out at the lip. Common sizes hold around 330 to 425 ml, with a typical pour well below the brim.

It looks like a wine glass with corners. That is roughly the idea. The stem keeps your hand away from the beer. The bowl gives room to swirl. The narrowing traps aroma. The flared lip guides beer onto the front of the tongue.

The angles hold aroma over the beer

Most of what we call flavour is smell. A glass that is wide at the base and narrower at the top collects the volatile aroma compounds that rise off the beer and holds them where your nose goes. A straight pint glass lets them drift away into the room.

For a hop forward IPA, a saison or a fruited sour, that difference is easy to notice. Pour the same beer into a teku and a tumbler, give each a gentle swirl and smell at the rim. The teku usually gives a fuller, more focused nose. For a pale lager the gap is smaller, because there is less aroma to catch.

Why craft beer bars like it

Bars choose glassware for practical reasons as much as sensory ones. The teku suits a craft bar for a few of them:

• It flatters small pours. A 200 or 300 ml pour of a strong or expensive beer looks generous in a teku and lost in a pint glass.
• One glass covers many styles. A bar with 12 taps of very different beers can stock one stemmed glass instead of six specialist shapes.
• It signals care. A stemmed glass tells the drinker the beer is meant to be tasted.
• It shows colour and head well. Thin clear glass and a wide bowl show off haze, colour and foam.

The trade off is breakage. Thin stems snap in glasswashers and on busy bar tops far more often than a nonic does.

Rinse it cold before the pour

Many craft bars rinse each teku with a quick spray of cold water before pouring. The rinse washes off dust and any trace of sanitiser, wets the glass so the beer pours with less fobbing and cools a glass that may have come warm from the washer. Our guide to why bars rinse a glass with cold water covers this in detail.

In an Indian summer this matters. A glass out of a washer running hot can sit near 40 °C, warm enough to lift a small pour of beer by a few degrees in the first minute. On a 300 ml pour, that is a real change in how the beer tastes.

Which beers belong in a teku

The teku earns its place with beers that are about aroma and complexity:

• IPAs, double IPAs and hazy pale ales
• Belgian ales, saisons and farmhouse beers
• Sours, gose and fruited beers
• Barrel aged beers and stronger stouts in small pours

Leave crisp lagers, bitters and easy session beers in a straight pint. Those beers are about drinkability and refreshment. A big glass full of a light lager is the better experience on a hot afternoon than a careful 250 ml sniff.

A good glass still needs a good pour

The teku cannot fix a beer that is too cold, flat or served in a greasy glass. Serve hoppy beers at around 7 to 10 °C and stronger beers a little warmer. Pour so you get two to three fingers of head, which carries aroma up to the nose. A glass that leaves bubbles stuck to the sides is dirty, whatever its shape.

Knowing which aromas to look for and naming them is where tasting skill lives. The glass simply makes that easier. A trained taster can tell a lot from a tumbler. An untrained one will miss most of it in a teku.

Caring for a stemmed glass in a busy bar

The teku's weak point is the stem. Bars that use them well tend to follow a few habits. Glasses go into the washer in a rack built for stemware rather than loose among pint glasses. Staff hold them by the base or bowl, never by a bunch of stems in one hand. Polishing, if it happens at all, is done with a clean lint free cloth while the glass is still warm, holding the bowl rather than twisting the stem.

Washer chemistry matters too. A glass that comes out with a film of rinse aid will kill the head no matter how elegant the shape. A simple check is the beer clean glass test: wet the glass and see whether water sheets off evenly. Bars that run the test weekly catch washer problems before customers do.

Try it at home before you buy a set

A teku costs more than a basic pint glass and breaks more easily, so test it first. Order the same beer in a teku at a craft bar on one visit and in a pint glass on another, or bring one home and compare.

Your first step: pour 150 ml of your favourite IPA into a teku and 150 ml into a tumbler. Swirl both, smell both at the rim and note which aromas you can name in each. If the teku gives you two or three more, it has earned a place on your shelf.

Common questions

What is a teku glass?

A stemmed beer glass with an angled bowl that narrows towards the top and flares at the lip. It came out of the Italian craft beer scene and is built for tasting aromatic beers.

How much beer does a teku hold?

Common sizes hold around 330 to 425 ml. Bars usually pour well below the brim so there is room for the head and for swirling.

Is a teku good for lager?

It works, but a light lager has less aroma to capture. A straight pint glass is usually the better and more practical choice for session lagers.