Beauty is in the eye of the (be)holder

Drinking of beer is a matter of taste and preferences.The accompanying glass is usually dictated by the brewery. It is the reason that beside vases, flutes and pint glasses the most different creations are on the market and in the pub. We will focus on the glasses with holder for you.

Beer glasses without a foot; glasses that make you drink in an uptempo. And when there is a holder, you have to make room for it. Pub owners are dealing with this and the fans are dealing with it. But that makes the fan a fan.

The coachman’s glass

With a whole building surrounding the glass,  it seems an unnecessary complicated plan to conquer the beer market. And yet, the story of the coachman’s glass is interesting and authentic enough to be told. Pauwel Kwak was in Napoleon’s time an innkeeper in Belgian Dendermonde and his customers were mainly coachmen. Because they didn’t have a lot of time the fine man invented a matching glass. One that enabled the coachmen to drink and to stay at their stand. The glass  with a ball underneath (comparable with a Cambridge yard glass) was attached with a wooden holder on the coach. The beer came from brewery Bosteels from Buggenhout.

The principle of the coachman’s glass is the one like that of the boot glass. When there is air in the ball (or in the pointing piece of the boot), and the drinker underestimates the final gulps, the complete content will come out of the glass like a tsunami. A real challenge.

Expensive glasses

Nowadays the holder of the coachman’s glass will be delivered with a foot to let the drinker to be able to put the construction down. A nice object for home then. And that’s why the glasses became a popular collector’s items. As they experienced it at inn De Dulle Griet in Gent. The glasses disappeared by the dozens. If one ordered a Max from the House (not to confused with the beer from Pauwel Kwak), then one should hand in a collateral: a shoe. After ordering a beer a shoe is tossed in a basket and then the thing is hoist up from behind the counter. After a toilet visit the question remains: how come my one sock is that wet?

‘La corne du bois des pendus’

Brewery D’Ebly was taken to court in 2012 by aforementioned brewery Bosteels. The glass associated with the beer ‘La corne du bois des pendus’ would resemble too much with the coachman’s glass of Pauwel Kwak. Both glasses have a wooden holder, so they can stand straight. And there ends the comparison. Pauwel Kwak is to be drank out of a straight glass with a ball underneath, ‘La corne’ is horn-shaped. That’s why the court ruled in favour of D’Ebly.

Laafse Lurk

And then you had the glasses of the Laafse Lurk. The Double beer was inspired bij The People of Laaf from the amusement park The Efteling where it was served. It was brewed by Arcener Steam Beerbrewery in Arcen, now known as the Hertog Jan Steam Beerbrewery. The reasons the beer no longer exists: the relative high percentage of alcohol, the glasses that invited the drinker to drink in an uptempo, and the surroundings of the park consisting of attractions for children.

Out of what exceptional glass did you drink?