Conical - the standard cone-shaped glass you’ll find in just about any American bar.
Nonic - the type with the bulge near the top; a “proper British pint.”
Dimple - or “jug.” Barrel shaped, with a grid pattern on the outside, and a handle.
Tulip - tapered glass flared out at the top; like a Guinness glass.
Tankard/Stein - frankly I’m not really sure of the difference, but I know these are not technically the same thing (one of them has a lid?). In any case, a large, handled beer vessel. I’m combining them into one for simplicity, plus I doubt so many people regularly use them that they require separate options.
Pilsner - tall, narrow cone. The classic shape is a narrow “V” with a foot, but there are various designs.
A stemmed glass of some sort - like a Stella glass.
I like the conical or the nonic for most of the beers I drink. But it does kind of depend on the beer. Stronger heavier beers I prefer in tulips or snifters, but the picture you have linked to is not what I call a tulip. To me, this is a tulip.
Sorry, apparently there is a distinction between a tulip glass as you have referred to, with a stem and resembling, well, a tulip, and a tulip pint glass, which is what I linked to.
Then, when I’m drinking German wheat beers, I tend to like them in a weizen beer glass. Why? I’m not sure. Tradition? But I’ll take those in a regular pint glass, too.
I prefer a stemmed glass like that Stella glass, but that’s due to preferring lighter lagers/pilsners. If I were drinking an ale or wheat beer I would opt for a more appropriate glass.
There’s also the narrow, cylindrical kolsch glass.
And of course there’s the dreaded red plastic cup.
I don’t really have much of a preference. There are some beers that drink well out of the bottle, but some definitely need to be poured. I know that some people think that the shape of the glass affects the drinking experience, but I’ve never noticed that.
The container I use most often isn’t even on the list. It’s about the same shape as the conic pint glass and is clear, but is made from double-walled plastic. The extra insulation means the beer stays cold longer so that if I want to spend an hour sipping at it, I’ve still got cold beer all the way through. (Added bonus: it was a freebie promotional handout from a tradeshow.)
Come to think of it, my two runners-up glasses were also free. My traditional conic pint glasses were from a tour of the Full Sail brewery, and the sort of tulip pint glass is from the Hard Rock casino in Vegas. And there’s a 22-oz mug I use for the larger bottles of beer and that was free from the RAM restaurants. So all this goes to prove that I’m cheap.
I have both “conical” and nonic glasses at home, and I usually use the conic because the nonic is 20 ounces, and it looks sad to only have a little more than 1/2 a glass. Sometimes when I still have a few ounces left in my pint glass, and I’m going to have the same beer again, I add the new bottle to the remainder, giving me a full pint glass. That’s definitely the nicest.
Used to have about 4 types of glasses. A regular pint, a Guinness type glass, a wiezen, and a small pilsner that made it’s way to the back of cupboard because I never use it. After a recent trip to Belgium I find that I’m going to need about a hundred more.
Conical, but at the end of the day I care more about the quality of the glass than its shape. That particular sound that cheap or thin glass makes as it clanks just happens to be one of those “nails on the chalkboard” sounds for me. Really sets me on edge. I like bar glass that’s thick and sturdy.
If the beer is cold, I prefer a drinking vessel with a handle, but not one that’s really heavy. Otherwise, I’m fairly indifferent (but again, I don’t want a glass that’s really heavy).
