Business Opportunities Weblog

July 13, 2007 by Rich Whittle | 2 Comments

The Free Lance – Star:

Samuel Adams recently introduced a line of special pint glasses that cost $30 for a set of four. The Boston company had nearly as many scientists working on those glasses as NASA does on the space shuttle.

Speaking of outer space, it looks like something “Star Trek’s” Romulans would use to drink their ale.

It had to be just the right height, just the right shape, just the right thickness, with little bubble-making bumps in just the right places. Here’s the weird thing about it: It works, enhancing the flavor of lager.

“There’s a longstanding trend in Europe to craft a glass specifically for a given beer that’s finally gaining some ground here in the States,” Jeff Fitzpatrick, proprietor of Blue & Gray Brewery said. “With the rise of craft beer, there is increasing sophistication about how a glass matters as well. ”

TIAX, a Cambridge-based tech company that also works with the Department of Defense, helped Boston Brewing decide on goals for the pint glass. A number of glass manufacturers submitted prototypes, and ultimately German glassware manufacturer Rastal created the merger of style and function they were seeking.

A small ridge inside the top rim creates turbulence to increase carbonation and aroma release just as beer reaches the drinker’s palate.

The outward-turned lip of the glass places the beer on the front of the tongue where sweetness is tasted instead of dumping it farther back in the mouth as most glasses tend to do.

Narrowing at the top of the glass concentrates the head and enhances aroma. Thinner walls and a round shape provide a greater volume-to-surface ratio, maintaining cold temperature longer. A narrow grip reduces exposure to heat from the hand. A “nucleation site” increases hop-aroma release.

Boston Brewing Co. founder Jim Koch called the glass’s “turbulator” a “ski jump that creates turbulence and releases carbonation just as it hits the tip of the tongue.” The nucleation sites, he said, “release a column of bubbles all during the drinking experience.”

He said Boston Brewing Co. spent a six-figure sum developing the glass. “This is really the first time we or anybody else have done this based purely on focusing on enhancing the flavor experience,” Koch said.

Photo by Boston Brewing Co..

In Invention, Niche, Technology | 2 Comments