There are a variety of different-shaped beer glasses for drinking various brews: shaker pints; English tulip pints; snifters; tapered pilsner glasses; and, of course, the liter steins of Oktoberfest. 

But if you’ve brought home a nice, complex brew that you want to savor, you don’t need to spring for a fancy glass to do so; you probably already have a perfect drinking vessel in your cupboard: a wine glass. 

Unlike a shaker pint (another cupboard classic) that warms up in your hand and causes beer to lose its aroma quickly, wine glasses have a few features that make them great for drinking beer.

1. The Stem: A glass with a stem ensures that your hand doesn’t warm up your beer too fast, which can cause aroma and flavor compounds to disperse more quickly.
2. The Tapered Lip: The slight taper of the wine glass toward the opening forces aroma up into your thirsty maw, concentrating the flavor in each sip.
3. The Bowl Shape: Not only does the bowl shape of a wine glass trap aroma, it also lets you give that beer a lil’ swirl, Napa Valley winery–style, which releases more flavor and aroma. Betcha can’t do that in a full pint glass! 
4. The Thin Rim: The thin glass rim allows beer to pour smoothly into your mouth, while a thicker-rimmed beer glass can cause it to slosh a bit as it pours out. 

However, we will note that while you might want to enjoy, say, a complex Flemish red with notes of dried cherry and vermouth in a wine glass, a hop-bomb IPA might be a little too aggressive. Unless you’re into that. 

Photo: Ruben Ramos/EyeEm, Getty Images

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