This is an answer to the question What effect does the shape of a glass have on the flavor of beer? on Quora.

The most important effect of any beer glass shape is aesthetical. How things look is important for most beer drinkers. For example, that’s the main reason why most beer producers filtrate their beer. By filtrating you remove certain flavors, to the advantage of a clear looking beer. The looks of the beer create expectations which in its turn influence the drinker’s taste of the beer positively, even though an unfiltered beer tastes more.

So, by using different beer glasses you create a visual stimuli,  which in itself influence how the beer tastes.

Furthermore, there are cultural expectations on how different beers should be drunk and how they should look like. The best example of this is that some beer glasses are called weiss bier glasses (since they are supposed to be used drinking wheat beer).

Though, these cultural choices have surely derived from taste preferences for different types of beer.

Simply put, beer reacts differently from being poured and drunk from different glasses.

The general rule is that most prefer to drink fresh and stingy beer types, as wheat beer and lager, in high, slim glasses. The reason is that high glasses better manage to contain the carbonic acid of these beers than pints and big round glasses (i.e. wine glasses). Both wheat beer and lager gains in preserving the carbonic acid, because of their lighter flavor.

Some beer glasses are slim, but have a bulge at the top of the glass. The reason for this typical beer design is to better keep the carbonic acid within the beverage, while at the same time concentrate the smell at the drinker’s nose.

More heavy and flavory rich beer types, as ales and especially stouts, gains from a streamy pouring into big glasses. Such procedure mixes the beer, which awakens flavors which otherwise might stay dormant. Carbonic acid isn’t that important when drinking stout, since the beer is rich in flavor. It’s even an advantage to lose some of the carbonic acid, in order to bring out other fragrances.

Also, by having a bigger contact area between the beverage and the air, the beer lets go of more fragrances, which enhances the drinker’s experience considerably. By using a wine glass (a glass with a lower bulge which narrows into the top), you maximize the contact area, while at the same time concentrating the fragrances to the drinker’s nose. This works perfectly for wine, but is not a very good design for i.e. lager, since it leaks carbonic acid at a very high rate while lager doesn’t smell very much.

Another thing to take into consideration is how much beverage you’d like to pour into your glass. Slim glasses contain less liquid than pints, which also is an argument for using them for lagers, since it takes less time to finish them which leads to less loss of carbonic acid at the last sip.

Though these general rules apply, what matters in the end are personal preferences. Beer flavors behave differently in different glasses, and the best way to understand what you like is by experimenting. You might be surprised how much visual and cultural preconceptions shape our tastes.