Nucleated Glass Now in Our Tasting Rooms!
To love Green Bench Brewing is to know that we’re always tweaking something. We’re always trying to make something a touch better, a little more efficient, a deeper conversation. And y’all - we’ve done it again.
If you’ve been to either tasting room in the last week or so, we may have even mentioned it to you. Our Front of House team has been pretty excited.
We got new lager glasses with…
…NUCLEATION POINTS!
Allow me to explain.
If you’ve ever seen a beer commercial where the beverage seems to have an endless supply of bubbles cascading up from the bottom of the glass - that’s likely not just movie magic. It’s also thanks in part to the addition of a nucleation point in the bottom of the glass.
The first time I encountered one of these glasses was in Paris in 2019. My husband and I popped into a little cafe because we needed a break from cheese shopping (yes, really) and we had been gone long enough that we were craving a bitter, citrusy hop profile. So we ordered a couple of IPAs and they arrived with Heineken glasses. I was delighted when I saw the little star etched into the bottom and the effect was beautiful. See?
A nucleation point can also be less-than-desirable when it’s not intentional. If you order a beer at a place that isn’t committed to Beer Clean Glass, you may find that nucleation sites can present in two different ways. Sometimes it may be a little invisible fleck of dust where the carbonation can get hitched on the side of the glass and create the same cascading effect that the etched design on the bottom of the glass does. Other times it could be clusters of bubbles clinging to the side of the glass. These glasses aren’t dirty per se, but they’re not Beer Clean. If you’ve ever wondered why some places use a glass rinser, that’s why! It’s the final step in ensuring a glass is Beer Clean - which is to say, in short, free of impurities and fully supportive of the carbonation, lacing, and overall appearance of the beer that craft brewers work so hard to achieve.
But back to the fun stuff! At Green Bench we recently needed to re-order our 0.5L lager glasses and our Founding Brewer and Co-Owner Khris Johnson decided it was time to level up! Now when you order a Postcard Pils or a Bench Life Premium Lager, on top of brilliant clarity, pearly white head, and just a damn fine beer, you’ll also experience a shimmering vortex of carbonation bursting from a small bench etched into the very bottom of the glass. It really does enhance the visual sensory experience, and honestly it’s just kinda cool.
We’re still filtering out some of the old glassware (sans nucleation bench) but if you order a lager that goes in that glass and ask one of our bartenders to make sure it goes in a nucleated glass, we’ll be happy to oblige! And while these glasses aren’t for sale in our tasting room yet, they will be soon and you can create your very own shimmering vortex of carbonation at home.