B Cups-Don’t Leave Home Without ’em
May 1, 2015 by
Ever forced to drink really good beer from a colorful, opaque plastic cup? That might be acceptable for a yellow beer, but if you’re drinking a light copper colored IPA from a craft brewer you’ll want to enjoy the view. B Cups from fermented Reality are a great way to fully enjoy good beer while away from your favorite beer glass collection.
If you want to stimulate your beer senses you need to use the right vessel. These plastic IPA cups afford the luxury of glass in a more safe plastic cup. These cups enhance the aromatic experience as well as the visual aspect of the color, clarity and head formation of your beer.
My favorite IPA glass is the result of a collaboration with Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada Brewing and Spiegelau (B Cup on the left and colab on the right side of the Easy Jack). Together they designed a glass that enhances and amplifies the intense hop aromas IPAs are known for. These glasses are relatively expensive if broken while traveling to share a new find with a friend. You can also throw these B Cups in a pack and not worry about them arriving at camp in shards.
B Cups look very similar in shape to the state-of-the-art IPA glass. They do enhance the hop and malt aromas similarly to the Spiegelau glass with the beers I tested. The rim on the Spiegelau is slightly thinner than the B Cup. This makes a difference with delivery to the palate in the wine glass world. I’ll need to research further to answer that question as it relates to IPAs.
As a BJCP beer judge I was concerned with two potential issues drinking from plastic: plastic aromas and reduced head retention. In my testing neither of these were a problem. The cup has a neutral aroma and head retention was not at all an issue. There is one issue with the cup as it gets below half full. A quick tip of the cup makes the beer “burp” and splash towards your mouth. This was more of a surprise than a problem and not a deal breaker at all. Maybe I need to stop pounding my IPAs.
I tested six different IPAs to ensure a thorough and broad base. All were nearly identical to each other in aroma, color, clarity and flavor. This is a subjective test, but I’m convinced enough that I will use these cups when on the road. In fact, in preparation I added a handle to make it even easier to take my B Cups along.
In summary, B Cups are the next best thing to your normal beer glassware. They are far better than any plastic cup I’ve tried as a beer glass substitute. I give them a big thumbs up. You can order B Cups online at B Cups. (This is an independent review and I have not been paid for my opinion.)
