It is commonly known that beer has been with mankind for a long while. As beer itself developed, expanded, and improved, so did the way in which we actually got the beer to our mouths. The earliest receptacles mankind used for drinking included stoneware, pottery, carved out wood, and even sewn-together bits of leather. As time proceeded, people witnessed small improvements in the quality of their beer glasses. Early Europeans living during the time of the black plague saw the development of beer steins, which had an enclosed top on the steins to prevent flies from getting in the brew and making the person sick.

Nowadays, the most important factor to influence modern beer glass production was the creation of glass. As consumers actually began to be able to look at what they were drinking from the glass they started to demand a beer with better flavor and a improved color. This led to the filtration of beers; consumers didn't want the coarse chunks that were found in the earlier beers of the breweries. It almost seemed like beer steins were on the way out as the more aesthetically pleasing beer glasses became more popular.

A lot of beer glasses were created and manufactured for the different types of beers. The 16-ounce pint glass is the most in demand glass in America. It was originally used to fit a Martini shaker, but barkeeps soon found that as the brew flowed out of the beer tap handles the pint glass was the perfect receptacle because it allowed for some of the carbonation to be released and allowed the smell of the brew to be more obvious. It is also favored for its storage capabilities; pint glasses may be stacked on top of each other and stored easily upright on shelves, quickly making them popular with the bartenders who ended up having to rinse out each glass.

A drive to get customers to buy their kind of beer by earlier breweries led to some unique and groundbreaking moves on the marketing and promotional front. Giving out beer glasses to customers was a way that breweries found to promote their products even with it prohibited. This led to the breweries making glasses that were works of artistic merit unto themselves. The first were elaborate and costly; they would often have gold or silver embossed on the sides. Gradually, artists for the breweries started doing intricate carvings on either side of the beer glasses or steins and even developed a way of firing enamel paint onto the beer glasses. Even though they were manufactured more recently than many other beer collectibles, these painted glasses remain some of the priciest and rare today. Today, some of the beer memorabilia and banners are worth lots of money and sought out worldwide by fervent collectors. Have you looked up in the top of Grandpa's old drawer lately?