A snifter is borrowed equipment. The shape comes from brandy and cognac service, and it was adopted for beer because it does one thing better than anything else: it makes a small measure of a very strong drink feel generous, and it wrings every last aromatic out of it.

The bowl is wide and low, then tapers hard toward a narrow opening. Aroma collects in that taper and has nowhere to escape except past your nose. Just as importantly, the bowl is designed to sit in your cupped palm, so your hand slowly warms the contents. With an imperial stout that is exactly what you want. Cold, a big stout is largely texture and roast; as it climbs toward cellar temperature the chocolate, dark fruit, coffee and any barrel character open out. A snifter is a glass that gets better the longer you take over it.

Pours are small by design. Barrel-aged stouts and barleywines are routinely 10 to 14% ABV, and a third of a pint is a sensible serving. A 9 to 13oz snifter filled halfway looks deliberate; the same measure in a pint glass looks like a mistake.

Suits
– Imperial stout
– Barrel-aged anything
– Barleywine
– Quadrupel
– Eisbock
– Strong smoked beers

Our snifters run from Spiegelau’s modern barrel-aged glass to the Belgian balloons of Dominicains and Paix Dieu, plus Gulden Draak’s egg-shaped take on the same idea.