Pour A Beer Perfectly Every Time With One Easy Hack

Pouring beer is a more nuanced process than you may realize, and how a brew is transferred to a glass from its can, bottle, or tap has a significant effect on the flavors and aromas that emerge. While a can or bottle helps preserve beer, neither makes for a great drinking experience. Pouring it into a glass correctly can make cheap beer taste better and even help avoid that bloated feeling some people get after a few cold ones.

One of the easiest ways to judge whether a beer is poured well is by the thickness of the layer of white foam, called the head, that floats over the liquid. The head develops as the beer is poured and gets more voluminous the more the carbonated beverage is agitated (which is why beer poured too fast risks the foam overflowing). 

Considering most beer pours start with tilting the glass and gently easing the beer into it, the prospect of completely upturning a bottle (or can) of beer into the glass may seem drastic. However, this is exactly what this beer-pouring hack demands, and provided you follow a few golden rules, it will consistently give you a mess-free pint that looks professionally poured. In fact, this trick is a variation of the hard pour — a method long used by experienced bartenders.

Contrary to popular opinion, the goal of pouring a beer perfectly is not minimizing foam. Some may assume preserving all that carbonation is necessary, but remember that gas dissolved in the beer makes its way into the stomach, causing bloating and even loss of appetite. Instead, you want to balance the carbonation, leaving some dissolved in the beer to maintain its effervescence and using the rest to form a nice foamy head that's between a half and one-and-a-half inches thick.

To use the upturned beer-pouring hack, grab a bottle of your favorite brew, crack it open, and place it on a counter. Next, position a beer glass upside-down over the opened bottle so that the bottle's mouth touches the bottom of the glass. Now, simply flip the bottle and glass over. As beer starts filling the glass, gently pull the bottle up, keeping the opening just above the surface of the beer.

This method closes the distance between the beer and the surface of the glass. Tilting the glass has a similar effect, but the upturned pouring method obviates the concern over tilt angles. The only things to keep in mind are to use a glass that can accommodate all the beer from the bottle or can you're pouring into it and to use a clean bottle or can since it touches the inside of your glass.

Beer carbonation does different things depending on whether it is dissolved or sitting atop as foam. Dissolved carbon dioxide bubbles carry the brew's aroma to the drinker's nose and bolster the beer's bitter and acidic notes while the foam adds a creamy mouthfeel. Ultimately, it's the drinker's preference of how they enjoy their beer. And if not in a glass, beer bagels or even a beer spa are interesting options.

The hack described above is a variation of the hard pour, which is typically used to maximize foam. A hard pour involves quickly upturning the can or bottle over the glass so that the brew falls straight to the bottom for maximum agitation and, therefore, foam. However, you can control how much foam forms by simply changing how far the mouth of the bottle or can is to the bottom of the glass.

A combination of the hack and the hard pour (let's call it the upturned hard pour) is the best of both worlds. Start as described above with an upturned glass over an open bottle. Once you flip it over and the beer starts flowing, quickly raise the bottle away from the bottom of the glass. The faster you pull the bottle away, the more foam you will have in the glass. Conversely, the slower you raise it, the closer it will remain to the surface of the beer and the lower agitation will result in a thinner head.