There are a few pages of the OCB dedicated to various drinking customs around the world. I’ve decided to limit this entry to just two of them – customs, that is, not pages.

Firstly we’ve got the yard glass I’ve never drunk out so much as a sip of beer out of a yard glass.
I do remember seeing one in action and figured it was an easy way to look stupid and get saturated with beer. So I gave that the big flick – besides a schooner glass is much easier to drink from.

This is a case of serious beer spillage just waiting to happen.

But there is a reason for the design of what seems like a stupid, stupid glass. I’m not sure it’s a good reason but it’s a reason. According to the OCB, it was so that in days of yore stagecoach drivers would be handed a yard glass of ale through the window of an inn. The length was such that he could grab it without having to leave his coach.

So laziness was the mother of invention. The inn staff couldn’t be arsed walking outside with a schooner glass and the coach driver could equally not be arsed walking into the inn. Though I guess this could be seen as the precursor of the drive-through bottle shop.

The other drinking custom comes from China and is called ‘‘gam bei’’, which means ‘‘dry glass’’. If the host says ‘‘gam bei’’ everyone has to empty their glasses. And there’s no switching of beverages either if you’re getting too sozzled – that’s seen as an insult.

What’s the go here?: For those who have just stumbled across this post, I’m going through the Oxford Companion to Beer (OCB) and posting an entry for every letter. Why? Because I have a copy at home but hadn’t really gone through it page by page and I figured this would be an exercise that would force me to do that.