Excerpt from ‘A Glass of Bitter Beer’ by John Drake from 'Jock Sinclair and Other Poems' - 1890
It could be argued that the pilsner-style glass used by Irish pubs for over 70 years is one of the most iconic glass shapes that has ever appeared in the hands of an Irish beer drinker. It is an elegant form, if a little top-heavy in appearance when full, although in truth this is balanced by having a thick and heavy base, plus it's incredibly tactile and extremely practical to drink from, with the width of the mouth of the glass perfectly proportioned for either sipping or gulping its contents. This example from the Smithwick's brewery in Kilkenny for their forgotten and (ironically) timeline purged Time beer brand has all of those elements, plus a wonderful, thick gold band around its rim that heightens its graceful beauty.
Time ales were launched by Smithwick’s in 1960 with the aim of revitalising an aging brand for more modern times and to celebrate their (so-called) 250th anniversary. Under this rebrand their top selling No. 1 pale ale would remain the same but their golden export ale was rebranded as Time and their SS ale as Extra Time. A few months later their ruby coloured barleywine was also brought into the fold as Time Barley Wine. The launch meant a complete rebrand for most of the Smithwick’s beers with a new logo, beer labels, coasters and other ephemera, plus of course glassware. Branding on glasses was a relatively new idea here, and Time was probably one of the first beers in Ireland to have its own range of branded glassware. As well as the pilsner glass there was a handmade tankard and a dimple mug, plus Time branded water jugs suggesting to the consumer to have a chaser after their beer – ‘Time for a Chaser!’
By 1964 Guinness were in control of the brewery and that that was the death knell for the Time brand. It would appear at least that the marketing and research gurus in St. James’s Gate decided to consolidate the range down to just two main products, the barley wine and their newly developed Smithwicks Draught keg beer which was launched in 1965, seemingly as a direct reaction to English brands such as the Cork brewed Watney’s Red Barrel. This new keg beer was - ironically - also available in bottles as Smithwicks D. The Time brand seems to have disappeared that same year and appears just fleetingly and rarely - if ever - mentioned or promoted in the current history of Smithwick’s, as they attempt to draw a direct-if-fictitious line from the present iteration of the brand to a nonsensical beer brewed in 1710.
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The origins of this exact glass shape - a trumpet rather than the much older cone style - is hard to track but it may have arrived in this country at least via exotically continental premium lager brands such as Tuborg, Patzenhoffer (Patz) and Carlsberg in the 1950s, where that elegant shape suited the marketing of said beers. It was certainly popularised around this time although there were so-called ‘pilsner’ glasses or tumblers available before this era. For example, James Fox & Sons, the well-known Dublin public house suppliers selling something called a 10 oz ‘Pilsen’ glass in the 1930s, although we don’t know its exact shape. Prior to this period the normal half-pint glass would have been more squat and conical in shaped, sometimes with fluted ornamentation.
Some of those lager branded 1950s glasses still survive and apart from some minor changes they have stayed with us and remained the same over the intervening decades, although modern versions seem to have sadly - if practically - lost their gold rims. (Incidentally, experiments done in the early 19th century state that tea drank from cups with gold rims were at least perceived to taste richer and better, so this might explain another reason for the popularity of this type of decoration.)
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To this day if you ask for a ‘glass’ (half-pint) of beer - and sometimes minerals (soft drinks) - in a standard Irish pub it will be most likely served in one of these glasses, and for sure if you order a pint bottle in most pubs you will by default be given one with it. Certainly since the middle of the last century, and regardless of the beer style (Time was an ale not a lager for example) this glass type was used predominantly in Irish pubs, including - even now - for draught Guinness at times. (There was a minor flirtation with a half-pint version of the tulip pint glass but it was a little rarer, although that shape appears to be still used in the occasional pub.)
One of the most famous appearances of this glass shape in popular culture is in the 1958 movie ‘Ice Cold in Alex’ where the character Captain George Anson downs a glass of Carlsberg having arrived in the titular Alexandria. (Never mind that in the original book the beer in question was Rheingold, and the imagined glasses were possibly different.) That scene, which was immortalised as a Carlsberg advert in the 1980s, certainly showcased the glass to great effect.
The sizes of these glasses varied a little when used for beer, from 10 fl.oz. versions - a half-pint - up to 14 fl.oz. versions like the Time glass. These larger sizes were quite popular as they held a half-pint bottle with its head from one pour. Only half-pint glasses used for draught beer sales were verified for volume by government bodies here - the others did not require it, as they were served with bottles that were already verified as to the volume they contained.
So, Smithwick's Time ales may not have lasted but at least the glass shape did, and hopefully it will continue to be used in this country for the foreseeable future.
(There is more on the Time ale brands here, and the beer writer Pete Brown has a nice piece on Ice Cold in Alex and that famous scene here. Finally there is a dive into Smithwicks ale and its supposed history here.)
Liam K
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