Are you into beer glasses. I am; I have shelves of glasses, mostly glasses and sets of glasses with beer logos. I have my Chimay glasses, my Westmalle glasses. I even have a Budweiser glass (stolen from a pub) and Diet Coke glass (stolen from a pub in Leuven, in Belgium).

I hate Diet Coke, but my wife, my faithful designated driver, loves it. I was in a fancy beer place in Leuven, ordered a Diet Coke, then asked for ice. The waiter, a haughty type, brought a silver bowl of ice cubes and with tongs dropped a single cube of ice into the glass. Europeans (me too) hate ice in drinks. To make it a total sin, I stole the glass for my wife. Dumped the Diet Coke in the cuspidor. Hee hee.

Until I did a San Francisco pub crawl for KQED, I honestly didn’t have any crystal glasses. The three couples who won the bidding in the auction for the crawl presented me with a special beer glass, handmade by a glassmaker in Southern California. It’s very neat indeed.

That opened my eyes to the emerging world of fine beer glasses. It’s a pricey world, but fascinating. So I started looking around. Then, in a PR handout, I discovered Designs by Lolita. They have a variety of handmade pilsner glasses, each with an intricate design of some sort.

Their latest is a hand-blown glass with a cloverleaf design and a “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” slogan on it. Not cheap, but unusual: $24.99 plus shipping. Hey, I’m not Irish, but I’m thinking about it. Check it out. What do you think? Is that highway robbery? Are there better deals somewhere? Let me know.

Mreanwhile, I’m sitting here sipping “Collaboration, Not Litigation” Ale from a gold-rimmed Chimay glass. The beer’s a blend of Russian River’s Salvation Belgian-Style Ale and Avery Brewing, Boulder, Colorado’s beer of the same name. Excellent. Coming to stores near you soon. Worth buying. Gonna write about it next week.

OK, I mentioned the English beer writer Melissa Cole’s blog yesterday (Monday, Jan. 7, 2008). Today, I stumbled on her post on Sam Adams Utopia. The lady’s outrageous. This is excellent and I quote:

Author: Melissa Cole

Extremely Interesting
I like Samuel Adams.

”I like that the company totally debunks the myth that all American beers are more akin to gnat’s piss than anything else.

And I am definitely very enamoured of their ‘extreme beers’.

“I was judging at an international beer competition the other week and the very last beer of the day was immediately identifiable as a Sam Adams offering - and if you’re wondering why I say that it’s because, in my experience of beer, no one else is mental enough to brew something that strong!

“Called Utopias (I later identified due to its distinctness and by talking about it to fellow anoraks!) it turns out the version I tried was a mere 24% ABV, although they have achieved 25%ABV in 2005.

“More akin to an olorosso sherry than anything else it is filled with vanilla, sherry and oak notes and is brewed with five different malts and six different hops.

“It is then aged in a blend of scotch, bourbon, port and cognac casks for up to ten months using a pair of proprietary yeast strains developed by the brewery.

“Rather entertainingly you will find on the Sam Adams website that it can’t be sold in 14 different states in the US - and if it’s anything like the Triple Bock they’ve brewed before (think molasses and Marmite meets Imperial porter) it can’t be exported to the UK either because they can’t always guarantee the ABV - so do keep a careful eye out for it when you are Stateside and treat this baby with respect!”

Gift ideas? Here’s what I found in a walk-through of a large Beverages and More store in Walnut Creek, CA.

Unibroue Gift Pack, $16.99: Two bottles each Maudite, a dark 8 percenter, La Fin Du Monde, 9 percent. Plus 1 bottle Ephemere, a 5.5 percent wheat ale; 1 bottle Trois Pistoles, 9 percent; 1 bottle Don De Dieu, 9 percent and 1 bottle Blanche De Chambly, 5 percent wit or white ale.

Don’t want to give that much beer? My recommendation, one 750 ml bottle of Unibroue Terrible, 10.5 percent, $7.99 or Unibroue 16, 10 percent, $9. Both come in elegant silk-screened bottles.

Half Yard of Ale Glass, made by Libbey, $14.99, holds 23 oz., comes with a wooden holder. This is the little brother of the Yard Glass, which I haven’t been able to find this year. Still an unusual present.

Christmas in Belgium Gift Pack, $19.99, includes 12 oz. or 11.2 oz. bottles of Pere Noel, Zinnebir X-mas, Serafijn Christmas Angel, Winterkininkske, and Kerstmutske. This most unusual gift pack comes from Shelton Brothers, Belchertown, MA. The only one I’ve tried is Pere Noel, which Tim Webb in his authoritative Good Beer Guide to Belgium describes as a “heavily sedimented, dark, bitter ale.” He gives it ***1/2 and I agree. Basically, anything fromt the Shelton Brothers is sure to be unusual and very drinkable.

Duvel Gift Pack, $15.99. Comes with four 11.2 oz. bottles of Duvel and the specially designed tuilip shaped Duvel glass. Highly reocommended.

Anheuser-Busch Michbelob Celebrate Christmas Pack; two 24 oz. bottles of Celebrate Chocolate and Celebrate Cherry, plus a glass. $24.99. Yes, it’s from A-B, but believe me these two are excellent. Both are 8.5 percent and all barley, no rice. There’s also a Budweiser Brewmaster’s Reserve, $21.99, big bottle and two glasses. For Bud lovers only.

Somewhere along the beer trail I tired of beer t-shirts from breweries or brewpubs I’ve visited and I’m way too shy to wear any of the funny beer t-shirts I’ve been given with slogans like: “Beer. It’s for breakfast” and “Beer is the answer, what’s the question?”

But beer glasses? I’m a sucker for beer glasses. I love to serve guests beer in glasses branded with the beer I’m serving. One of my big problems has always been that I get a single glass, sometimes with a bottle of beer in a holiday package. Where do I get more glasses to fill out the set.

Sure, there’s always been the web and God forbid, ebay. But who wants to pay $10 for a pub glass?

Things are changing. Just got an e-mail from Merchant du Vin, the Seattle-based importer of Samuel Smith’s from England and Orval from Belgium, among many others. They’re selling those pub glasses I covet for $2.95 plus shipping. Deal.I’m ordering five, to supplement my lone glass, which came in a kit with a bottle of Samuel Smith’s Pale Ale. I looked everywhere, but could never find another kit or the glass.

They also sell Orval chalices, the kind Orval is served in at bars in Belgium and at a few sophisticated bars in the U.S. They’re $5.95, but these are really nice glasses, thick glass with embossed lettering. Gonna order three of those as well to go with the single glass I got a couple of years ago with a bottle of Orval.

OK, it’s a little nuts, I admit. What can I say.