How The Tradition Of Drinking Beer Out Of A Boot Started

There's a glass in the shape of a boot that seems to be made just for drinking competitions. It looks like a riding boot, or maybe a snow boot, and is a symbol for a good time in cultures worldwide. It's a boot made of thick glass, able to hold 67 ounces of liquid, about the equivalence of a six pack, or even more. "Das Boot" is a glass used in relay-style drinking games, sometimes filled with German-made Kölsch beer. It's been popular for centuries, but experienced a real boost in fandom with the 2006 American comedy "Beerfest". In this movie, the central characters are training for an international "Das Boot" drinking competition. The movie alludes to the roots of "Das Boot" being in Germany, and the tradition certainly has a place in German culture. But drinking beer out of a boot isn't just a German tradition. It may not have started in Germany at all.

Boot glasses appraised by retailers in California and online date back to 19th-century England, originating in horseback riding and hunting clubs. These glasses are pint-sized, as opposed to the German's 1-liter version, and were traded and gifted in wealthy circles of society for several decades. The boot glass went out of fashion in England in the mid-1800s, just as the bigger version became fashionable in Prussia. There, the lore of drinking out of a boot started with a Prussian general's promise to do so if his soldiers won their upcoming battle.

The Prussian origin story of "Das Boot" starts with a party, one thrown when Prussian soldiers won a battle and cashed in on their general's promise to drink from a boot upon their victory. The general did what he promised, but had a glass boot made for the occasion instead of drinking beer out of his own, worn boot. The tradition became popular again with German soldiers in WWI. They didn't have a glass boot as they prepared for battle, so they passed around a real leather boot filled with beer as a pre-battle ritual. It's a bit uncertain whether these soldiers heard the story of the Prussian victory, or if they came up with the practice on their own.

Today, the boot-shaped glass is known in Germany as the Bierstiefel, and it's popular in German beer gardens. You'll see them lined up at the starting ceremonies for the Munich Oktoberfest and filled with specialty Oktoberfest beers at the event, too. The reason is twofold: it's a national symbol of beer drinking, and it's made of glass thick enough to (hopefully) survive being dropped on the ground.

Whether you're filling the boot with a specialty brew, a lager, or the more refined pilsner, the best way to master drinking out of a glass boot is to order "Das Boot" online for yourself and get to practicing. You'll find quickly that "Das Boot" tends to spill, or more accurately flood, a novice drinker. An air bubble always builds up in the toe when you're drinking out of these glasses. If you don't know how to navigate that air bubble, it will repel beer out of the glass in a torrent without warning. But, if you know the secret to drinking out of "Das Boot," you'll be able to drink the whole glass without getting drenched in beer.

The trick is to turn the glass. Start drinking with the foot of the glass pointing directly away from you. Rotate the boot as you're drinking, so the foot points straight out to the side at a 90-degree angle once the air bubble is in the toe. This technique relieves air pressure and creates a slow flow of beer into the toe that lessens your chances of spilling.