One Drink, Five Ways: Big beer

Five NYC bars, five different gargantuan, clownish and awesome brew vessels

Welcome to our monthly feature in which we investigate and rate the way one cocktail varies from bar to bar (to bar to bar to bar). Up this month: The giant beer.

When the Prohibition-cocktail trend is flushed down the drain and biodynamic wines once more gather dust, one inebriant shall remain standing—or falling down, whatever. Beer, bubbly beer, New Yorkers’ favored mood enhancer. Whether it’s a hoppy Dogfish Head IPA or a watery Coors Light, these tipples are typically dispensed in bottles, cans or pint glasses. So boring. What about the glass boot, the Styrofoam jug, the skyscraping tower of carbonated delight? Here’s beer, served five different huge and drunkening ways. —Joshua M. Bernstein

Pictured: The Liter of Beer at Radegast Hall & Biergarten