The bulbous bottom allows the beer to naturally roll into a good, tightly formed head, while the pinched sides effectively channel the aroma to the nose. If you can only have one beer glass, make it a tulip. Ice-cold beer is flavourless beer, and a chilled glass only compounds this problem. For the same reason that wine snobs eschew coloured wine glasses, so too should beer aficionados avoid opaque beer glasses. The brewer puts a lot of effort into coming up with precisely the right colour for his or her beer and it would be rude to ignore all that work.
Clear glass is definitely the way to go.
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