News in Easy English: New 'wobbly' beer glass helps people drink water

The glass is to help people drink beer in a safe way. The "Wobbly Beer Glass" cannot stay balanced if a person drinks only beer.

The person must in addition drink enough water. Yoho Brewing Co. has tried to support moderate drinking before.

One way is the "Slow beer glass." It has a narrow middle part. This makes the beer come out more slowly, so people drink more slowly. The business started to make the new "wobbly" glass in December last year.

The aim was to help people drink water with beer. The glass has two joined parts.

The other side is for water. A person must drink both about equally.

If not, the glass tilts and becomes hard to use. The firm made seven test versions. It had problems at first.

For example, liquid came out from the other side when one side became empty. In addition, the glass fell over too easily.

Each side can hold 270 milliliters. If the amount of beer drunk becomes too much, the glass tilts a lot.

Then the user is pushed to drink water. The glass is now at about 30 bars and other places in Japan.

One place is "Tada umai sake ga nomitakute," a bar in the Minamiishidocho district of the city of Nagano. Its name means, "I just want to drink good sake." The bar kicked off to use the glass in early August.

The bar owner told reporters, "Beer does not hydrate you, but many people do not order a chaser of water. It is interesting to get people to drink water by designing the glass in this way." Some diners became interested after they saw other people using it.

A person from the company stated, "Rather than having people drink large amounts in a short period and damage their health, we want them to enjoy beer for many years while staying healthy."

(Japanese original by Hideyo Suzuki, Nagano Bureau)

craft: made in a special skilled way

wobbly: unstable, easy to fall over balance: a state where things stay even hydrate: give water to the body

chaser: a drink of water after alcohol