A beer stein is a traditionally German beer tankard or mug, made of pewter, silver, wood, porcelain, earthenware or glassware, and usually with a hinged lid and levered thumblift.

Lids, which technically distinguish a stein from a mug, started out as a sanitary measure. During the summers of the late 1400s, central Europe was repeatedly overwhelmed with swarms of flies. This soon led several principalities in what is now Germany to pass laws requiring food and beverage containers to be covered. By adding a hinged lid with a thumblift on the lid within reach of the mug handle, it was possible to keep a beverage covered and yet open it with the same hand by which it was held.

The word "stein" is a truncated form of Steinzeugkrug, which is German for stoneware jug or tankard. Stein in German means "rock" or "stone", and is not used to describe the same object. The German word is Maßkrug, a Maß (German for "measure") being the amount of fluid that it contains (1.069 litres).

External link and reference

• A Brief History of Beer Steins, an article from a collector's website, taken from The Beer Stein Book: a 400 Year History (ISBN 1889591009)
• Beer mugs collection - About 5000 different items !
• The wikipedia stein

Máz | Maßkrug | Mass