Beer stein, or beer mug, is an English neologism for either traditional beer mugs made out of stoneware in Germany, or specifically ornamental beer mugs that are usually sold as souvenirs or collectibles. In German, the word stein means stone and is not used to refer to a beverage container.
Such Steins may be made out of stoneware, pewter, porcelain, or even silver, wood or crystal glass; they may have open tops or hinged pewter lids with a thumb-lever. Steins usually come in sizes of a half litre or a full litre (or comparable historic sizes). Like decorative tankards, they are often decorated in a nostalgic manner, but with allusions to Germany or Bavaria. It is believed by some that the lid was implemented during the age of the Black Plague, to prevent diseased fleas from getting into the beer.
In the latter half of the 19th century, stein makers found different advantages within the different materials. The advantage in using stoneware to make steins was that molds could be used to mass-produce elaborately carved steins. In using glass, not only could one produce multiple glass mugs, but an artistic touch could add to the glass by including acid etchings, glass staining, or even multicolored overlays. Porcelain’s advantage was that a stein fabricator could use molds to make “character steins”, steins that had a particular shape modeled after an item or a person.
Throughout the 1900s, collecting antique and replicated beer steins became very popular hobby not only among individual people, but in museums as well.
The most traditional area of beer stein production is the Kannenbäckerland in the Westerwald region in Germany. This unique German potters region has been creating beer steins for centuries and is famous among the collectors as the original German beer stein producer.