title_body: Why did my Big Bad Baptist come in a brandy snifter?
upvoted_answer: First, yes, this is quite typical.  Snifters are widely used for beer and generally for two reasons, in my experience.  
  
  
  As you suspect, the bowl shaped glass helps to concentrate the aroma.  However, this isn't unique to the snifter as many types of beer glasses incorporate a narrowing throat to provide this effect. 
  Quantity.  With a glass of beer that has a particularly high alcohol content, or particularly strong flavor, you'll often get much less than a standard 12-16 oz. pour.  The beer you refer to for instance, the Big Bad Baptist, has an alcohol content of 11.8% ABV, which closer to wine than beer, (and wine has a standard 5oz serving size per glass, or thereabouts) so it calls for a smaller serving size.  However, a 5oz or 6oz serving would look rather silly in a pint glass, so a snifter is more appropriate in proportion.