The temperature of beer/ale/lager/porter etc etc

[99call]

Just got back from Tazzie a couple of days ago, and had a fantastic time. One of the funny instances was some gnarley old Tazzie waste engineer, trying to get a rise out of me (on neighbouring dinner tables) slagging of the British beer culture. His gambit went something like this:

"I'm telling you mate! the poms are f****** idiots, they drink hot piss all day long. And even if you can find something you like, it runs out after 3 pints"

I was will my missus, and we were knackered after walking the Derwent river, so as amusing as it was, I was content not to interrupt, and get up to pay the bill. Literally as a pushed the chair back, this guy must of also hopped up out of his chair (leaving his mates) and headed us of.  He was very gushing and pleasant, and asked us where we were from, (even though he plainly knew). and went on to suggest many great things to see etc etc. Your an odd bunch you Aussie's!. I will also add that he looked like Slashes grandfather from G'n'R complete with a studded leather cap that was very village people. 

Now......to come back on point, his comments were obviously founded on the fact that in the UK, lots of session ales and bitter, porters etc are served a a temperature I would describe as on the cool side of tepid. To those that have not had it before, it would basically feels as hot a bathwater. The obvious principle is much like red wine, in that the flavours, and layers of flavour open up much more readily at this temperature, and a great deal of it's character would be lost if serve cold. 

What do FOH think?, is there never an reason/excuse for a beer that anything but icy?

[Habana Mike]

I like my beers with a chill on them. Too warm, like drinking piss. Too cold, can't appreciate the nuances. Goldilocks is it mate,,,,just right.

[GavLew79]

I try to drink mine as follows:

Lagers/pilseners etc. (and Guinness) - "ice cold" 2-4 degC

Beer/ale/IPA/porter etc. - "chilled" 8-10 degC

 

Whether right or wrong, I find them best like this. Surely there's a beer sommelier or something on here somewhere?

 

[99call]

4 minutes ago, GavLew79 said:

I try to drink mine as follows:

Lagers/pilseners etc. (and Guinness) - "ice cold" 2-4 degC

Beer/ale/IPA/porter etc. - "chilled" 8-10 degC

 

Whether right or wrong, I find them best like this. Surely there's a beer sommelier or something on here somewhere?

 

your preference, is of course what is right.  

I only enjoy ales and porters at this temperature. With malty, chocolate, or subdued British hop flavours. When chilled, these (in my opinion) definitely close up.

[scap99]

Some of the best tasting beer I've ever had has been at room temp or just a tick below.

However, if I'm drinking American light beer, it better be ice cold because I don't want to taste it.  Lol

[99call]

2 minutes ago, scap99 said:

Some of the best tasting beer I've ever had has been at room temp or just a tick below.

However, if I'm drinking American light beer, it better be ice cold because I don't want to taste it.  Lol

I took a sip of a coors light once out of interest. I have to say I was impressed, creating alcoholic mineral water must take some doing.......pointless beer.

American craft ale however, is bloody brilliant

[beparrish]

I'm a heathen. Outside of wine, I don't want to drink anything that is any more than 1-2 degrees above freezing. I like my drinks COLD.

[Fugu]

Depends on the beer of course, but yes, most beer on the island is served too warm.

[GavLew79]

25 minutes ago, 99call said:

I took a sip of a coors light once out of interest. I have to say I was impressed, creating alcoholic mineral water must take some doing.......pointless beer.

American craft ale however, is bloody brilliant

Completely agree. Although Britian is meant to be the home of brewing I think American craft beer blows ours away. 

 

BTW, "99 call" is that from Rugby? It meant "all pile in" when I played as a kid in Wales! ?

[GrouchoMarx]

Free beer always tastes best. Trust me.

[Fugu]

16 minutes ago, GavLew79 said:

Although Britian is meant to be the home of brewing

 

[99call]

7 minutes ago, GavLew79 said:

Completely agree. Although Britian is meant to be the home of brewing I think American craft beer blows ours away. 

 

BTW, "99 call" is that from Rugby? It meant "all pile in" when I played as a kid in Wales! ?

Yep 99call is the old British Lions call, to ensure no individual would get sent off.

I don't know, I think the UK still is the standard barer in the very narrow niche of session ale. Thats not saying a lot though in a way, and they are sort of uniquely un-offensive.  The Doom Bar's and Timothy Taylor's of this world are very subtle and still (I believe) stand pretty un-contested. 

When it comes to IPA's and the like however, America, Aussie, and NZ, even Japan give us a thrashing. 

Have you ever had any ruby-porters?   'Old Tom' by Robinsons is the king of beers.

 

 

[99call]

3 minutes ago, Fugu said:

 

I agree................pouring American Beer's on fires, is about all it's good for. 

[Ryan]

I get a metallic taste from most beers/lagers if they're served too cold, including Guinness.

6-8 degrees C is about right for me.

Bud, Miller, Coors and their ilk, 1-2 degrees is fine.

[El Hoze]

The Mrs is Dominican, an Island which despite very limited means somehow manages to serve the coldest beer in the world, to my knowledge. At home we serve beers like Stella Artois literally ice cold. Sometimes, if you take the first swill without enough care the liquid beer will crystallize as it pours into your mouth, so you need to be careful and let it warm up a degree or two. I love it this way. The only downside is that I drink about 2X as much beer this way on a given Sunday watching football because they go down so easy, especially on a warm day, and about 1/3 days I wake up with a frozen beer in my freezer.

However, I also will drink cask ales (warm) happily. Wouldn't want one on the beach in Miami or DR, but on a cool day in London absolutely. I like to keep as many alcohol-related options open as possible!

[earthson]

I catch plenty of hell for drinking my IPAs at room temp.  I argue it allows the full expression if the hop flavors and aromas PLUS I can be assured most people won't be drunkenly pilfering my choicest American microbrews.  To drink Dogfishhead 120 Minute IPA chilled at all is a sin; I don't even drink it outdoors for fear of a cool breeze momentarily stifling that wall of hops.

Most of what I drink beer-wise, however, are Oktoberfest beers from München (typically Märzen style, though I have fallen madly in love with Erdinger's iconoclastic Oktoberfest weissbrau lately) and Belgian beers (lots and lots of Belgian beers).  I think these are better a little cooler than room temp.  The fridge is too cold, but after 10 minutes or so in the glass, Belgian beers seem to open up (just as the lace is starting to settle).  When I die and get to the other side, I assume Charon will be waiting for me and the Styx River will be flowing with Duvel.

What grinds my gears is I can't seem to find any UK-produced barleywine.  The craft beer barleywine-style holds me over (good room temp or fridged!), except some of these upstarts making it keep aging it in bourbon barrels or adding spices or something to give it a twist.  Blechh!

[canadianbeaver]

Free world, drink it how you want.

Me like beer c-c-c-cold.

Irish, Innis & Gunn, Belgian, Canadian from around here. That would be Collingwood, Ontario.

Cheers,

CB

[TNT009]

Lagers I like icy cold and drink fast... Now my favorites, high ABV stouts and Barleywines.. Cold, but they get better as they warm up.

[Bill Hayes]

Lagers and Pilsners ice cold

Pale ales and Weissbier cold

IPA, Red IPA, Brown Ale cool

Stout and Porter a little cool, below room temperature so they open up as you sip them.

[ayepatz]

It’s an heavy industry thing. After a long day of working steel, shipbuilding, mining, mill-working, etc, workers wanted a drink that would quickly slake their thirst.

Weak beer, served just under room temperature, fits the bill perfectly, as you can gulp it down quickly.

[99call]

14 minutes ago, ayepatz said:

It’s an heavy industry thing. After a long day of working steel, shipbuilding, mining, mill-working, etc, workers wanted a drink that would quickly slake their thirst.

Weak beer, served just under room temperature, fits the bill perfectly, as you can gulp it down quickly.

Never thought about this, but it makes sense. Hats off

[ayepatz]

4 minutes ago, 99call said:

Never thought about this, but it makes sense. Hats off

The weak beer thing started in the Royal Navy, as a way of eliminating diseases and parasites from the water on a long voyage, but it owes its mass popularity to the industrial revolution.

Its quite interesting that, worldwide, there is a correlation between the prevalent industry of a place, and that type of alcohol that is popular in that region.

As a crude generalisation, industrial cultures favour beer, farming cultures favour wine/cider and mountainous cultures (cold and wet) favour spirits.

Obviously, the exact type of drink produced is massively dependant upon which crops grow there.

[dominattorney]

This surely is a rich topic, and one I've spent much time contemplating lately, as I have been diving head first into the world of beer exploration.  I spend roughly 45 minutes every Friday mulling over my CC and beer pairing for the evening.  Sadly, come January, I'll have to cut that out for dietary reasons, as I've just about made it through a 6 month long bulking season.  Time to slim down and drop into the 94kg weight class for a memorial day weightlifting meet.  But I digress:

I've found that to appreciate the deep and rich flavors of a dark ale or stout, one should begin to enjoy the beer around 55 degrees Fahrenheit, if you're opening a 22 ox of 750 ml bottle.  There is a lot that goes into this, but mostly it's color of the beer and ABV.  Anything over 6.5 that is amber in color or darker I find that the warmer temperature will release the flavors and have them best presented.  I say 55 degrees for a large bottle because you dont' slug the whole thing down at once.  As it warms, the flavors develop accordingly along the journey to the bottom of the bottle.  I would suggest a slightly wwarmer temperature for a 12 oz or single serving bottle.

Once you get into the barrel aged stock, or anything over 9 % booze, I don't even bother chilling it, simply pop it open at room temp and enjoy.  I have tested this out with several barrel aged imperial stouts and barley wines that were 12-15 % booze and it is the best way to achieve the balance between the alcohol (which warms the cockles) and the flavor profile, which can easily get masked by barrel flavors or excess ABV at cooler temperatures. 

Sours, especially sours that are low ABV (think between 3.5 and 6), I store at 44 degrees and usually leave them out on the counter for 30 minutes before opening, so my opinion is that they begin around 48-50 degrees in temperature.  I have enjoyed sours of the 6-8 ABV at room temperature, and closer to 55 degrees, but I find them most refreshing at cooler temperatures.  I believe this is purely personal preference.

Pilsners or regular old ales, I drink straight out of the fridge, but I mainly enjoy these beers for their refreshing character, rather than picking apart the flavor profile.

Clearly, your mileage may vary.  I for one have never appreciated a warm Sierra Nevada pale ale, but that's because I have developed a ridiculously arrogant palate for craft beer.  This is not a point of pride, but rather of degeneracy.  It may have something to do with the fact that lower temperatures mask the imperfection or lack of character in mass produced brews.  In any event, how I long for the good old days when Heineken (at 10 bucks a sixer!) would satisfy my craving for the juice of the barley.  Now I'm lucky to only sink 45-55 bucks on a Friday night on a few good large bottles of beer. 

If you wish to start off down this dangerous and financially irresponsible path, travel wisely, and begin experimenting with warm beers towad the heavier end of the spectrum.  A good imperial stout or baltic porter would be a good starting point, barrel aged or no, at 8.5-10 % alcohol. 

[jackupster]

Dominattorney has it right. Darker and or heavier means warmer. Lagers, pilsners and pales at 35-40F to Imperial Stouts at 60-65F. I am a avid homebrewer and self appointed beer connoisseur and this is the proper way to drink these styles.  Although all beer should be stored at 35F and allowed to rise to the desired temp for drinking. Beer is a living thing and will spoil if not properly stored. Cellar temp 60f is fine if the beer will be drank within days. When you go to the store and buy a sixer that has been sitting room temp in bright light for month's...the flavor is spoiled and you have wasted your money.

[dominattorney]

35 minutes ago, jackupster said:

Dominattorney has it right. Darker and or heavier means warmer. Lagers, pilsners and pales at 35-40F to Imperial Stouts at 60-65F. I am a avid homebrewer and self appointed beer connoisseur and this is the proper way to drink these styles.  Although all beer should be stored at 35F and allowed to rise to the desired temp for drinking. Beer is a living thing and will spoil if not properly stored. Cellar temp 60f is fine if the beer will be drank within days. When you go to the store and buy a sixer that has been sitting room temp in bright light for month's...the flavor is spoiled and you have wasted your money.

Interesting input on cellar temperature for storage.  I'm curious to hear more about that, as I generally keep my bombers in a dark cellar at ambient temperature.  I've done this for years and have not noticed any ill effect (but maybe I'm just a dilettante).  I am aware that you should not do this with cans or beers with lower ABV, but what about the heavier ones (ie 6.5 and up?).  Would hate to spoil my collection.