Some brews taste better not ice cold

[Anthony Dalton]

Hey all, 

I put four bottles of the Big Bear Imperial Brown Ale into the fridge this afternoon when I got home from work. After an hour in the fridge, I threw one into the freezer for forty odd minutes. I popped it open and poured a stein, thinking how good is this? Sadly it was all all a bit meh! 
Yes it was ice cold, however the flavour was completely compromised. I could have been drinking anything. I opened the second bottle, after a couple of hours in the fridge it was probably between 6 and 10 degrees and it was just perfect.

Look; I have grown up in Australia and always thought the colder the beer the better. My mindset is starting to alter, anyone else found the same thing?

Cheers!

Anthony

 

[Hambone]

On 05/08/2022 at 9:05 PM, Anthony Dalton said:

Hey all, 

I put four bottles of the Big Bear Imperial Brown Ale into the fridge this afternoon when I got home from work. After an hour in the fridge, I threw one into the freezer for forty odd minutes. I popped it open and poured a stein, thinking how good is this? Sadly it was all all a bit meh! 
Yes it was ice cold, however the flavour was completely compromised. I could have been drinking anything. I opened the second bottle, after a couple of hours in the fridge it was probably between 6 and 10 degrees and it was just perfect.

Look; I have grown up in Australia and always thought the colder the beer the better. My mindset is starting to alter, anyone else found the same thing?

Cheers!

Anthony

 

Agree. Different beers, different serving/consuming temps makes a difference to flavour profile. 

Cheers 

[Captain 3 Droids]

On 5/8/2022 at 8:35 PM, Anthony Dalton said:

Hey all, 

I put four bottles of the Big Bear Imperial Brown Ale into the fridge this afternoon when I got home from work. After an hour in the fridge, I threw one into the freezer for forty odd minutes. I popped it open and poured a stein, thinking how good is this? Sadly it was all all a bit meh! 
Yes it was ice cold, however the flavour was completely compromised. I could have been drinking anything. I opened the second bottle, after a couple of hours in the fridge it was probably between 6 and 10 degrees and it was just perfect.

Look; I have grown up in Australia and always thought the colder the beer the better. My mindset is starting to alter, anyone else found the same thing?

Cheers!

Anthony

 

Certain beers are truly at there best at higher temperatures. Stouts, dark ales and porters are a good example. At around 10 plus degrees (centigrade) the flavours are really enhanced, really cold and they can be fairly bland.

I have my keg beer around 2 to 3C and pour into a glass from the freezer. In part I do this so as I drink it the temp gets up to 8 to 10C and with 560ml glasses this is easy to achieve. The same with stouts however I’ll let it sit until around 8 to 10C before starting to enjoy the flavours. That’s part of why the stouts and darker ales are very much for the colder weather.

 

[Captain 3 Droids]

As it’s Piss Head Sunday I thought I do some evaluations on this topic. Poured a 560ml Stella Artois semi balloon style glass of German Weissbier. With an infrared thermometer it was at 1.9C. Over 1/2 hour temps before each drink 4.1;  5;  7.2; 9.6 and 11.2C. The flavours and aftertaste slowly developed and made it a continual improvement so to speak. 
 

So what’s interesting is that here in Oz in a pub your beer is generally poured at 4C, by the time you finish a pint it is probably 13+C. Now I know if the pint was served at say 6C I’d complain it wasn’t cold enough! I think we generally set our satisfaction of a beer by that first sip, after that we are happy.