On Beer

[wsk]

Most of what American's drink is lager. Lagers are fermented at low temps and taste better when served cold.

When I was in Scotland (Holy Loch) in the late 70's & early 80's the ales that I got at the local were cellar temp. Of course one was more comfortable in the pub itself when wearing a sweater so, yeah, room temp. I avoided the bars and clubs that most sailors favored.

[Mipi]

OK, I admit. I don't know what is the situation in UK (never been there).

But here in Slovenia I was a member of official beer taster group. We were selecting the best (and worst on our bad luck) beer from small brewers. From time to time I brew my own beer.

So I certainly haw a right to say my opinion at least.

In general beer is often served to much child!!! That doesn't mean it should be warm. Darker the beer is warmer should be when served. Could say that somewhere between 10 and 15 deg. C would be OK. If beer is very cold it has no taste (it's just like cold water).

My opinion is, that big commercial brewers are hiding their bad quality with pushing very low temperature for beer serving. (as I said, no taste at all). Also aroma is very week.


Just try for yourself and you'll suddenly noticed that your "regular" beer taste better or worse when served not so cold. For sure you'll notice some extra aroma and test.


My half cent.

[Jock Scot]

Whilst I am no beer expert, I think cellar temperature would be about right for our beers.I am told that lagers,more popular now, if served from a bottle to a glass come from a chiller.In passing, I can't stand this modern fad of drinking out of bottles. Anyway, in the highlands we don't have pubs as such, so don't look for the "Coach and Horses" or "The White heart" the locals(everyone else too) get their beer from the local hotel. There are just not enough people up here to warrant a "pub".You will have to look further south for one of those.

[BEEDEE]

And Budweiser & Miller are popular in Scotland as well, though cannot understand why.

Slainte,
steve

And so is Fosters! Guess it's the rise of the mega brewers and the lack of taste/flavor that satisfies some.

Give me a craft or micro brewed beer any day.

Brian

[PiobBear]

Real beer should be served at 5-8 degrees Celsius/41-46 degrees Fahrenheit; not ice cold. As for non-Guinness products, I've no idea, nor could I care less.

As everyone knows, God originally intended for beer to be black int:

[DWFII]

Probably preaching to the choir here but most domestic beers are more of an alcoholic concoction loosely based on some beer formula than actually beer--Miller and Budweiser are prime examples.

Beer and ale are made from barely sprouted barley. The sprouting begins the transformation of the carbohydrates in the grain to maltose...a type of sugar. The sugar feeds the yeast. The yeast converts it to alcohol. If this is done correctly, there will be enough sugar in the form of maltose to complete the fermentation and make beer or ale. At which point, the alcohol content gets high enough to kill the yeast and the fermentation stops. If done correctly, fermentation will stop exactly at the point when there is no more (or very little) available sugar.

If the brewer starts out with a top fermenting yeast, the result will be an ale. Stout is technically an ale. If the brewer uses bottom fermenting yeast, the result will be a lager. Both Pilsner and Bock are lagers.

If there isn't enough maltose present, the brewer must add supplemental sugar usually in the form of sucrose. Excess sucrose in the blood stream is known to deplete B vitamins from body tissues...including the brain. Much of this gets replaced by other nutrients we take in. But excess sucrose in alcohol will strip B vitamins from the brain toot sweet. That's a simple explanation of why we get a hangover. The same phenomenon can be observed in children who indulge to excess around Halloween--they get manic.

Quality beers and Ales use no additional sugar...they don't need it, for one, and, of course, the brewers recognize the debilitating effects. That's why the Germans had/have the Reinheitesgebot--the German Purity laws--that stated that beer could not be made with anything but barley, water and hops. Most good English ales are made the same way although I don't think there is any law governing that...extra sugar is just not needed if the brewer knows his craft.

Budweiser, Miller, and other domestic "light pilsners" skimp on the barley and add rice or corn instead (it's cheaper). But neither rice nor corn supply the necessary nutrients--maltose--for the yeast, and so the brewers are forced to add sucrose. Sucrose is not used as efficiently by the yeast as maltose. There may be some residual sugar (even though you can't taste it) in the beer and, and when digesting sucrose, the yeast produces some by-products that our bodies find mildly toxic.

Try drinking a little bit to excess (just a little bit, mind you) of a domestic beer and compare the physical effects you experience the next day with the same exercise using a good English ale or German Pilsner. Of course you might give yourself (and your body) a couple of days to recover from the effects of the first go-round. The same exercise can be performed the following days/weeks comparing a Margarita (or other sweetened mixed drink) with a good quality single malt.

I think you'll be surprised at how well you feel after drinking the true beers. If nothing else you'll have a good time.

[Kerr the Walker]

Here in the States, you can sometimes find brew-pubs that have "cask" beers/ales. Cask brews are kept at cellar temp and hand pulled, ie: no CO2 bottle to pressurize it. In my humble opinion, cask beers/ales taste much better than "regular" draught brews as they're usually brewed on site and in smaller batches.No sacrifice of quality for sake of quantity.

If you can find cask beer/ale, you're in for a treat.

[DWFII]

Here in the States, you can sometimes find brew-pubs that have "cask" beers/ales. [snip] If you can find cask beer/ale, you're in for a treat.

I don't know about other parts of the country but here in the "Highlands" of Central Oregon...not a very heavily populated or built-up area...we now have 5 (?) brewpubs withing a 50 mile radius, including the exemplary Deschutes Brewery, makers of Black Butte Porter.

Life is good.

[English Bloke]

Excellent post by DWFII by the way...

Cellar temp is about right for ales and stouts sold in Pubs in Britain and Ireland. No heating in the cellar so the beer is noticably a few degrees cooler than the room you'd be drinking it in. It is not as cold as north american beer though, hense the "warm beer" cliche but it's still quite cool all the same (in temp that is...)

The demand for Chilled everything in UK is more popular now, presumably offered to lure the lager drinkers back to bitters and stouts. As a result, a lot of keg beer Guiness included offer a chilled option and the beer is passed through chillers as it's drawn by electric pump. Cask beers you can't do that to, so if you want the true British/Irish beer experience go for cask ales.

If you get smooth flow or draught cans (the ones with a widget in) to drink at home, by all means put them in the fridge before opening, we do. It'll stop them exploding all over your kitchen when you pop the ring and after you tip it into a pint glass just leave it for a few minutes to take the cold edge off... If you can bring yourself to wait that long.

Boddingtons is now available world wide and is a moderate to mediocre but affordable example of a British Bitter Beer (it used to be a great beer when it was a small independant). The draught cans are not like the real pint in a real pub but they're not far off. Give it a whirl, try it cold and cool (not warm) and see which you prefer. Guiness of course needs no further mention.

I of course, don't drink anymore... I don't drink any less either but there you go.

[kierran]

Ahh, nothing I like more than a good beer discussion. Firstly, Kerr the Walker is a beer drinker cut from the same mold as me, there is nothing better than "Real Ale" from a real cask. On temperature, the correct drinking temperature really depends on the type of beer. Lagers, Pilsners, and the rest of the wheaty and fruity beers should be seved colder (around 40-45 F), ales should be served warmer (50-55 F). For fully flaveored beers like Stouts and Porters the taste changes with different temperatures as certain flavors come through better at various temperatures. Without the benefit of a climate controlled cellar a good rule of thumb is to put your lagers in the regular fridge, and your ales in the basement or a separate fridge turned to its warmest setting.

Cheers

Kierran

(Relax, have a homebrew)