November 4th, 2007
What’s the proper temperature for serving? – You decide
Are you satisfied with the temperature of your beer?
Generally, I am satisfied. The temperature of beer is more situational for me. For Example, after spending 2-3 hours cutting the grass, I navigate towards a very cold lager or light ale. For reviewing, we always use a non chilled class and try keep the beer around cellar temperature.
When going to the 99’s restaurant, they always sever your beer in a frozen glass. Do you like it? Would you rather have it cooler or warmer?
Please comment on this post and let us know how you feel.
Sean
2Beerguys.com
Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It!!
So, what is the right temperature for craft beer? This is an even more complicated answer. Different beers are best served at different temperatures, but as a general rule of thumb ales are generally better served at warmer temperatures than lagers. That’s a broad generality, because bigger, headier beers like barley wines, imperial stouts (ales) and even dopplebocks (lagers) are best fairly warm — at around 58 to 59 degrees or so — and beers like German pilsners, a good hefeweizen, and the better premium American lagers (Full Sail’s Session, for example) should be served pretty cold, say around 40 to 42 degrees.
And, of course, there are exceptions to every guideline. I love Great Divide Brewing Company’s Samurai (a rice ale) served damned near ice-cold and specialty beers such as Unibroue’s Quelque Chose or Liefmans Gluhkriek are best mulled (heated) to upwards of 130 degrees or more depending on taste. How does a publican manage all of this? In most establishments, all of the kegs are housed in the same cooler and not individually temperature controlled so the barkeep’s got another hurdle to leap.
Link to the full article
Filed under Anchorage Press, Home Page – Bottom, Food & Drink, Brew Review, Vol. 16, Ed. 44 on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 by Author: James “Dr. Fermento” Roberts.