I think so. But maybe that's just me... "A heavy clear glass mug is great for a strong IIPA that deserves to be sipped. The thick handle provides some insulation so it stays colder a little longer. The colder serving temp accentuates the hops. The mug is also just a great way to show off the vivid orange-copper color."
This is actually a decent article about New Glarus Scream IIPA, but then I saw the glassware suggestion and it hurt my brain: http://www.isthmus.com/beer/article.php?article=42996
Terrible serving advice? Yes. Where did the OPs statement come from? To paraphrase what someone else said: "A lie told enough times becomes the truth." I say: "If you say something with enough authority, there are some people who will believe it."
Sounds like pretty shitty serving advice to me, and you're going to hear that echoed an awful lot here. I guess there could be worse things, like a Solo cup, or worse, no glass at all.
Yeah this goes totally counter to how you should actually drink an IPA. And what kind of logic dictates a hoppy ale should be cold to accentuate the hops? The only thing a colder temperature does to a beer is make it the flavours more muted. This reminds me of the Belgian Beer Cafes here in Australia which keep their glasses in a fridge, I always ask them for a non-chilled glass and the staff are like "but it's supposed to be served in a chilled glass" - no thanks!
Servers pretending to be knowledgeable? Servers delusional about their beer knowledge just because they (sort of) work "in the beer industry"? Unthinkable.
Good god, who wants a serving temp IIPA? The thick handle makes it easier to break the mug cleanly on the persons head who made this piss poor suggestion.
Help me out here brother BA's but I actually like my IPA's to warm up a bit. THAT is what accentuates the hops. Augh, where do they find these nitwits?
I actually drank my very first Sculpin and Grapefruit Sculpins today, and I thought they were both significantly more tasty once they had warmed a bit. No one wants a room temperature IPA, unless you are talking about 120 minute or similar, but ice cold is certainly not the way to go in my opinion.
Reminds me of my brother-in-law who, on christmas eve, was excited about his Boulevard brewing The Sixth Glass (a quad that scores 93 on BA and the bros gave scored it at 100). He was looking for the frosty mug he keeps in his freezer for his miller lite and shiner bock that he usually drinks, and was annoyed that someone else had taken it for another drink. I tried to suggest, without being snobbish or dickish about it, that a beer of that quality wasn't meant for a frosty mug, but a wine glass might do it justice (since he doesn't have any other beer glassware). He was pretty dismissive of my suggestion and put a shaker pint glass in the freezer for 15 minutes so he'd have a frosty glass for it. On the bright side, he shared the bottle with me, and I enjoyed the heck out of it, especially as it warmed in my stemless wine glass. The myth of ice-cold beer has just become such common "knowledge" that a lot people who should know better don't; even people who would never serve red wine too cold.
It isn't just beer - you mention red wine. I have a pretty big wine cellar as well as a beer cellar (yes you can have one of each - it is fine, I am not a mutant traitor) and I get absolutely irate in nice restaurants that should know better and I get a room temperature glass of red wine... Mofo's just don't know that red wine should be served at around 60-65 degrees. Kind of like you wouldn't want a big sipper like a barley wine or impy stout to be served to you at actual room temperature (say 75), but slightly cooler. This actually annoys me more, as I can always wait for a drink to warm up a bit, but it is pretty hard to cool it down... I mean, it is pretty simple shit, yet people are going gaga over places that actually serve beers at different temperatures, as though this is avant garde!
