The temperature of your beer

I don’t measure the temperature of my beer but I do normally let it warm up some, or at least don’t drink it directly out of the fridge.
I’m not sure it matters for lagers, but it’s true for stronger IPAs.

 

I like cold drinks. Except for the occasional cup of tea or hot chocolate, I don't drink hot or warm beverages. I like my beer cold. It helps the body and drinkability. Warmish Barleywines and Stouts are borderline undrinkable from a mouthfeel standpoint.

 

When drinking my own beers at home, I drink everything at the temperature of my basement. Currently, that's mid-60s (warmer than recommended cellar wine storage or cask beer temp) but I would never bother to measure it ordinarily. I definitely prefer this over standard fridge temp. Maybe I'd prefer them closer to cask ale temp, but I'm not going to make any storage changes to accommodate this. Styles don't make a difference. Preferences for one beer don't change for another. I don't intentionally let them warm up while drinking them - there wouldn't be much of a swing. FWIW, I also let my tea cool off a bit before drinking it... and I drink any spirit at basement temp rather than from a freezer.

 

An interesting discussion topic.

I do not specifically measure the temperature of the beer but when I take a beer from my refrigerator and pour it into a room temperature glass, I have a relatively good idea of the initial temperature of the beer (e.g., about 43 °F).

For certain beer style I do enjoy drinking them a tad warmer with one example being my homebrewed Bitter Ales which I will consume at cellar temperature in the cooler times of the year. Those beers will be somewhere in the low 50’s F.

Now, back to those beers I drink from the refrigerator, I tend to drink them over a 20-ish minute timeframe and the latter portions of that beer will be warmer. Maybe in the high 40’s F. I will take note that some beers will ‘evolve’ over the duration of the drinking experience. For example, for a beer I discussed in NBW (Hill Farmstead Amarillo IPA):

“Taste:

The flavor follows the nose with mostly citrus and some diesel. As the beer opens/warms up the aspect of diesel is more noticeable. There is a medium bitterness.”

Cheers!

 

Funny @Beersnake, I really do not pay attention to temperature on purpose but there are time I notice it. I had a treat of a beer this past NBW and temperature is something I noticed in this one; partly because it heated up so quickly, warmer day, no AC brewery...

Tonewood - Canyon Walls (American Amber)



I noted this in my review...Taste is very well balanced; good caramel malt presence with some toastiness, good hop presence on the finish; slight grapefruit, pleasant sticky piney bite on the finish; gets even better as it warms a bit.

It really hit a sweetspot of tasty depth when it was a touch warmer, I still think I enjoy most beer on the colder side but in this case the second half was very enjoyable for me. I definitely find this happens more with beers that have at least some malt to them and ales in particular.

To answer your other question though, I never go out of my way to warm a beer up, I'd rather finish it on the slightly warmer side than finish it while its full on warm. I feel like it gets to a point where it becomes less enjoyable if I wait too long.

 

I generally like my beers cool to full-on cold. No need for frosted mugs or anything like that (I won't turn one away, though), but I typically hate when places serve something at room temp.
To me, the only beers I can tolerate without any chill = lambics and similar wild sours. Everything else needs to be some level of cool. At least "cellar" temp. Warm stouts and barleywines taste like straight booze to me.

 

I'm not that fussy.
Mostly because all of my beer, kegs of homebrew included are all in the same Keezer.
You can't regulate the temperature when you're out, but you can monitor it.
If I want my certain beer warmer, say a Scotch ale or something, I'll just pull the bottle out a little bit before I plan on drinking it.
That's a far as I go, if at all.
I do take notice of how the flavors change as the glass empties though.

 

I’m a big believer in storing beer as cold as possible, I end up sitting on beers for a while, so the cold keeps them in good shape when I finally drink the 6 months or some times years after purchase.

For me, heavier beers can get cloying near room temperature, which I don’t really care for. But a 4% cask ale at cellar temp is perfect for me. I rarely go to the trouble of letting a beer warm up, but will do that if I’m really trying to get a handle on something new to me.

 

Generally speaking, everything goes into the fridge before I drink it.

For stouts and higher ABV beers, I’ll sip on them slowly over the course of an hour or so. By the time I’m done, I’ve seen them from cold to room temp.

For IPAs, I generally like them straight out of the fridge.

More refreshing styles, like AALs, wheat beers, pilsners, I will even let go in the freezer for 15-ish minutes. Love those super cold.

Never been a huge fan of frosted mugs in general, but always a time and a place.

 

I never check the temperature of my beer but I drink all of my beer straight out of the fridge, so that’s the starting temperature every time. If I’m drinking from a container any larger than 12oz (and sometimes even then), I do not pour the entire contents of the vessel into my glass. I’ll pour 1/2 or 1/3, then stick the bottle/can back in the fridge. Refill as necessary. I usually like to take my time with a beer—a lot of them are 10%+—and I do like to note the subtle changes as it warms. But I do not want the entire beer to get warm, in case that process makes it worse, which is why I do what I do—cold beer can gradually warm just fine, but beer that has warmed after opening is never the same even if you cool it back down again. As beer warms it loses the ability to hold on to carbonation, and those little bubbles are one of my favorite things about beer.

 

1) Do you measure the temperature of your beer when you drink it?
Not usually, though I keep a Fluke temperature gun next to my recliner in case I do, pictured below.

2) Do you deliberately let your beer warm up a bit and then take the changes into account when reviewing?
I often take hours to savor a strong dark beer. Often they do improve as they warm, and sometimes I note that in the review if it's a profound difference I want share. Sometimes I ponder why I put beers in the fridge just to take them out let them reach room temperature.

3) Do you regularly drink your beer at warmer temps or colder temps? Why?
I drink mostly strong dark BA beers and I drink them over a period of an hour or more to savor them, and because I'm always surfing on my laptop. I finish IPAs and sours much more quickly, because they're better cold.

4) What styles do you think should be consumed on the warmer side, and why?
Stouts, porters, barleywines, quads, and strong dark ales taste better a bit warm.

 

Infrared temperature guns are great because they are non contact. But they measure surface temperature, which will vary a bit from internal temp. If precise data is important (and for me personally, it's not) a Thermapen or similar is the solution.

 

I will offer my 2 cents from a commercial draft point of view.
38F. Warmer than that and foaming becomes a problem. Colder than that and the CO2 does not come out of solution, and you can get bloated, which is not fun (we call that ball park beer).

People will complain if their beer is warm, but nobody ever complained that their beer was too cold.
Personally, very few beers are more enjoyable above around 42F, and I don't usually drink cask or Imperials.
Cheers