I find some AAL's to still be drinkable if they arent ice cold and warm up a bit. There are some however like Natural Ice that are undrinkable if they warm up and arent ice cold because they start to taste like you know what, rhymes with "she."
For the most part, I tend to drink all styles at “cask ale temps” (which I think of as 50-55 F). In the warmer months, I’ll drink beers straight from the fridge, but again, the style doesn’t really matter. I want the coldness that accompanies the beer during those months. Then again, I’d guess that 50% of the beer I drink is not at home. In which case, I’m drinking it whatever they’re serving it.
Depending on how cold, you might be missing a lot. I mostly consume light colored lagers these days, right around 45°.
I refrigerate all my beers. I open all my beers at the same temperature. If the beer in my glass is too cold to enjoy all its complexities, I wait a few minutes. I’m in no hurry.
Yeah, there are certain beers I enjoy more as they warm up. Belgian tripels come to mind. Other dark beers seem to work, too. But largely any “yellow” beer needs to be “cold” for me to enjoy the most.
Fridge temp to start. If I down it quickly, it was meant to be. If I sip on it and let it open up, was also meant to be. Don't over think it.
For me, lagers are better cold but not freezing. Ales seem better at "cellar temperature", 50's- 60's F.
Ice cold hides flavors. So the beers that benefit most are the ones that taste like ass at warmer temps. That’s not to say they can’t be refreshing on a hot day though.
Yeah, that date code is probably the packaging date. AB dropped the "Born on" terminology, which was stupidly confusing, but it referred to the date the beer was canned, bottled or racked. Using the same analogy, the brewing date would be the day of conception. Very few brewers note the brewing date - a lager like Beck's would take weeks of fermentation, kräusening (if Beck's in the US still kräusened) and lagering before packaging. (In the 1970's, the then-independent Beck's Brewery said their beer was "fermented at very low temperature over a longer than average time" and lagered for "several months".)
IMHO Sours, IPAs, and most pale beers are better cold. Strong and/or dark beers, particularly BA, are better somewhere between fridge and room temperatures.
Indeed, which is why I found your initial post suggesting the "trick" was to drink lower abv beers at colder temps so odd. Seems like the trick is to allow each their own way of enjoying beers.
Bad wording on me, generally speaking what some others pointed out works for me. Depending on styles, not only on ABV I like some beers colder than others.
I know with every fiber of my being that most of the beer I drink would taste "better," "more complex," and "go down in a way that doesn't offend anyone" when it's not very cold, but the pleasure I gain from drinking a cold beverage outweighs most of that for me. I love, love, love a cold beverage (I run hot), and that's how I prefer to start off/keep most of my drinks. I am the guy that will be drinking his cold brew on ice throughout a -10 winter.
I hear that. While I drink most everything straight from my basement (which is almost always between 50-55 degrees, regardless of the time of year), I still prefer AAL's or rice lagers in the fridge during the warm months. I wasn't always like this, mind you. I used to drink everything at fridge temps. I can actually pin-point when my preferences on this changed. I had a Sierra Nevada Celebration straight from my basement a couple years back and it was fantastic. I started trying other styles straight from the basement. Beers like Pilsner Urquell, which I loved and would typically drink ice cold, were now being consumed at much higher temps. I was enjoying them all much more.
Agreed. I'd say, without monitoring my beers with a thermometer, that I'm probably drinking them somewhere in the 40F range. DEFINITELY not refrigerator temp. Just don't find very cold beer to be refreshing and since I try diligently to not drink crap beer, I have no reason to mask their character with low temps.
I'd say I favor 2/3 of all beers to be served cool to cold. I don't necessarily need anything near freezing, but I'd take that over room temperature in most cases. My only real exceptions are aged sours, cask ales (obviously), and beers with oddball fermentation characteristics.
