Letting a beer get too cold

A million threads on this but big dark beers are best served maybe 50 ish and warn as consumed. I don't my lagers, IPA's and such 10 degrees colder. I don't drink enough Sour to have an opinion, but the bit of Cranbic I drank was at about 50, and I loved it, that's my reefer setting. I usually pop my IPA's and such into the freezer for 5-10 minutes.

 

FYI, there's a faster way to chill your beer and do so in a manner that won't freeze it (from my experience)

Take a bowl/bucket/container of some sort that is big enough to hold the bottle (it doesn't have to hold it all the way above the neck). Pour ice in the container and fill with cold water (again, only up to the neck is necessary). Pour in a half cup of kosher salt and mix it in with the ice water. It'll be chilled in 20 minutes. Every once in a while go give the bottle a little spin. Best part is, if you forget about it, it won't freeze. This has always worked well for me, your mileage may vary.

 

What's happening here is a combination of two things. First, as someone else noted, the chill does impact your tastebuds, numbing them, etc. to certain flavors. But more importantly it affects the beer. Basically that glass of beer is a bowl full of chemicals. Different chemical reactions take place faster or slower at differing temps. So when the beer is cold some of the flavor agents and aromas are simply not there or are only there at a reduced level from what they have if the beer is warmer.

What you describe for your beer is a pretty common thing that you can easily duplicate with almost any beer. Starting from quite cold the flavors and aromas will "open" up and the beer can taste very different when lightly chilled or almost warm than it tasted when chilled.

 

Your beers volume of co2 is essentially (without gobs of science language getting involved) hiding from you when it is below waters freezing point. You may also actually have started to separate the alcohol from the water, which might inhibit the co2 from moving, period. When the beer comes up above freezing, the co2 is able to release more as it warms up and the two are in cahoots with one another again. That colder temperature is also why the aromatics aren't there, and also why some aspects of the flavor are also in hiding. The co2 isn't circulating the beer goodness and releasing them as its releases itself.

 

Kind of funny, but as a rookie I always thought everything had to be freezing cold and wondered why anyone would want to drink a beer at cellar temp. Now I let everything sit out for about 10 minutes (little longer for darker beers) before drinking.

I still like my IPA's on the cold-side sarting off and like them to slowly warm as I drink them.

I do travel a lot and use the same method as Providence above to quickly cool beer at a hotel with no mini fridge . Good call on the bowl of ice, water and kosher salt.

 

BCBS 55-60 degrees nothing colder

 

My brother in law threw one in the freezer after flying in from Denver as of course it wasn't cold yet. He used his phone timer. You are drinking something else,you get to talking...thank goodness for the phone timer. How many beer have been saved that way?

 

This works well know hotels lacking a mini fridge. I usually use the ice bucket but have also used the sink in a pinch.

 

Sometimes in the winter when it is super cold (40 below) our cellar will drop to 40 degrees. On occasion I have opened a darker beer such as a stout and detected what I perceive to be a metallic taste. When I notice that I always let the beer warm up for a bit and that taste always goes away. So, I could see how you might have found some sour notes to yours. Also, smell is a huge part of tasting. When a beer is super cold those aromatics aren't released either.

 

Now that winter is here, the best way to cool a beer quickly is in snow. Insulates it against freezing whatever the outside temp is but still cools the liquid quickly.

 

I always find it fascinating to see how a beer changes while warming up. I have it down to a science now as to how long to keep a certain style sitting on the counter before I open it. I really need a good beer fridge. But even there I like different styles at different temperatures. I actually enjoy opening a beer too cold and taking a sip or two and then slowly enjoying my beer as it's metamorphosis occurs. So OP enjoy doing the experiments with styles and temp. It is fascinating.

 

I put my beer in the freezor every time. No fucks given.