More than words can say..

Ok, this is a blog. But every so often, there is a beer that can only be described in physical words. Here's one of them. Promise I won't switch to video from now on. As mum used to say, I've got the perfect face for radio.

What temperature should you serve your beer?

Looking out of my window, I can see a chill in the air that is much colder than any fridge or freezer. It's -28c and too cold to go out, so I'll probably put the fire on, settle down in front of the TV with a couple of cold beers and watch the rugby. Cold beer - when it's already cold outside?!


You don't drink beer like you do a soup - to warm you up if it's cold outside. You generally drink beer for two reasons: refreshment and taste. The key to getting both of these correct is temperature.


The key flavour in beer is bitterness which is brought about by the hops contained in the liquid. Hops are used for many things when making beer - they add flavour, they add aroma and they also help to keep the beer fresh by having an antibiotic effect on micro organisms within the beer.


It's a female hop "cone" that is used in brewing, because just like female human beings, they contain nice smelling perfumes and essential oils.

The effect of hops on the finished beer varies by type and use, though there are two main hop types: bittering and aroma. Bittering hops have higher concentrations of alpha acids, and are responsible for the large majority of the bitter flavor of a beer. Bittering hops are boiled for a longer period of time, typically 60–90 minutes, and as they often have inferior aromatic properties, the aromas evaporate off during the boil.

Aroma hops are typically added to the brew later to prevent the evaporation of the essential oils, to impart "hop taste" and hop aroma". Aroma hops are often added after the finished brew has cooled and while the beer ferments, a technique known as "dry hopping", which contributes to the hop aroma. In cask beer, whole hop cones are sometimes added to the barrel (or cask) and slowly make their way to the bottom while the beer is fermenting. In other words, the less chance the aromas have of going up the chimney in the form of steam, the more chance they have to fragrance the beer.

Flavors and aromas are described appreciatively using terms which include "grassy", "floral", "citrus", "spicy", "piney," "lemony," and "earthy". Many pale lagers have fairly low hop influence, while lagers marketed as Pilsner or brewed in the Czech Republic may have noticeable noble hop aroma. Certain ales (particularly the highly-hopped style known as India Pale Ale, or IPA) can have high levels of hop bitterness. Dark beers have reasonably high amounts of hops too, but sometimes these aromatics are masked by the smoke and roasted flavours of the malt.

So what's all this got to do with temperature? Essential oils are nullified the colder they get. I always use a good example when talking to people about temperature and taste. Get a bottle of aftershave or perfume, and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, take it out and smell it. It won't smell of much. The coldness makes the oils solidify and therefore stops them giving off their aromas (they are too busy shivering to do anything else). Now imagine if this was a bottle of beer. The essential oils in the beer act much the same way as the oils in the perfume. You take the beer from the fridge, open it and nothing much leaps out.

Of course, some beers are meant to be this way. Imagine you are on a beach during  a hot summers day. All that lounging about watching the local womens volleyball team perform has given you a raging...thirst. You retire to the beach bar where Alfonso hands you a bottle of Corona that has been sitting in the sun all day long. One swig of this and you have to weigh up the advantages of volleyball team/bad beer over good beach bar/no bikini clad maidens. Corona (and I'll explain the reason why I chose this beer in a minute) and other beers of this genre are drunk primarily for refreshment. You are on a beach, you're thirsty and you want to slake that thirst. You don't want a beer that is packed full of chewy flavours, because to appreciate those flavours you want to slow down and enjoy each one.

It's all about how the hops perform under what temperature they are at. If you want less flavours, you know now what a fridge does to it. It'll take away all but the strongest aromas of hops, leaving you with a cooling, slightly carbonated liquid that is easy to drink. Put that same beer in the sun for a couple of hours, and you're left with a drink having flavours that you're not supposed to taste. In fact, it's very doubtful that any aroma hops have been put into that particular beer, so the beer is in big danger of getting oxidized, which means the sun will bake these beta acids giving them a taste and aroma which is called "sun struck", or more fun "skunky". It's the reason many highly hopped beers are in dark brown or green bottles - it protects them from the sun.

The guys at Corona have taken their dedication to brewing for refreshment to such a scale that they don't add any aroma hops at all and only a very minimal amount of bittering hops into the brew. They don't want to produce a beer full of flavour, because they know in the whole, that the customer also feels this way. Sol do it too. Think about the colour of their bottle. See what I mean?

Mantra #1: If your thirsty and want refreshment, put it in the fridge.

Now the other side of the coin. It's cold outside (the weather has changed and so have the volleyball team) and you feel like having a beer that you can take your time over, taste the different levels of flavours and generally enjoy the beer and the occasion for drinking it. You ask Alfonso for a bottle of IPA and he takes it out of the fridge, pours it into a frozen glass and slides it across the bar. You put it to your lips (the glass sticks to them) and the liquid pours into your mouth filling it with flavours of....coldness. That's all. The whole reason you ordered an IPA is that you want the aromas to sing to you, the bitterness to fill your mouth and suck your cheeks in. You want to be able to taste the malt, the caramel the slightly roasted flavours, but because in this game of rock scissors paper, cold wins over everything.

In an ideal world, that bottle would have been happily sitting in a cellar with temperatures of about 10-14 degrees. This sort of temperature is cool enough to make the beer refreshing, but not cold enough to mask all those lovely alpha and beta acids of the hop oils. Unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world. One of the main reasons that bottles are in the fridge is so that they can be marketed to the customer. Pubs just don't have any space to have two sets of beers - one cold, one at room temperature. And of course, if the marketing works correctly and a customer looks at the bottle of IPA and thinks that they'll try that for the first time, they are often left disappointed because the beer is being served incorrectly. More often than not, the consumer is unaware of the huge difference temperature makes, and walks away thinking IPA's are just like any normal beer.

Mantra #2: If you're drinking for taste, take it out of the fridge.

Be a geek like me. Order two beers at the same time, and tell the barstaff to keep it unopened and out of the fridge. By the time you've finished your first, the second will be  at almost the correct temperature. You can also ask if they have any not in the fridge. Be careful here though, as in most bars, the beers on the shelf are only for communication not consumption. I once went to a well known Irish bar in town, and when I asked for the bottle of Spitfire on the shelf, the barmaid looked at me as if I had two heads. She may have had a point though - halfway through drinking the beer, I asked to look at the bottle as the beer had quite a skunky taste. Sure enough, it was 3 years out of date.

The general rule of thumb is that the darker it is, the more room temperature it should be. The new wave of aggressively dry hopped beers such as Brewdog and the American micro's can actually be served a bit cooler because they have so much aroma hops inside. Put them in the fridge for an hour or two, or if you store them in the fridge, take them out for an hour or two before serving. Of course you can drink them straight from the fridge, but that's not going to do them the full justice. It's like taking a Ferrari for a spin in a 40km zone.

                                                   Don't do this at home.

I'm watching the rugby later and I'll be drinking for refreshment. My mind wants to be on the game, not my glass. I'll have a few Czech lagers. These benefit from fridge treatment, with perhaps a little half an hour airing before drinking. Czech beers use Saaz aroma hops which is quite soft and the focus is on bite rather than aroma. I still like to taste and smell the floral zest that comes from the hops, so that's why I don't chill it to death. 

Tonight is another matter. The fire will be roaring, and I'll nudge my armchair that little closer as I open either my Abstrakt or Paradox Jura. These won't have been anywhere near a fridge, as I want to taste as much as possible. Depending on how roaring my fire is, I might store them in a slightly cooler room (because I don't have a cellar) before opening.

I think it'll get to the stage where as much information is going to be put on the craft beers of the future as possible. Wines talk about food, serving temperature etc, and I think it's only a matter of time before quality beers start doing the same. Some of them do it now, recommending what type of glass to use - this is only a good thing. Back in the UK, I remember we had an scheme in the bars where the customer was given a thermometer to stick in their beer. If it was too warm (because this was commercial lager), then he had a right to hand it back to the barstaff. Some glasses have a logo that turns blue if the correct temperature of beer is in the glass.


Here's a guideline on temperatures and styles: 

Very cold (0-4C/32-39F): Any beer you don’t need to taste. Pale Lager, Malt Liquor, Canadian-style Golden Ale and Cream Ale, Low Alcohol, Canadian, American or Scandinavian-style Cider.
Cold (4-7C/39-45F): Hefeweizen, Kristalweizen, Kölsch, Premium Lager, Pilsner, Classic German Pilsner, Fruit Beer, brewpub-style Golden Ale, European Strong Lager, Berliner Weisse, Belgian White, American Dark Lager, sweetened Fruit Lambics and Gueuzes, Duvel-types
Cool (8-12C/45-54F): American Pale Ale, Amber Ale, California Common, Dunkelweizen, Sweet Stout, Stout, Dry Stout, Porter, English-style Golden Ale, unsweetened Fruit Lambics and Gueuzes, Faro, Belgian Ale, Bohemian Pilsner, Dunkel, Dortmunder/Helles, Vienna, Schwarzbier, Smoked, Altbier, Tripel, Irish Ale, French or Spanish-style Cider
Cellar (12-14C/54-57F): Bitter, Premium Bitter, Brown Ale, India Pale Ale, English Pale Ale, English Strong Ale, Old Ale, Saison, Unblended Lambic, Flemish Sour Ale, Bière de Garde, Baltic Porter, Abbey Dubbel, Belgian Strong Ale, Weizen Bock, Bock, Foreign Stout, Zwickel/Keller/Landbier, Scottish Ale, Scotch Ale, American Strong Ale, Mild, English-style Cider 
Warm (14-16C/57-61F): Barley Wine, Abt/Quadrupel, Imperial Stout, Imperial/Double IPA, Doppelbock, Eisbock, Mead


So, final mantra: If your thirsty and want refreshment, put it in the fridge, if you're drinking for taste, take it out of the fridge. Or another one: "Nightclub = cold, Fireplace = warm".

Right, I'm off to prepare for the sport on tv. My Czech Pilsners are in the fridge, ales and Brewdogs are in my  kitchen, and I've thrown all my Estonian lagers out into the garden. I don't think that will affect their taste much.