Do you need to chill Stout

[Rwilts]

I wll be bottling and kegging a stout on the weekend. My question is after conditioning do you need to chill prior to drinking?

I like stout cold and room temp but is it necessary for the process to chill.

 

[Baz Chaz]

Down to personal preference, if you like/want it chilled ... chill away buddy :thumb:

 

[oldstout]

Oldstout likes to chill :thumb:

Usually in front of me chimenea, ipod in, and a glass of homebrew :lol: :lol: :lol:

:

 

[graysalchemy]

It is personal choice but a beer around 12c will have more aroma and flavour than a freezing cold one. One of the reason why commercial pop manufacturers want you to drink cold overly fizzy beer is to disguise the fact that they have no flavour to them. :lol: :lol:

I put them in the fridge for half an hour then take them out to drink.

 

[dennisking]

It is personal choice but a beer around 12c will have more aroma and flavour than a freezing cold one. One of the reason why commercial pop manufacturers want you to drink cold overly fizzy beer is to disguise the fact that they have no flavour to them. :lol: :lol:

+1 the colder the less taste, Carlin any one.. :whistle:

 

[graysalchemy]

2 pints and a packet of crisp Please :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[cask is best]

I have only ever had Stout's at a cold temp. i have never had one at just below room temp i thought only bitters could be enjoyed at that temp and Lagers, Stouts dark ales were for serving chilled.
I only do stouts in the winter and put them in the barrel i have never tried one at room temp or had one from a bottle in summer. Oh well learn something everyday. I may try one but drinking stout at room temp would seem wrong to me.

 

[graysalchemy]

The flavour would come to life. If you think about it aroma's are volatile and need a little heat to escape the liquid hence why beer should be served at about 10-12c. As I said we have been conditioned by big breweries to drink cold beer to cover up the fact that they have little flavour or aroma.

Also turn up the heating in a pub and serve ice cold beer and guess what, you are going to be buying it all night long. :lol: :lol:

Its not for your benifit beer is served cold and certainly not the benifit of the beer.

 

[cask is best]

But as you say we have been conditioned by the big breweries to drink cold beer. Isn't that like saying we have been conditioned to eat chips with fish and not with custard, if you know what i mean. Surly a brewery wants it's punters to enjoy it's ales and serving them cold is what sells them like selling fish with chips is what sells them. Rather than selling warm beer wouldn't sell.
If you know wha i mean. :hmm:

 

[graysalchemy]

Compare two of your beers one cold and one as I have described and see which has more aroma and flavour. It doesn't mean you will like the warm one more as you have been conditioned to drink cold beer but you should be able to see where i am coming from and perhaps appreciate the benefits.

:thumb:

 

[cask is best]

Yeh ill do that mate : never thought of it to be honest. Trouble is at the moment i have only got Coopers lager in bottles and surly you would agree that has to be served chilled [ or would you disagree with that] Second problem is my next drinking session is friday or Saturday so will have to wait.
I'm starting a bitter tomorrow probably barreling so i will experiment with that re room temp /chilled when that's ready.

:thumb:

 

[Aleman]

It is personal choice but a beer around 12c will have more aroma and flavour than a freezing cold one. One of the reason why commercial pop manufacturers want you to drink cold overly fizzy beer is to disguise the fact that they have no flavour to them. :lol: :lol:

+1 the colder the less taste, Carlin any one.. :whistle:

Actually have you ever let one of these Eurolagers or Creamflow/smoothflow beers warm up . . . . :sick: :sick: :sick: There is a definite taste to it . . . . :sick: :sick: :sick: :sick: :sick:

They are served cold for a reason . . .no one would buy them if they were served properly

Personally I like my ales (and that includes the darker beers) at 12 - 13C . . .Stronger beers RIS/Barley Wines/Strong ales I do drink warmer, but rarely above 18C

Lagers I don't like super cold and again try and keep the cellar around 8C, although with only having one beer 'fridge' it's a compromise and I keep it at 10C for both lagers and ales.

What temperature you drink you beer at is another personal preference

 

[graysalchemy]

I would drink a lager cold or warm to be honest :lol: :lol:

But if I did drink lager it would be cold, but having said that it would have more flavour than what you get in a pub anyway. :thumb:

 

[dennisking]

I am not a massive stout drinker but there was a few bottles amongst my Fathers day present which are stored in my garage. Drank 2 this week unchilled, very nice.

 

[cask is best]

Just done a bitter kit for the lad he wanted stout but he has not much room in the house for storing bottles and for keeping stout chilled so i said i'll do you a bitter and barrel it. Just try and keep it in the coolest place in the house as bitter don't need to be chilled.

It looks like i may have been wrong and could have done him a stout

 

[oldstout]

Any stouts I have made come out of the shed into the glass. Of course it's all weather dependant what the temp of the drInk is, but at this moment it's certainly not cold :lol:
My lagers I prefer cold and I chill them down, but I've also had a bottle of Yorkshire bitter tonight from the shed and I agree with the guys above that beers do not need to be cold to be enjoyable, it's a revelation TBH

:

 

[graysalchemy]

Glad you have had a revelation :thumb:

 

[lagerlout]

I'm mainly a lager drinker when im in the pubs and in that scenario the colder the better, but to be honest i dont expect to have a pint of the mass produced stuff (tennents/carling/fosters/carlsberg etc) and think "that's a nice pint", because all it is is cold and refreshing.

Different story when i buy beer for the house, i'll buy something with a little more flavour such as Hoegaarden, or i'll have one of my own

I rarely drink stout although on occasion have enjoyed a guinness, which i like either poured cold in a pub or unchilled from a can in the house. But i think the nicest stout i have tasted is my own 10 day old brew taken from the trial jar at 20C, it tastes delicious, even my other half who dioesnt even like lager nevermind dark beer thought it was very tasty! :party: :drink:

 

[mickthetrick]

its down to preference
i like my stouts at room temp. its more tasty to me that way.

 

[Devonhomebrew]

I cant help bu think lager gets so much **** and the traditional meaning for lager is bottom fermented and well the macro 70% rice bud/coors has taken over the meaning of a lager.