Ideal drinking temperature?

[Doive]

I have my keezer set to 7.2C, tried it at a range of temperatures from 3.3C to 14C, and found this middle point to give the best balance for a range of beers. Stouts and the like I serve at room temperature from a King Keg to suit the body of the beer.

 

[Graz]

I like my beer to be relatively cold to start off with as it warms up quickly at this time of year anyway. My keg fridge is set at 4°C on its thermostat but having checked this for force carbonation calculations I actually found the fridge was running at about 6°C internally. For a cider I find this just right but an ale I'll let sit for a while to warm up slightly. Might experiment a bit as the colder months come around.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

CAMRA and Cask Marque want pub beers served at 12 deg C for real ales but I find this too cold. My PB is connected to a beer engine. The PB sits on a stone floor. I measured my pint yesterday and it was 19.

Am I alone in enjoying bitters and IPAs at room temp? This was drinking outdoors on a hot day. I'd always hope to have the beer cooler than ambient.

You’re not alone. There are many of us that like ale at ambient temperatures down to about 10 in winter and up to about 20 in summer.

I think below 10 takes away the taste and mouthfeel, much over 20 and it just isn’t pleasant.

 

[kelper]

Hooray, so I am not odd! A pub serving real ale at 7 degrees would not get a Cask Marque accreditation. Lagers are OK chilled but only abroad. I would never drink it in the UK>

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Hooray, so I am not odd! A pub serving real ale at 7 degrees would not get a Cask Marque accreditation. Lagers are OK chilled but only abroad. I would never drink it in the UK>

Actually I’m OK with lagers served at 7 degrees - takes away the taste!

 

[Rodcx500z]

No your not Kelper all my brews are served at ambient mostly bitters and pale ales

 

[Worf]

Definitely not alone. This is one reason I started brewing at home. Blasted American main-line beers taste like s#*t when their not served almost frozen. Sad party is, many of my friends can't get past the lack of frosted mugs to enjoy a good break.

 

[Mavroz]

Cask style ale through the handpull is kept at 10 degrees before dispense.
I reckon it may get up to 14/15 degrees by the end of the session but by then..... Well you know the rest!

 

[kelper]

Cask style ale through the handpull is kept at 10 degrees before dispense.
I reckon it may get up to 14/15 degrees by the end of the session but by then..... Well you know the rest!

Are you talking about your own setup? Or in general?

 

[Mavroz]

Are you talking about your own setup? Or in general?

Sorry, my own.

 

[scomet]

Anything just above freezing is good, my house bitter (Landlady) a bit warmer about 5C, greetings from the antipodes.........

 

[phildo79]

Cellar temp should sort the wheat from the chaf, I find. If a beer has to be ice cold in order for it to 'taste' nice, then it isn't a very good beer. We have a beer called Harp which is stinking. It was going to be retired until some clown at Guinness came up with the genius idea of Harp Ice. It's cold enough that if you drink it quickly enough, you can't taste the beer, and therefore be disgusted by it. Having said that, it must not have been cold enough as they brought out Harp Extra Ice

 

[kelper]

Cellar temp is too vague! Could be anything depending on locale.

 

[St00]

My Kegerator is set to 6°C, but the fridge with the bitter in for the hand pump is set to 10°c.

 

[foxbat]

The great thing about homebrew is that 'ideal' is whatever you say it is because you're the recipe designer, brewer, cellerman, landlord, barman and barfly all rolled in one!

 

[Hoppyland]

I guess a lot depends upon how old you are & what you grew up drinking. I started drinking beer from the late 60s onwards - but never liked the chilled, fizzy crap that caused CAMRA to be born. Some of the beer I drank was awful, but a lot was very good indeed - if not to everyone's taste. I recall a pub in Plymouth in the mid 1970s, when I was doing a fish-farming degree there. "The Grand Duchess" was just around the corner & ideal for a lunchtime pint. Never has a pub been so mis-named! But, the beer was excellent. No cellar. No beer engine. It sat in barrels behind the bar, and was simply poured into your glass through a tap. So, pretty much flat, warm beer. No head, no bubbles at all. It looked just like a pint of brown water. But it had a lovely, malty flavour with a nice balanced bitterness and a whiff of dry hops. A couple of years later, living on Anglesey, I used to go to a pub run by a couple of "older" lasses - I think they were sisters. Not your usual local. The seating was apparently second-hand furniture, of all descriptions, including tatty 3-piece suites. Again, the beer was warm & flat - this time brought to you in jugs & poured into the glass. But, very tasty stuff!
These two examples are extremes, but I certainly developed a taste for low-carbonation unchilled beer. Which is what I produce with my homebrew. I've never checked the temperature of my beer - I certainly do not refrigerate it, but equally I live in a hilly area of SW Scotland, and (in summer) I keep it in the coolest room in our house, no direct sun, which is normally at around 16-18°C in summer barring a heatwave. This, for me, is perfect.
I guess it also depends upon the type of beer, though. To my taste, lighter beers are OK cooler (but not below 10°C, please!), but malty brews, or stouts, definitely need to be at ambient temperature to make the more subtle flavours accessible. I guess recommended temperatures for wine are an interesting comparison. It seems to be generally accepted that white wines are served at 8-12°C, and reds at 12-18°C, with the more complex ones at the higher end. I don't see why beer is much different. Just - for me at least - keep the lower temperatures for beers that basically taste of nowt anyway!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

CAMRA and Cask Marque want pub beers served at 12 deg C for real ales but I find this too cold. My PB is connected to a beer engine. The PB sits on a stone floor. I measured my pint yesterday and it was 19.

Am I alone in enjoying bitters and IPAs at room temp? This was drinking outdoors on a hot day. I'd always hope to have the beer cooler than ambient.

OK. Pubs shouldn't serve it any colder than 12!

CAMRA used to recommend 12-14C (but weirdly that seems to have disappeared from their website AFAICT), Cask Marque recommend 11-13C but allow 10-14C for auditing.

It's definitely something that people have differing opinions on (and it can be a definite part of a pub's "personality" whether they go warmer or cooler), personally I like it down at 10-11C - because it's usually easy to let beer warm up, not so easy to cool it down! Having it just on the cool side of optimal means that you can see the evolution in the glass, you hit the optimal temperature about a quarter of the way down, and the last bit is a bit too warm.

 

[Cwrw666]

I've never checked the temperature of my beer - I certainly do not refrigerate it, but equally I live in a hilly area of SW Scotland, and (in summer) I keep it in the coolest room in our house, no direct sun, which is normally at around 16-18°C in summer barring a heatwave. This, for me, is perfect.

Same here usually but this year my `cellar' has been up to 21c at times and that's a bit warm really. Being a heathen though, I just pop a couple of ice cubes in me beer...

 

[MickDundee]

I like my beer to be relatively cold to start off with as it warms up quickly at this time of year anyway. My keg fridge is set at 4°C on its thermostat but having checked this for force carbonation calculations I actually found the fridge was running at about 6°C internally. For a cider I find this just right but an ale I'll let sit for a while to warm up slightly. Might experiment a bit as the colder months come around.

This is what I do. The beer in my kegerator pours better colder. I’ve only had a Belgian Wit in it though so far, so no doubt I’ll balance the line in my other tap slightly differently and change the temperature accordingly.

I don’t make many “Real Ale” style beers as they are never the same if they aren’t from a pub hand pump. I have a bitter I’ll be kegging next week and think I’ll sit it outside the fridge in the garage on serving days and use the keg-mounted tap.