Why is lager served cold and ale served cool

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paulpj26

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What are the reasons why we serve lager cold and ale cool? I don't dispute that is the correct way to serve it, having had warm lager and very cold ale :sick:, but I was just wondering what the science is behind it?

:cheers:
 
paulpj26 said:
What are the reasons why we serve lager cold and ale cool? I don't dispute that is the correct way to serve it, having had warm lager and very cold ale :sick:, but I was just wondering what the science is behind it?
:cheers:

What science?

Lager (Pilsner) is served cool because it's refreshing and crisp. Ale is served warmer to bring out the flavours.

At least that's my take on it.
 
Cause that is the way the ad men tell us it should be served :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: Eurolager trash is served ice cold so that it numbs the taste buds and the drinker would not realise that it didn't have any flavour anyway and they would be better off pouring it straight down the urinal

I serve both my ales and lagers at 12C . . . . As do some of the real craft breweries in the Czech Republic ;)
 
Aleman said:
Cause that is the way the ad men tell us it should be served :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: Eurolager trash is served ice cold so that it numbs the taste buds and the drinker would not realise that it didn't have any flavour anyway and they would be better off pouring it straight down the urinal

I was trying to be more diplomatic than that.

"Well you wouldn't want a warm one" - too right. You can taste how bad it is.
 
That would explain it then lol to be fair I was talking about a beer which I think was probably nearer to room temp but never the less wasn't good :sick: . It had crossed my mind that serving a beer so cold would numb your taste buds :lol:
 
the same :twisted: peopel that tell you when the picture turns blue on the can its ready to drink :shock: , what was ever wrong with holding he can to see if its cold?
and new taste lock can?? did all the taste seep out of a can before the new taste lock can..i think not
coors claim they have 'the coldest tasting beer' and its 'frost brewed'???? :wha: magic yeast that brewz at minus temps?? what do they take us for?
 
No doubt that an industrial lager tastes better when ice cold..........it numbs the taste buds. If you don't believe it, try drinking one at room temperature.

The reasons for cooling our beers (non Pasteurised, real ales and beers) are that at lower temperatures, they contain more carbon dioxide to provide a lasting head, rather than just bubble up when opened, and the appropriate temperature brings out the various tastes at their best. Too low temperature and you numb the taste buds, but get it right, like jamesb and aleman wrote, and the balance is excellent. I try to serve my pale ale at about 12 degrees C., which means the bottles go in the 5 degree C fridge for at least 2 hours, and I then decant them into a 2 pint clay jug at room temperature. Delicious, and very sociable when sharing, that is, if I can find anyone that actually knows how ale is supposed to taste.
 
Stone Cold said:
the same :twisted: peopel that tell you when the picture turns blue on the can its ready to drink :shock: , what was ever wrong with holding he can to see if its cold?
and new taste lock can?? did all the taste seep out of a can before the new taste lock can..i think not
coors claim they have 'the coldest tasting beer' and its 'frost brewed'???? :wha: magic yeast that brewz at minus temps?? what do they take us for?


Just marketing to make the product stand out from the shelves to the masses, Coors are not the only ones guilty of it, Heniken & Carlsberg have been at it for years and Bud with their born on date :shock: what a load of cods, the big beers are Brands, the liquid is only part of THE BRAND. Watch "Beer Wars" if you want to know how it works

Further to the above You may all slate the big breweries products but I would like to see any of you accurately clone a mass produced beer such as coors or bud & get 5 gals right, never mind the amount these breweries put out to the UK market and get tasting the same pint after pint, there is a lot more to it than you may think. ;)

If you want to slate anyone for the beer on the shelves and in the pubs blame the British Government, they are the ones who put massive amounts of duty on the product etc unrealistic climate change taxation, expensive licence requirements overly complicated EH&S legislation that takes a massive amount of resource and money to implement, and make it hardly worth brewing beer, therefore the trend is and will continue to be beer with more water less gravity and less ingredients, the beer on the shelves is not neccesarily the beer the brewers want to sell you its the duties levied by the government that dictate the strength etc of a beer and wether its profitable to brew, & Small Micros get bigger tax breaks than the big boys and far less overheads therefore can change products far less expensively, just imagine how much it costs to rebrand a product like Carling :wha: .

If you knew how much profit there was in big brewing per pint you would be shocked, I wouldn't be putting my own money in it, the Gov is the only real winner.

Oh by the way Mass produced Lagers are served cold because market research has discovered that's what the customers want, Cold Beer is perceived as the best beer by Joe Public.

Thats y you have Guiness Extra Cold etc etc etc

Cask beer is still a minority market remember as is Home brewing.

I work for Molson Coors By the way
:ugeek:
UP
 
unclepumble said:
Further to the above You may all slate the big breweries products but I would like to see any of you accurately clone a mass produced beer such as coors or bud & get 5 gals right.

Anheuser Busch are the finest brewing engineers on the planet!

There I've said it! I've thrown my hat into the ring, and made my stand. I would love to be able to brew a product consistently time after time on different plant, in different countries anywhere in the world, and get it to taste the same. There is a true art in creating a beer that has so little taste, and yet not reveal any flaws . . . Any idiot can brew a 5/6/7/8% beer with massive amounts of hops ala Brewdog (I've done it myself with my supposedly German Pilsner), but to produce a crisp beer with that little flavour and not have any flaws. . . . . Kudos :thumb:


And even though I think its crap, I'll still sink a cold one on a hot summers day ;)
 
Most commercially produced lagers have plenty of flavour pre Cold filtration.

Its the very small apertures in the KG filters thats strips most of the flavour out, & the fact that its served cold.

Carling before its filtered has a very strong Sweetcorn smell and taste and is actually very nice, especially straight out of a maturation tank at full brewing strength. ;)

UP
 
On an old website Carling used to boast "mouth watering corn aroma" but not any more for some reason. AFAIK in Germany lagers are served at around 9°C.
Here in Australia it's not always the case that beer is served at freezing point. Although it is cold into the glass there is a long tradition of serving in a jug which is shared by a few drinkers - this is also common in the USA. The jugs are a bit less than 3 pints in the old money, the beer is poured into them while they are at room temp, and the beer is shared amongst half pint glasses, each person in the "shout" buying the next jug. Here's a photo from ten minutes ago of one of my jugs, ex pub (bought not flogged :twisted: )

prettyjugMedium.jpg


Currently holding some Yorkshire Red - ok not a real style, sue me - and for the express purpose of actually warming it up as the other two on tap are 5 degree lagers.

:drink:

Totally off topic, I learned today that to get ° just hold down ALT and type 248 ... :ugeek: :ugeek:
 
Bribie said:
Totally off topic, I learned today that to get ° just hold down ALT and type 248 ... :ugeek: :ugeek:
Or Alt 167 º ;) :ugeek: I remember the old DOS 3 Days when I was programming using Text Based 'windows' . . . using all the old extended ASCII symbols for corners / Lines etc . . . really good fun
 

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