Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill14564
I guess you don't realize the purpose of chilling beer to ice cold is so you don't taste the flavor.
Serving beer at 40 degrees to 50 degrees brings out the aroma and flavor in the beer. If it doesn't taste good at that temperature then it simply doesn't taste good. Sure, you can freeze it to the point you can't taste it but that's just a little better than holding your nose and drinking fast.
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Well, if it were true, I'd be able to choke down a [fill in scary name here] IPA, so long as it's served in a frozen mug. OK, if I'm being honest I've never met the beer I couldn't choke down. But the fact is, lagers taste better cold and many ales, especially English stouts, are better at room temperature. It has more to do with where and at what temperature the yeast ferments (top or bottom, cold or warm) than bitterness.
The bitterness of beer is simply the hops, which was never supposed to improve the taste, in the first place. The only reason people started using hops was that it kept the beer from going bad longer, back before refrigeration was invented. Apparently, even microscopic bacteria that don't mind the taste of pond scum draw the line at eating hops! So if you put a massive amount in your beer, you can ship it all the way from England to India in a sailboat before it has to be thrown out. That's why IPA's are called "INDIA Pale Ales".