Correct temperature for real ale?

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Jan 13 - 07:37 PM

On the few occasions I've supped beer from a wooden barrel on the bar it's been sour, flat and oxidised (as well as too warm). Nice idea in the good ol' days when all the lads 'n' lasses would come down to the non-centrally-heated alehouse and drink a whole barrel at 4d a pint in one evening when there was little or no other choice of beer. Not much cop these days when the pub keeps four real ales, two sorts of lager, draught cider and Guinness, all of which has gone off by Friday if it's been a quiet week.

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 Jan 13 - 03:06 AM

It wasn't either sour, flat or oxidised in the Earle Arms. 'Too warm' is a matter of personal taste. 'The bar' was just a window with a tiny counter. And it wasn't quiet during the week because all the local folk were piled in there every night, playing dominoes, having a sing-song (it was there I first learned the words to the Norwich football song "On the ball, City!") and talking about farming. There was also a colony or commune of hippies (and this was in the nineties!) and old boys with their dogs, some of which also liked a drop of beer in a dish! Heydon itself is a real time-warp. It's featured as the set for many films.

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 23 Jan 13 - 04:50 AM

Once on the way to a rugby match we stopped at a famous ' real ale ' pub, The Ram at Ramsbottom, Lancashire, no beer pumps, barrels on a rack at the back of the bar, the ale drawn into large jugs then used to fill the glasses, it was uniformly shite.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Jan 13 - 06:09 AM

Yep. Contrary to popular belief, progress in the modern age is possible. A cask-conditioned ale in a clean metal container can be a thing of beauty and testament to the skill of the brewer. And by no means is cask-conditioned ale a standardised product. It's a living thing and is just as variable as any other living thing. Sometimes sublime, sometimes a bit disappointing due to variability of the raw ingredients, which not only come in different varieties and from different provenances but which also endure the vicissitudes of good and bad seasons. I prefer to remove infection-prone, leaky old wooden barrels and poor temperature control from the equation when I'm paying well over three quid a pint, thanks.

I was thinking of taking Mother for a pub lunch at The Ram this weekend, Dave. I'll think again!

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Stanron
Date: 23 Jan 13 - 06:33 AM

In hot climates you need cold drinks and in cold climates you need warm drinks. So in the middle of a summer desert you'd drink your super cooled beers from frosted glasses and in England at this time of year I long to go in a pub, pull a red hot poker out of the blazing fire and pop it into my pint of real ale until it stops sizzling. Fat chance.

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: GUEST,John from Kemsing
Date: 23 Jan 13 - 07:07 AM

Regarding cold beer for hot countries, I recall a t.v. nature documentary with with Prof.David Bellamy in Australia. He was in the Outback at a particularly hot time and given a pint of beer or lager in one of the pubs. His bearded face screwed up like a prune and he cried into the camera, "Instant neuralgia!"

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 23 Jan 13 - 07:17 AM

That was a long time ago Steve, it may well be different now.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 23 Jan 13 - 10:37 AM

One of the best lagers I ever head was served from enormous wooden casks at ambient temperature in the natural underground caves at the Pilsen brewery. They keep a few of the old casks going so that they can monitor the quality of the product when made by the more modern production lines.

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jan 13 - 05:58 PM

One thing that doesn't seem to have been mentioned is the fundamental differences between beer (ale) & lager. They are two significantly different strains of yeast. Ale yeast is a top-fermenting strain, lager bottom-fermenting. Whether that has any relationship to the different drinking temperatures, I don't know!

But lager is brewed to be drunk cold i.e. around 4C, which explains why warm lager tastes like piss... ;-) Beer (ale), as previously noted, is brewed to be drunk at 10-14C; cool, not chilled; so that you can taste the bloody stuff! ;-)

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 23 Jan 13 - 06:01 PM

Ahem! That's odd! Cookie must have got reset. Guest above was ickle moi...

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 23 Jan 13 - 06:11 PM

Maybe the answer is however you like it?

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: GUEST,marks (on the road)
Date: 23 Jan 13 - 08:50 PM

Because, Dick, then we could not argue and make rude jokes about it!

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 24 Jan 13 - 04:04 AM

Most lagers are served chilled to death so that you can't tell how tasteless it is.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: eddie1
Date: 24 Jan 13 - 04:39 AM

Why not take the scientific approach?

Six bottles of your favourite real ale. Drink the first one at room temperature and put the rest in the fridge. When you have finished the first one, take the next from the fridge and drink this, putting another in the fridge to replace it. When you finally get to one you think is too cold, take them all out and start again, taking a casreful note of the time they have spent in the fridge. Drink them all, throw the note on the fire and start the whole experiment again!

Eddie

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 24 Jan 13 - 04:50 AM

As I said above, a proper lagered beer will have a full flavour at cellar temperature.

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 24 Jan 13 - 09:44 AM

I fully agree Dave, you can get some excellent lagers, if it's real lager and not nitro keg shite.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Jan 13 - 04:29 PM

The best lager I ever had (Canada)

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: MarkS
Date: 24 Jan 13 - 10:08 PM

Bill D

Thats a loud AMEN to that!

Its wonderful stuff.

Mark

Subject: RE: Correct temperature for real ale?
From: Ringer
Date: 25 Jan 13 - 10:58 AM

"... when I'm paying well over three quid a pint..."

You're being robbed, Steve Shaw. I've just had two supremely lovely pints of The Bounder in The Chesterfield Arms for £2.40 each. Brewed by Leatherbreeches just for the CA, it's a pale, hoppy bitter, gloriously fruity in the mouth and with a fine lingering bitter aftertaste.

Goes extremely well with the Condor I smoke; pity it's so bloody cold!

To change the subject back to the thread's title: I once called in a pub near Earls Court tube station, as I had plenty of time before catching my train to Chesterfield. Had a pint of London Pride at near room temperature. It was unbelievably good. Had to miss that train and run (stagger quickly) for the last one of the day; good job they have loos on those trains! (I've sought that pub out since: run of the mill beer served at run of the mill temperature. I was just incredibly lucky to have caught the moment when I was in beer-drinking mood and the beer was perfect.)