Most of us have all choked down a warm beer while the rest are cooling off in the fridge. The entire time our tongue cries out in disgust. To avoid us from drinking warm beer marketers place “coldness indicators” on their cans and bottles. But is the cold indicator strip on the Coors Light can really there to tell you when your beer is cold? Can you not tell with your own hands that your beer is cold? Why now do they have two strips, one that informs you when it’s cold, and one that informs you when it’s “mountain cold”. What the hell is the difference? Why is Coors so obsessed with their beer being cold? Have you ever had a warm Coors light? Did you enjoy it?
There is little doubt that a cold beer is usually more enjoyable then a warm beer. Coors obsession with the temperature of their beer is understandable. If you’ve ever had a warm Coors Light you can understand why they need to ensure your drinking it at it’s coldest. Lets be honest Coors Light is absolute rubbish when it’s warm.
Not all beers share that same temperature characteristic. As you begin to experience more craft beers you will quickly find that some beers are actually brewed with the intention of being served at room temperature. At first this is a difficult concept to grasp. It’s made difficult by the marketing campaigns of the big guys, and all of our own experiences with a cold beer on a hot day. But craft beer is more then just drinking a beer after a hard days work; it’s more then just drinking a beer in the back yard. It’s about new beer experiences. Beer can be as sophisticated as wine, and as such be enjoyed in as many different ways.
It’s easy to identify beers that are best consumed at room temperature. You simply need to consider the color, smell, alcohol content, and type. To know if a beer would be better enjoyed at room temperatures first consider color. Beer that t is darker, brown, or red in color is usually more at home at room temperature. Smelling a beer can say a lot about the ingredients used to brew it, and more importantly, in this case, can reveal alcohol content. Alcohol gives off a very distinct smell and the stronger the smell the more alcohol the beer has.
Coincidently darker colors and higher alcohol content are characteristics found in the types of beer that are best enjoyed at room temperature. If your willing to try a beer that is suited for warmer enjoyment look for brown ales, stouts, porters, doppelbocks, and barley wines. All of these types of beers are darker, a bit heavier, and contain an above average alcohol content. Finding good craft brewed stouts, porters, and barley wines isn’t difficult to do; Canadian craft brewers have won numerous awards and accolades for their brewing skills with these types of beer.
We’ve been drinking our beers at “Mountain Cold” temperatures for so long that a room temperature beer is difficult to accept. Entering the world of craft beer is going to change more then what you demand of your beer, or what you think a beer is. It’s going to change everything about the beer experience. Put aside, just for a moment, the idea that a beer needs to be cold. Give a room temperature porter a try. It may change the way you view your favourite beverage.
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