Is it true the British love warm beer?
by 
wickedwillie
ANSWERS: 11
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The British don't love warm beer. They like to drink beer at "room temperature" - a phrase often misunderstood. The room in "room temperatue" is the cellar where the beer is stored, and is about 55 F. So they drink "cool" beer, just not "cold" like Americans usually drink it. By the way, good beer should never be consumed at ice cold temperatures because this freezes the taste buds, detracting from your enjoyment of a great ale especially (lagers should be served a little colder).
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Ah, goody - another hardy British myth to debunk! It is one of those enduring myths about we British that we like our beer warm, but, like so many of these myths, it's not true. My own personal preference is Becks lager, which should always be served chilled. Any lager you buy in a British pub will be chilled. Bitter, a perennial staple of the British pub, should be drunk at room temperature. That's not warm (nobody wants a warm glass of beer!) it's just not ice cold. Bitter is designed to be drunk at that temperature - it brings out the full flavour of the beer. Stouts and ales are also traditionally served at room temperature, but recently Guiness has broken with tradition and brought out "Guiness Extra Cold" - Guiness served chilled. And mighty refreshing it is too (not to mention extremely popular with the British).
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There is a sound reason why British ales should be drunk at a temperature of 55-56 degrees Fahrenheit (14-15 degrees Celsius). This is that many of the most important flavour and aroma chemicals are most volatile and active at that temperature. This maximises the taste. Many modern commercial beers are clilled to near freezing point in order to suppress he flavour and aroma chemicals. This is often because they are made from cheap ingredients and in a hurry. Any beer of a quality that has "something to say" should not be chilled to near freezing. Many top quality American ales from microbreweries and top quality (100% malted barley highly hopped) German lagers are recommended to be served nearer to 8 - 10 degrees Celsius (44 to 48 degrees Fahrenheit) rather than superchilled for this reason. Tim Webb www.booksaboutbeer.com
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Don't forget that we Brits also enjoy a beer called "bitter". This is a generic term for a darker, heavier beer than the lagers prevalent in the USA, and is best enjoyed only slightly chilled. Our lagers, like anyone elses, are refrigerated and served from chillers whether it be at a club, pub or hotel.
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Bravo to all those who have given answers to this question. Let us kill this vile libel once and for all. Here's another comment: www://omf.blogspot.com/2004/03/warm-beer.html
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No. The British drink most draught ales at what the Americans refer to as cellar temperature. The better question is "Why do Americans love cold beer?" Because American premium, superpremuim (brewing industry terms, not subjective judgements) and light lagers like Budweiser, Coors, Miller, Michelob, etc., would be nearly undrinkable at cellar temperature, 45 - 55 degrees farenheit. The best of them have little or no flavor compared to good British beers, so almost the only good aspect of them is that they are served refreshingly cold. Products of even lower quality have off flavors which can only be rendered undetectable by chilling the product, thus deadening the drinker's tastebuds.
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No. British brew is made differently that American beers in that we use a 'cold brew' process. They still enjoy they're beers cold yo...
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We drink lager at temperatures around zero from chilled glasses for exactly the same reason Americans do, they taste like piss and you don't taste them when they're chilled. We also drink ales, however, which taste far better and therefore, to get the optimum flavour they are drank slightly cooler than room temperature (about 15 degrees C)
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It's their most common ale-ment. Ale yeast brews at a higher temperature as opposed to lager yeast and since the British are fonder of ales, then yes they like their beer to be warmer. Ales: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/yeast.php
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i dont like my beer warm, real ale mmmmmmmmmm but love stout
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You can, but some develop that skunky flavor, Heineken is bad for that.
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