On a trip to Easton PA last summer, I had a Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale right off the bottling line. Have to admit, it was really tasty. A good beer is a good beer.
Maybe it’s more "a beer I like is a beer I like " and not get into value judgements
Yep. Absolutely. Poor choice of words on my part because not getting into value judgements is what I’ve been arguing this whole time.
As a librarian, this pulled me down a happy rabbit hole on a day when I needed to be doing other things. :-) It appears that in colonial times, once spice tariffs and taxes were relaxed, spices we associate with “pumpkin spice” became more available. I didn’t have the time today to do the research on whether these spices were then used with pumpkin in a way we would think of as “pumpkin spice.” To be continued.
What’s wrong with calling a good beer a good beer. I have had some sours that were well made. I hate sours, but I had to admit it was good. I can’t stand pumpkin or peanut butter beers, but I know when I’ve tasted a well made beer. Nothing wrong with the beer, I just don’t like it.
There’s nothing wrong with it of course, especially if you can be disciplined enough to keep personal bias out of the equation. That’s not as easy as it sounds. Most of the time people will just dump on this or that ONLY because of personal bias. The point being, that we all have different tastes, and taste is so subjective.
Last call for questions, y’all!
How dare you?
Why do we spend so much time agonizing over grain bills, hop schedules, yeast types, fermentation schedules, clarity, transfers and carbonation levels…and yet almost always serve our beer at the wrong temperature (too cold)?
Personal preference. The same reason we do all those other things.
If the answer was that simple, fine. But I don’t think it is.
People serve at certain temperatures more out of convenience and not based on any personal experiments they may have run. I’m sure you are the exception, but how many people have tried all the different beers they make at various temperatures to see which they prefer? And do they adjust their frig/keezer temp based on what’s inside, even if its two or three completely different styles? I don’t think so. Nothing wrong with that of course, just saying that convenience is making this decision and not personal preference.
Convenience is also a primary driving factor in my choice of grain bills, hop schedules, yeast types, fermentation schedules, clarity, transfers and carbonation levels. I guess my personal preference is convenience.
Ok. But how much time have you spent considering serving temperature and how much time have you spent considering all of the other things? I’m not saying they all deserve the same attention, but surely serving temperature is vastly under-considered in the grand scheme of things.
Or maybe it isn’t. Whatever.
You’re implying that the thought has never crossed my mind. 
I consider serving temperature but it’s easily rectified with a little patience. If I have a Belgian strong dark and a Pilsner in the same kegerator, I’ll pour the Belgian beer and just wait a few minutes for it to warm up.
Given that I’m not running a bar with high turnover, I also want to make sure my beer storage is a good as possible to keep things fresh. In this case, colder is better. I’d rather pour at 40 and give it a minute to warm up. A room temperature glass does some of that work for me.
Thanks for that answer. And I didn’t mean to imply that no one is giving any thought “at all” to serving temperature, just that convenience, for the most part, is making the big decision here, and not necessarily the ideal temperature of the beer based on style. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that and your workaround is, I would assume, pretty typical for most homebrewers. I currently have an IPA and English Porter on tap, both kegs sitting in the same frig at the same temp (41°). I definitely prefer the Porter at a warmer temperature, but since I find it easier to default to the style I prefer colder, what am I going to do? If I only had the Porter in there, I certainly would change the temp setting.
And maybe some drinkers like all styles at the same temperature, that’s cool too.
For me, it’s not that I haven’t given a thought at all on serving temperature, but like a lot of other variables we have available, once I had my preferred setting dialed in on my kegerator it stays locked in on it. It is rare for me to have a style on tap that doesn’t work at the temp setting I use, and I can just let it warm up for a few minutes if it works better for the beer. Another trick is to run my glass under warm water for a bit before pouring; sort of the reverse of what happens when a restaurant serves beer in a frozen glass.
i kind of agree with you, less about homebrew scale and more about craft beer bars. im paying for the value-addition of service/packaging (a glass/mug), so i would expect more care than if you asked a random person on the street to do it. but what i have encountered in my extensive total, but limited recent history of ordering a beer is that bartenders are rarely trained well/simply don’t care/do some single serving temp for convenience(targeting BMC drinkers) and I sort of expect too cold of a pour.
I can’t think of a worse beer experience at a bar than both way overcarbonated and way too cold. It was something i would encounter a LOT in Korea.
So in terms of ordering a beer at the bar, it is fairly under-considered in that I feel bartenders generally do not bother/understand (could be either) serving temp of beers - assuming that “hey it comes out of the keg and its cold” is good enough.
on the homebrew level, IMHO it is totally up to however you want it. lol i dont care how you drink your beer.
The other thing is that we all experience the same beer at many different temperatures, as we drink it, and if you have a curious mind and think like a brewer you pay attention to how it warms. The same goes for a glass of whiskey. So I’m less concerned with having it come out at the perfect temperature since it’s not going to stay at that temperature anyway. I will still aim to start at a warmer temperature for different types of beers, but it’s a continuum versus a fixed variable that is set once the brew is done.
I had recently made a Vanilla Stout that, at first taste, I had to squint to find any vanilla. As the beer warmed, didn’t that vanilla come shining through…
Good discussion.
I have some finicky friends, so to accommodate everyone, I keep the serving fridge at 34F, then I pour into small plastic pitchers to serve beer. One pitcher will sit out in ambient temperature and one will go on a “blue ice” block in a small cooler. I tend to drink from the warmer pitcher and the BMC crowd goes for the chilled beer. I serve mostly lagers, but occasionally a bitter or stout or specialty beer. Those latter beers definitely get the warm up treatment.