- Joined
- Dec 25, 2013
- Messages
- 307
84ok said:i didn't even know lol there was such a thing as warm brew
It is the usual misnomer, discussed at length here and elsewhere. English bottom fermented beer isn't served warm, and it most definately not served chilled. Real beer is served at cellar temerature, here in uk, avaerage ground temperature is 12C at 60cm/2ft below grade, so that is the usual temperature of the beer stored underground. So that is 12C, not chilled to tastelessness.
My old house built in the18C, had it's own cellars, one for storage and one, only half underground for brewing. The other two were for storing wine - lots of wine. This would have been the norm, even modest houses would have made their own drink, the water was often unsafe, even the kids had their small beer, from the second wash, about 1-2%.
Beer has been brewed in England for centuries, even before anyone knew to use hops in it, maybe nettles or other herbs. Hops were first found to be useful to prevent the beer going off so fast. It took a while for people to get used to the taste, the antiseptic properties being appreciated if not understood at all.
Different areas produced styles due to differences in ingredients - water, hops and malts, some of which persist today. The one difference between here and central Europe was their barley had more protein, insoluble in water or alcohol, which made the resultant drink very cloudy. No one bothered about cloudy beer if it was only taken in opaque containers - stoneware, leather, horn or even wood - you couldn't see how much dross there was.
The invention of cheap glass in the 19C brought a demand for clearer beer. With the British top fermented systems, the spent yeast drags the proteins down to the bottom and the clear liquid is easily racked off the top. The Europeans had a harder problem. The Czech's in Pilzen found a way of chilling their bottom fermented beer while in long term storage to precipitate the what are now considered contaminents. Lagering being the German for storage. Now we have two new words for beer drinkers to play with - Pils and Lager. Done properly, with decent ingredients it produces a fine drink, but needs to be served cold, apparently.
The warmer serving temperatures and stronger flavours of top fermented beer are obviously an acquired taste. The full flavour brings satisfaction sooner and drink is imbibed slower and if that is your "norm" then lagers are all tasteless over chilled piss. What we have is two different drinks, which happen to be made from the same basic ingredients in response to the environmental conditions locally. Like cake and pastry.
If you live somewhere very hot, then the requirement for lots of liquid is apparent, drinking it very cold to dull the taste buds and so more can be taken, more can be sold. I'm sure someone benefits.
I travel to Germany quite a lot and enjoy the beer, Lagered, there. There are many small Brauhaus, often pubs, making their own beer for local consumption. Often the local pubs will make a beer to be served "warm", especially in winter. Ice cold beer when the outside temperatures are -10C is not so attractive.
US beer imported here, while occasionally a subject of metro chic fad, is of the type I don't think many would claim to be state of the art as far as being a finely flavoured beverage. I have occasionally come across decent US craft beer, it is generally of an English IPA style.
There does seem to be a rather cultish macho snobbishness attached to the need to declare that strong ales are the only way to satisfaction. I prefer to end my evenings at least coherent, if not entirely sober. Oblivion has never been my goal, my life isn't that crap.