by zev 18 Replies latest jw friends
could you help me out here?
at work i had this discussion with some of my buds, ....
what is the thing about the british, and irish, with drinking warm beer? or at least room temperature?
when i've done that, it dont do anything for me. help me out there. is it just a cultural thing, or is there more to it than us dweeby americans know about?
thanks
__
zev
Now feeling the pain of sitting on the pickets class.
It seems to be a uniquely British Isles thing; even Asterix in Britain, written by a couple of French guys, lampoons the warm beer thing. This ex-British colony (Australia) prides itself on the drinking of copious amounts of ice-cold beer.
Er, Zev?
...is it just a cultural thing, or is there more to it than us dweeby Americans know about?
Speak for yourself, please.
outnfree
(who drinks no beer at all)
perhaps its cos we've got smaller
fridges? or it doesnt make it to the fridge...
talking of warm beer have you ever tried mulled
ale? in some of the olde worldy pubs over here
they still heat the poker in the open fire before tapping
of the coal dust and sticking it in a pint
of ale, which makes it look like
guiness (doesnt taste bad either)
anyways how ya doin?
nelly
nelly,
i have actually tried the fire-poker stirred beer, at a beer festival in new ulm minnesota. tasted pretty good but i still prefer cold beer
zev, glad to see you are posting again....((((zev))))
love
harmony
I've always imagined (I don't actually know) that it began when refrigeration was unknown or rare and thus a culture got used to something. Furthermore, isn't it the case that more flavor comes out at room tempature than in something that is ice cold? Imagine suggesting to a wine expert that he chill that fine red wine before tasting it!
Chilled beverages are refreshing. Not as cold beverages have more taste, or their taste are more detectable to our palate.
So if you are down in Aussie-land, with that hot sun, you want a nice cold one, mate! If you are in temperate Britain, where most of the year you are wearing a sweater, the need for ice-cold refreshment is much less. Therefore, taste wins out, and the beer is served room tempature.
Those of us used to ice-cold beer think this is awful, but Europeans come over to America and have to beg the waitresses to please not stick ice in every last bit of liquid they are served! Cultural differences.
Those are my guesses.
Try this thread for size, I think you may enjoy it!
. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=4328&site=3
MONTAG
The British like everything to be lukewarm.
Look at their weather, goverment, health service, un-airconditioned homes. Their beer is just representative of their whole outlook. They love likewarm - that's why they will vote Tony the Blair back on Friday. I mean how many gladiators did Britain produce. Still I do like the Brits, they are so cute and the women are the best.
THERE IS NOTHIN" LIKE AN ICE COLD BREW. WARM BEER? OH NO, NEVER.
Oh, I gotta jump in here!
Right, what you need to know is that there are essentially 2 kinds of beer. What you drink in the US is what we call lager beer. Basically, its a brew that has had the fermentation halted by being sterilised, which means it will keep more or less indefinitely as long as it remains unopened. It's a pleasant enough drink best served ice-cold.
In our pubs we usually drink barrel beer, often just called ale or best bitter. A normal barrel holds around 20 - 40 gallons of beer, and the beer is still in a mild state of ferment, which means that it's life is limited to about a week.
The beer is pulled up from the pubs cellar either electrically or by hand pump and served directly to the customer, usually in pints. As it is used, so the space created in the barrel contains a greater proportion of air which speeds up the fermentation of the beer. If the beer is chilled excessively, the fermentation is destroyed, and as it is this fermentation that keeps other bugs at bay - remember that as an opened barrel it is not now sterile - the beer quickly spoils.
So there you have it, real ale is a living thing, excessive chilling will kill it, so we have it served at it's best, which is luke warm.
And this lively Englishman certainly ain't luke warm!
Englishman.
..... fanaticism masquerading beneath a cloak of reasoned logic.
