Instructions for drinking my beer needed...

I just bought a 6-pack of Fat Tire (as part of my beer education) It says it's an Amber Ale, but it says to serve at 45° F.

I thought that ales were better at 55° - 60° F. So is this just to appease Americans who like our beer cold, or does it really taste better at 45° F.

Cool it down to 45 and take a few sips.

Hold the glass in your hands for a few minutes to warm it to 55, and try it again.

Decide for yourself! (and post the result)

the first at 45 and then 55 degrees, please tell us how it tastes.

Then drink a couple more, and then the 4th.

After that, let us know if the temperature makes a damn bit of difference.

Temperature will make a huge difference, but this is tied to personal preference really. There are no hard fast rules other than your own judgment (some folks will argue a rough guideline which is fine, but don't let that keep you from experimenting...especially with your own creations). I had a Brown Porter I made, shared it with a fellow brewer. Granted it was getting up in age for sure (probably close to 6 or 7 months old) and I had brought it over at room temp. Well he threw one in the fridge and another we decided to try warm. It was not very good warm because the age of the beer it was starting to reveal a little flaw (possibly oxidation or something I am not sure), but served at around 50 that off flavor completely disappeared. Phil probably remembers that one....

Not to hijack this thread...............but is it normal to have Fat Tire on tap and have it sold for $5.50 for a giant freaking 1L mug? I don't see it here on LI other than in bottles.

The Drizzle said:

Not to hijack this thread...............but is it normal to have Fat Tire on tap and have it sold for $5.50 for a giant freaking 1L mug? I don't see it here on LI other than in bottles.

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Sounds like a decent deal to me, but what does that have to do with anything anyone's discussed here?

5.50 for a giant freaking 1L mug?

JESUS DEAR GOD you lucky bastard.

I cant get 12oz Bud Light for 5.50 here

Yuri_Rage said:

Sounds like a decent deal to me, but what does that have to do with anything anyone's discussed here?

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I thought I edited my post. Anyway, I had the 1L and drank is slowly. It was served very cold and me and my FO let ours warm up over time. I preferred it somewhere around 50 degrees, by the time it got higher ~60 it was a bit much for my palate.

MikeFlynn74 said:

5.50 for a giant freaking 1L mug?

JESUS DEAR GOD you lucky bastard.

I cant get 12oz Bud Light for 5.50 here

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Yeah it was about the only redeeming thing about a long overnight in Bentonville Arkansas.

The Drizzle said:

Yeah it was about the only redeeming thing about a long overnight in Bentonville Arkansas.

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Oh my! I feel your pain, having been to WalMart, Arkansas before.

Jesse17 said:

I just bought a 6-pack of Fat Tire (as part of my beer education) It says it's an Amber Ale, but it says to serve at 45° F.

I thought that ales were better at 55° - 60° F. So is this just to appease Americans who like our beer cold, or does it really taste better at 45° F.

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I generally will drink lagers as cold as are coming out of my Man-Fridge. As for ales they get about 15-30 minute chance to warm up slightly.

I really like to have a head on my beer and if its too cold it doesn't hang around very long. Raising the temp slightly lets more of the CO2 out and keeps the head there a little longer and some of the hop flavors are more pronounced.

Do this for awhile and when you go to a local resturant you be asking for glass that's not frosted. There's a place here that sells , Fat Tire (FT), 1554, and Mothership Wit in 22oz bottles and they too ignorant to know not to bring it w/ a frosted glass. I have to make a point of telling them "no frosted glass" everytime.

BTW - I had FT on tap the first time in Dekalb Ill at a place called "Mother's" it was damned aweful. In fact all of the beers were; Bluemoon, Hacker Pshorr, Guiness, Leine Honey Weiss, Boulevard... I think all of the lines were dirty. Each beer was lacking the fresh taste you'd expect. Several months later, I had to have a FT in a bottle before I realized that I really like it alot.

Sorry the experiment failed.

I had one cold, and let the second sit on the counter...unfortunatly/fortunatly SWMBO pulled out a bottle of tequila before we finished the first beer. I figured after that any temp. beer would start tasting better than the first, so I put it back in the fridge and switched to Budweiser.

Like they say though, If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. I'll be trying again tonight...eh..in the name of science.

OK, experiment back on...

I let a bottle sit on the counter with a strip thermometer attached with a rubber band. Not sure how accurate that is, but I would assume the beer would be a little colder than the thermometer reads. Anyway, I let it get to 56° F Then I pulled a bottle straight from the fridge (probably 37° - 45° F) Poured them both into beer glasses, and alternately drank them a casual gulp at a time. So here's the results:

1) The first thing I noticed is that the head on the warmer beer was made up of MUCH larger bubbles, and it almost immediately dissipated to the point of having no head what so ever. While the colder beer maintained a creamy head until I was nearly done with the glass.

2) The second thing I noticed was that the C02 bubbles rising in the warm beer were 4 times as big as the ones in the cold beer. This explains #1.

3) The colder beer had a much more bitter flavor than the warmer one. This confused me because while I don't like the bitter of beer much, I preferred the colder one. I think the biggest difference was that the warmer beer just had a flat/stale taste to it. Although the warmer one was still very drinkable (compared to say a Budweiser that has warmed up that much).

Summery: I like ale (or at least Fat Tire) at any temp. although I prefer it chilled. VS. Budweiser that is nasty if it's not as cold as you can get it.

Pondering: If this was kegged with beer gas rather than bottled with C02, would it have a creamier head since the beer gas creates smaller bubbles?

and switched to Budweiser.

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That statment is blasphemy here

Now go get some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and see how the flavors differ

As to what you ponder, yes, Nitrogen is less soluble in beer (substantially in fact) than CO2, and that in turn contributes to the finer bubbles found in beers on beergas.

Now that you've done the experiment yourself, I'll add my opinion of Fat Tire vs temperature. I like it cold, too. As it warms, I also find that it begins tasting stale and a bit too funky for my liking.

Beer gas itself actually has little to do with the fine bubbles found in nitro dispensed beer. The secret to the creamy head and velvet consistency is in pushing lightly carbonated beer forcefully through a creamer faucet. The only way to get enough force behind the beer while maintaining the light carbonation is to use a nitrogen/CO2 mix.

Yuri_Rage said:

Now that you've done the experiment yourself, I'll add my opinion of Fat Tire vs temperature. I like it cold, too. As it warms, I also find that it begins tasting stale and a bit too funky for my liking.

Beer gas itself actually has little to do with the fine bubbles found in nitro dispensed beer. The secret to the creamy head and velvet consistency is in pushing lightly carbonated beer forcefully through a creamer faucet. The only way to get enough force behind the beer while maintaining the light carbonation is to use a nitrogen/CO2 mix.

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Huh? I thought carbinating with beer gas (75% CO2 & 25% Nitrogen) is what caused the smaller bubbles. Are you saying one should carb with sugar, then dispence with beer gas?

Jesse17 said:

Huh? I thought carbonating with beer gas (75% CO2 & 25% Nitrogen) is what caused the smaller bubbles. Are you saying one should carb with sugar, then dispense with beer gas?

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The "fine bubbles" are really just a perception caused by low carbonation, full body, and the proper pour through a creamer faucet. The low carbonation is caused by the presence of less CO2. If you're serving with beer gas, you should probably force carbonate with beer gas rather than using priming sugar.

Jesse17 said:

Huh? I thought carbinating with beer gas (75% CO2 & 25% Nitrogen) is what caused the smaller bubbles. Are you saying one should carb with sugar, then dispence with beer gas?

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As was described by Yuri it is actually the stout head that makes the creamy bubbles, but you need to push the beer with pretty high pressure to pour with a stout head. If you used CO2 at 10-12psi you would have a glass of foam. But if you use 75% N2 and 25% CO2 then the partial pressure of CO2 is only 25% of the serving pressure. So your carbonation is only 1/4 what you would expect with the given pressure. But it is still the CO2 that causes the bubbles.
Craig

For what it's worth (not much), my opinion is that Fat Tire is not the best beer for this experiment. In my opinion, that is one craft brewed amber that just doesn't have much "beer" in it. As BMC warms, it starts to taste like sweat. I get the same effect with a warming Fat Tire (probably echo's your "flat/stale" comment), although to a lesser extent.

Try again with an amber with some beer ingredients in it, like a Boont Amber or something. I think that would be a better test.

Just my opinion. I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority with my Fat tire views.

I always use this simple formula

Open beer- pour in mouth.

Works every time.