Is your beer better cool than cold?

Hi all-

This may be a question more suited to the "General Beer Discussion" forum (or somewhere else, Mod's just let me know), but I'm wondering:

Does your beer taste better at cellar/basement/cool temperatures than it does after it's been in the fridge for a while?

I've done about a dozen extract brews so far (brewing since August '12) but I've noticed that if I crack one open straight out of the basement (ambient area temp 64ish) my beers are not only clearer (that's a chill-haze thing), but they also have far more character, aroma, taste, and better head retention as opposed to the same beer being refrigerated for a few days or weeks.

Has anyone else experienced this? Why would this be, and are there steps I can take to improve this?

Cheers

______________________________________________
Next up: Imperial Pale Ale
Bottled: Nae Foolish Wee Heavy, Devil's Milk barley wine
Drinking: Oatmeal Stout, Sandy Wheat, White House Honey Ale, Ex-Pat 1800 English IPA, Pumpkin Spice Porter, India Black Ale, Belgian Honey Wit

I feel that about 50 F is about the right temperature for many beers (hoppy ales and Belgians). You get a lot more flavor than when really cold.

I'll often only put the bottle in the fridge for an hour or two.

Bump

True when it is very cold you cannot appreciate the quality and complexity as much in my opinion. This is what separates quality beer and cheap low quality beer.

unionrdr said:

Putting the beer in the fridge for at least a week will settle out the chill haze & give better head & carbonation. Two weeks gives thicker head & longer lasting,fine bubbled carbonation. But I have my fridge set at about 45F. When it gets up to about 50F in the glass,I can taste all the complexities.

Click to expand...

I knew about the chill haze, but I wasn't aware of the effects on carbonation and head. Makes sense, though. Thanks!

I am lucky in that my basement stays about 50 deg year around. I only put lagers in the fridge and i let them warm a bit before drinking.

Calder said:

I feel that about 50 F is about the right temperature for many beers (hoppy ales and Belgians). You get a lot more flavor than when really cold.

I'll often only put the bottle in the fridge for an hour or two.

Click to expand...

50 degrees sounds good to me. I've dealt entirely with ales so far (although I got a mini fridge for xmas, so I'm itching to get into lagers), and many of them are pretty big ales at that (i.e. 7% and above). The English IIPA (which uses 14 oz. of hops) has one of the most noticeable differences.

I just got a new apartment, though, so I'm losing the cool basement for storage.

Bump

I sometimes sip on one of my RIS's for 5-6 hours and the last swallow is the best, room temp.

Waiting for it to warm up is not my favorite thing to do though.

Before Christmas, I had a bottle of New Glarus Brewery's Oatmeal Stout. Reading the label, Dan, the brewmaster, suggested drinking it at cool room temperature. I did that, and it was delicious. So, I tried the same thing on a bottle of my homebrew stout...and it was fantastic! The cold temperature seems to hide some of the character of various beers, especially the porters and stouts. If I'm drinking some BMC beer of lesser quality, chilling it close to freezing doesn't make much difference.

glenn514

Here's a guide for the serving temps based on style. http://craftbeertemple.com/videoblog/serving-beer/
I keep my Keezer at 40.

biohaz7331 said:

True when it is very cold you cannot appreciate the quality and complexity as much in my opinion. This is what separates quality beer and cheap low quality beer.

Click to expand...

I knew a woman that had lived in Germany for several years and would watch her pull a beer out of the fridge and set it on the counter for at least 30 minutes before opening and drinking it. I asked her why and she said it was common practice in Europe. Later I found out that it does bring out the flavors in any beer, and also it doesn't "freeze" the taste buds (as ice cold anything can do) which will numb the nerves responsible for taste. This may be momentary but still limits flavor and enjoyment of the finished product.

You might be a redneck if... Your beer is so cold it makes your tooth hurt

The colder it is the less aromatics are released too. You need to let it warm up a touch to really get the flavour going.

Depends on the beer for me. A porter or brown beer I serve warm or the 45 degrees that I have in my cellar. But I also brew beirmunchers 3c that I have tweaked a bit that I love just ice cold in the summertime.