What’s Wrong with Cold Beer?
As soon as I told people I was going to Europe, specifically Germany, most made sure I knew that they served warm beer. I had been to Germany before, but it was before I learned that there was an alternative to vodka. Hence, my drink of choice was a vodka-anything. Granted, I’ve only been to one city (so far) in Germany and two cities in Europe, but I believe I’ve already consumed enough beer at enough pubs to make a preliminary assessment.
The beer isn’t really cold and it’s not really warm.
It’s almost as if they refrigerate the kegs in the cellar but then let the lines sit out in the open. I’m not going to get into what sort of things could be growing in there but I know that the Biology graduates reading my blog will most likely be cringing at this point. Back to the beer… I guess it’s warmer than we like it in America but by no means is it actually warm. I would consider warm to be warmer than room temperature. For instance, if you have a glass of room temperature water would you consider it to actually be warm? I wouldn’t.
I think it’s almost a battle of traditions. Some pubs serve the same beer, Heinekin for instance, from two different taps. One is labeled “Heinekin” and the other is labeled “Heinekin Zero”. I think it’s pretty obvious as to which one is served colder. The Heinekin Zero tap is actually encased in ice. It’s pretty neat to see and when you’re drunk enough you can always try to stick your tongue to it.
Another important point to keep in mind which could contribute to the idea of warm beer is that the glasses are much bigger. When you order a beer you will b asked if you would like a big or a small glass. The small glass is generally a pint and the big glass is generally two pints. That’s a lot of beer to drink fast enough at a reasonable temperature.
Final verdict: the beer isn’t warm here, it’s just not served as cold in Europe as it’s served in America.
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