It's officially summer, which means it's hellishly hot outside. You could try to reduce your core temperature with a trip to the beach, you could pack your skivvies with ice, you could have someone hose you off, you could jump a plane to Reykjavík … or you could do what sensible people do: drink lots of cold beer.
We're sensible. We drink lots of cold beer. We're also scientific. We wanted to know where in Central Florida to find the coldest beer. So once again we assembled and dispatched the Orlando Weekly Beer Temperature Testing Team to visit bar after bar after bar in search of the coldest beer around. We do this in the name of science; we derive very little pleasure from this endeavor.
Team members were issued thermometers and asked to refrain from ordering any type of beer that would not benefit from being served icy cold: your stouts, your porters, your thick, chewy beers in general. We also tried to limit team members to tap beers only; however, in two cases (as noted below) they drank from bottles anyway. It's hard to get good help these days.
(If you're keeping score, the coldest beer recorded this year came from the White Wolf Café: a Newcastle Brown Ale served at 30.6 degrees.)
Yes, we understand that there are scores of bars we didn't hit, this time or last. We'll get to them all eventually. In the meantime we've got some cold beer to drink.
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Baldwin’s Pub | |||
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Bar-BQ-Bar | |||
| Big Daddy’s Roadhouse 3001 Corrine Drive (407) 644-2844 | |||
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Bösendorfer Lounge |
No drafts; $6 bottle poured into chilled glass | ||
| Bull and Bush 2408 E. Robinson St. (407) 896-7546 | |||
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Cigarz at CityWalk | |||
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Copper Rocket Pub | |||
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Dexter’s of Winter Park | |||
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Fiddler’s Green Irish Pub | |||
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Froggers Grill & Bar | |||
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The Globe | |||
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Harvey’s Bistro | |||
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The Hideaway | |||
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Hoops Tavern | |||
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Houlihan’s | |||
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Johnny’s Fillin’ Station | |||
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Kerryman Pub | |||
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Knight Library Sports Bar and Grill | |||
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The Liquid Cellar | |||
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Lizzy McCormack’s Irish Pub | |||
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The Matador | |||
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McRaney’s Tavern | |||
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McWells Restaurant & Bar | |||
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The Old Draft House | |||
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Orlando Ale House |
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Parliament House | |||
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The Peacock Room | |||
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Redlight Redlight | |||
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The Social | |||
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Sportstown Billiards | |||
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Stardust Video & Coffee | |||
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Underground Bluz | |||
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Wally’s Mills Avenue Liquors | |||
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White Wolf Café | |||
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Wildside BBQ and Grille | |
COLDER ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER
COLDER ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER
Beer is supposed to be cold, right? That was the assumption of the Beer Temperature Testing Team, which painstakingly chronicled the temperatures of area drafts.
But what if everything you know about beer temperature is wrong? What if the idea that cold beer equals good beer is a hoax perpetuated by brewers of flavorless American beers to convince you to pour their product down your gullet without noticing how bad it tastes?
That's exactly what's going on, according to our buddy Tom Moench. And Moench should know. Not only is he the president and brewer of Orange Blossom Pilsner, but he'll also be a judge at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver in October. He's something of an expert.
"A flavorful beer, you're really doing it a disservice by serving it cold," Moench tells us. In fact, the Brits have it right. The English don't drink "warm" beer, per se, but they do tend to serve it at 50 degrees to 55 degrees, Moench says, which is the ideal temperature for the palate to perceive flavors.
"Try a Budweiser at 50 to 55 degrees," Moench says. "That is a horrid liquid." Frigidity masks the cheapness of the product.
Moench advises bars to keep their kegs at 38 degrees. Any warmer and beers overcarbonate (i.e., too much head). Any colder, and they can go flat. When ordering a "7-Eleven beer," as he calls the cheap stuff, pour it in a frosted mug. For a quality beer — say, a St. Bernardus — pour it in a warm glass, then let it sit for a few moments and warm up.
"The more assertive the beer, the more you don't want to `hide` the flavor," he says. Amen.
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