23 Nov A Request of Our Friendly Neighborhood Beerslingers – Ask Us, We’ll Tell Ya!
by Mark E. Lasbury for Indiana On Tap
Walter and I are great fans of Indiana bartenders – we have to be, they stand between us and a beer. The majority of the servers we know take their profession very seriously, and work hard to increase their knowledge about the products they are pouring. They have a lot to know, from mixology and the newest drinks on the horizon, to an ever rotating list of beers.
Even more, bartenders are now a big part of the movement toward drinking/eating local; local beers, local spirits, local alternatives (NAs, kombuchas, ciders, meads, seltzers). Now they need to add even more to their base of knowledge – the sources and stories of local craft beverage products and producers and local food products.
It’s rare that a bartender misses the mark on a recommendation or in giving at least some indication of the information behind a beer or brewery, so they are doing their jobs very well, but there’s one item that I do want to address with SOME bartenders/bars, not all of them. The frosted beer glass has its place in the world, it’s just not anywhere near my craft beer. I dream of a world where all servers take glass temperature into account when they serve a beer – maybe ask what a patron might want (some do, but it’s rare).
The label turns blue when it’s cold enough to not taste it. image credit: Coors Light
Mass produced American Lagers and the like (Bud, Miller, Michelob, Lite, Busch, Heineken, etc.) advertise that they are best consumed ice-cold. Frosted glasses, serving temp.s near freezing, commercials that show snowy mountains, and people that are hot and sweaty – these all make you want to drink them VERY cold, and it’s all aimed at keeping you from tasting them. Most are meant to be clean, crisp, and lacking in esters, but most are also very yucky if drunk anywhere above 35 degrees, and many smell bad too if allowed to warm up.
But what’s good for mega-beer is not necessarily good for craft beer. Microbrewed beers are crafted to highlight the aromas and flavors of the beer. Different techniques and ingredients are combined in a million different ways to produce products that have unique qualities, and each individual attribute is meant to be noticed and appreciated.
Frosted glasses mean that the vessel is at 32 ˚F or near there – much too low for the majority of craft beers. Most craft beers are to be served between 45-55 degrees, and the optimal temperature is style specific if you want to get into the minutiae – we don’t usually get this deep into it. However, it is pertinent to see that temperature is a measure of energy level, and molecules move more rapidly and strongly when their energy (temperature) is raised. Being a bit warmer allows the molecules in beer to move fast enough to escape the liquid phase, and these are your aromas.
Likewise, flavor molecules in beer are more active when a bit warmer, and are more likely to interact with taste receptors on the microvilli of taste buds. Plus, warmer foods or beverages stimulate another receptor in the mouth called TRPM5, which when activated, triggers the brain to intensify taste receptor reactions. Therefore, you want your craft beer to be cool enough to make it crisp and pour the head nicely, but warm enough to get some of the aromas and flavors. Then, waiting a while, the beer will warm slightly more, opening it up for your nose and your taste buds. A frosted glass really hurts the experience.
Can you believe they make glass chillers, and people buy them instead of just storing the glasses with the cold bottles, etc.? image credit: procoolmfg.com
So why do some bars/restaurants serve craft beers in iced glasses? It’s not hard to figure out – people still drink a ton of mega-beer in addition to the craft options, and this is probably the source of the problem. You need both room temperature or slightly chilled glasses as well as frosted glasses to cover all the choices, and you need to use the right glass in the right situation. This adds time, work and needed space behind the bar to the equation.
We could go off the deep end and declare that bars that serve craft beer should also have a variety of tulips, pilsners, stanges, shaker pints, and dimple mugs so each style of beer is served in the proper glass, but that is just not economically feasible for many bars/restaurants. Let’s keep today’s discussion strictly to the temperature of a shaker pint. True, there are times when I want a monstrously cold Champagne Velvet or Workingman’s Pilsner, and I might actually throw a glass in the freezer while I’m mowing, but the majority of the time, I need an ambient temp. glass for a craft beer.
All bartenders would concede that whiskeys can be enhanced by ice, cold water, or even a bit of room temperature water, so why shouldn’t bars and restaurants take temperature into account with craft beers as well? The brewers take great care to consider things like temperature and draft lines when designing a beer, and they should have the beer presented to the patron as they wish.
I also realize that even craft beer bars and innovative restaurants still sell a whole lot of mega-beer, and they should definitely keep frosted glasses on hand for those beers and patrons. I also realize that keeping a supply of room temperature glasses in addition to frosted glasses will double the storage space needed behind the bar, an area that is already cramped, but we need some slightly chilled to ambient temp. glasses around for us craft beer fans.
Whether you use sinks or dishwasher, it’s always better to let the glasses air dry. image credit: cicerone.org
Can I convince you that an ambient temperature glass has advantages beyond the fact that cold temperature just hides the aromas and flavors? Well, they do:
1) Putting a glass into a cold chiller just after you clean it will likely freeze residual sanitizer on the glass before it has a chance to evaporate (remember, it is always best to air dry beer glassware completely before using again). Then, when you take out the frosted glass and pour beer into it – you’re going to taste that sanitizer, even if just slightly – it changes the beer.
2) Using a very cold glass can freeze some of the beer when it first contacts the glass – frozen beer is not good beer.
3) The very cold glass can also increase chill haze and blow the head all at the beginning so you end up with a flat beer.
4) A very cold glass + residual sanitizer will kill the head, (but on the other hand, using a glass right out of the washer (hot) will overdo the head.
Each of the above problems could be helped (not eliminated) by using the upside down glass rinser (ie, a beer glass bidet) for a couple of seconds before pouring the beer, but most bars using frosted glasses don’t want to reduce the frost before the beer is served, so they might not use the rinser. In general, there are a few things that we as craft beer fans can do to avoid or help the frosted glass problem:
Truthfully, have you ever seen a glass style OTHER than a shaker pint that has been iced? Why do I use glasses when I drink? Because contacts don’t hold enough beer. image credit: Resource Center – Kegworks
1) Order a room temperature glass when you order your draft/can/bottle. If a can or bottle, ask to let you pour the beer on your own, so if they happen to bring a frosted glass anyway, you have another chance to ask for a RT one. Or, it would be great if every bartender/server asked what temperature glass you would like with your beer (again, it happens too rarely to rely on).
2) If you are served a craft beer in a frosted glass, just wait a few minutes to dig in. Or, taste a bit of it and then wait, so you can learn what factors are brought out by letting it warm slightly. It doesn’t take much time let the beer warm enough to make a difference.
3) Ask for a straw or use your tableware to mix the beer (quickens the warm up), and bring the head back to help repair the damage.
4) Don’t be a snob or a jerk if you have to wait a bit – it’s a beer, not a life choice.
I talked to Chris, a veteran server at the Ale Emporium, and he explained how this issue is sometimes out of the hands of a bartender or server. Chris said that Ale Emporium has chillers for all their beer glasses that are shaker pints, but not for the 10 oz. pours that they do for bigger or more rarer beers. The problem is that some of the chillers are just naturally colder than others, and they can vary at different points in time. Therefore, a mildly chilled glass might turn out to be too cold and will frost up.
I always appreciate when hard working servers take time to answer some questions – so they deserve a shout out. image credit: Ale Emporium and Blind Owl Brewery
Chris also explained that Ale Emporium is often too busy to allow glasses to air dry – they serve so much beer that they need to turn the dirty glasses around very quickly. This might (rarely) result in a glass that is a bit too warm (just got washed), or too cold with a bit of sanitizer residue (chilled immediately after washing).
On the other hand, Jess at Blind Owl Brewery on the north side of Indy stated that they do air dry all the glasses so that the sanitizer is sure to be evaporated. Blind Owl does use two sets of shaker pints, one held at ambient temperature and one set chilled to the point of frosting. However, they use the frosted glasses for canned or bottle product only, and she always asks if the patron would like a frosted glass. As far as draft beer, they hardly ever use a frosted glass, basically just when the patron asks for one specifically – like Ben, he gets an iced glass with every pint he orders. Of course that may not be the only reason he gets in in a cold shaker, but that’s between him and me.
Chris did say that he has some regulars who he knows want either a room temperature glass or a frosted glass and he tries to accommodate them when he can, and he also has some new patrons that will express a desire for an ambient glass, but it occurs rarely, much less often than someone asking specifically for an iced glass (for either a craft or mega beer). But best of all, he stated that he’s never had anyone send a beer back or complain about a glass was the wrong temperature for them – that’s a great sign that people aren’t taking their beer too seriously. No matter how you get it or if you love it or not, you’re only a few ounces from another beer.
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