The Optimum Temperature for the Best Tasting Beer

Ever cracked open a cold one with friends just to be turned off by the temp of your brew? People often underestimate the taste-bud impact of serving drinks at the right temperature. Serving beer is a game of Goldilocks much too often—too warm and the beer is too strong for your liking, too cold and you would barely be able to taste your beverage.

Whether you’re serving cheap beer or the most expensive craft beer on the market, there’s an ideal beer temperature for basically any beer you can buy. Beer temperature can make or break your sipping experience. So, what exactly is the perfect temperature for favorite brew? Your best beer is just waiting to be tasted. Keep reading for the inside scoop on the ideal beer serving temperature.

How to Serve the Best Beer

Here’s a helpful guide:

Beer

• Generally, beers should not be colder than 44° F. (Ideally, all beers should be served between 38 and 55° F, according to The Home Brewers association.)
• Lager beers should be kept between 40° to 48° F.
• Ales should be kept between 45° to 50° F.
• Stouts should be stored at 55° F.
• Old Ales or Barrel Aged Stouts should generally be kept at room temperature.
• Stronger types of beer should be served warmer than weaker beers.
• Darker beers should be served warmer than lighter beers.

Beer Types & Temps

Let’s break down the optimum temperature for different beers a little further with a specific beers list. According to the American Home Brewers Association, here’s how you should be drinking your brews:

The Perfect Pour

A lot of taste is lost if you pour the beer ever so imperfectly. What if the carbonation gets trapped? What if the fermentation escapes? What if the foam sitting at the top is too much, or too little?

Other times, you might want to chug the beer straight out of the bottle. But, while many breweries recommend doing just that to maximize the taste of certain kinds of beers, drinking out of a bottle is the quickest way to warm a beer with your hands. So, if you plan on having guests over, or are cracking a cold one with a meal, then you might want to give it a nice pour into an insulated stainless steel glass to bring out the best of the beer.

Here’s some tips on how to achieve the perfect pour:

Do…

• Take off the cap or use a can opener to cut through the opening without damaging the bottle.
• Put your glass or insulated stainless steel tumbler on an even surface.
• Hold the bottle by the top half instead of the bottom one.
• When you hold the bottle or can over the glass, try not to touch the two surfaces touch.
• Pour it, and make it quick! When you feel that the glass is half filled and has sufficient foam, stop.
• Lower the can or bottle angle as well as the pouring pressure until the foam rises all the way to the top.

Don’t…

• Don’t manhandle the bottle, or it’ll create extra foam. Also, avoid holding it so gently that it creates no foam at all.
• Don’t pour the beer down the side of the glass.
• Don’t serve it in a chilled or frozen glass—this will really lessen the taste and smell of the beer.

Break Out the Beer

 In the end, the best tasting beer is going to be unique to you. While ice cold beer may be ideal to some, maybe you like your beer a little closer to room temperature. Whatever you find to be the optimum temperature for your beer, store it that way. Then, when it’s time to break out the beer, pour it in stainless steel stemless barware or an insulated stainless steel beer glass to keep it the same ideal temperature throughout the day or night.