Beer that’s served too cold or even worse, in a frozen glass, is a pet peeve of mine, something that drives me up a wall whenever I encounter it, which is far too often. Slate had a nice piece on this last year by Mark Garrison entitled Grab Me a Warm One that I wish more bar and restaurant owners would read. Hat tip to Jeff Cioletti for the link.
A customer at my brewery just this weekend insisted that we buy glass koozies (he even brought his own in to use) to keep our beer as cold as possible. sigh.
Muy simpatico, AT – the beer world’s overrun with the clueless. I’ve had many experiences in good brewpubs w/getting a room temp glass for a strong brew; fortunately those behind the bar “get it” (most in San Diego, where the clientele hasn’t yet caught on – I live in SF Bay Area, where getting a chilled glass/mug in a good beer bar/brewpub is a non-existent problem; ditto for Portland & Seattle) & are happy to oblige. 1st time I visited Pizza Port Carlsbad (early Fri afternoon, before heading to Del Mar – the place jumps at nite during the summer), I ordered a strong ale, & asked for a room-temp glass – they had none at hand, so the barmaid took one out of the cooler & rinsed it w/some warm water. She knew where I was coming from, but said the the majority of their clientele want chilled glasses.
The most common problem is that bars/brewpubs/restaurants don’t have the space for &/or can’t afford to have separate coolers for the beer; not having room-temp glasses in which to serve the beer is inexcusable! My general MO is to order the strong/dark brews that I know are coming off the tap too cold when I’m about half-done w/the brew in front of me. At my friendly local brewpub, my last brew usually is one of their strong ones, so I just tell whoever’s tending bar to “Warm me up” whatever I plan to close with.
For you who’ve not done much pub-hopping in San Diego area, be prepared to ask for a room temp glass a lot – only Coronado, Karl Strauss (downtown), Toronado, Stone (which is in Escondido), & Green Flash (great tap room – 16 choices & bottles to go priced as cheap/cheaper than you’ll find @ retail outlets) are “geek school” vis-a-vis glasses; the Pizza Ports (Port Brewing Co) I’ve visited have limited/no “dead space” behind the bar to stash glasses, so all go into the coolers.
Hopefully, the glass issue will be pretty much gone 5-10 yrs from now as beer geekdom grows.