Recent television commercials for Coors Light Beer suggest -- nay, claim -- that the product is brewed at frozen temperatures. This is, not to descend into pedantry here, bullshit.
Now, I don't wish to enter the debate as to whether American restaurants and bars serve their beer too cold (in general, they do). That debate, frankly, has been won by the partisans of the frigid, and I have no desire to earn a rep as a beer snob.
But how stupid do they think people are? Fermentation requires yeast, and yeast is alive, and when temperatures are sufficiently low the organisms go dormant. Such temperatures are well above freezing.
Do try this at home: boil your water, barley malt, and hops together. Toss in your yeast. Oops: you'll get no beer, because you just killed all of your yeast. No active (=alive) yeast means that no fermentation is possible.
Okay, try again: this time, after your boil, cool your wort (your boiled water and malt) and then add your yeast. Now freeze the concoction and come back in a month. Oops: no fermentation took place, did it? All you have is barley soup, which you may or may not like, but it ain't beer.
It's not even Coors Light.
Posted by Craig Ceely at February 20, 2005 11:48 AMLOL! Thanks for providing a chuckle. And you're right, American restaurants usually do serve beer way too cold. Thank goodness the fad of serving beer in mugs chilled in the freezer is a thing of the past. Of course, you could always follow the example of my uncle in Germany; he never travels anywhere without his beer-warmer.
Posted by: Harvey at February 23, 2005 09:02 AM