Traditional beers such as Bitter/Mild/Stout/Old (most people have never heard of old, but it is a traditional beer, ie a pint of "mother in law" half old and half bitter) is what most people refer to as real ale should be served at cellar temp, so called because most pubs kept the beer underground and the temp does not vary from summer to winter (thats how heat pump systems work) as a rough guide the 40-50 f is about right.

Larger beers which includes most of the contential pills are serverd colder.


We have our cellar above ground and on the back of the building, so the bitters are pulled through on a pump and go through a chiller (read big box full of tubes in water, which has been frozen into a block of ice), bitter goes in and comes out, larger goes in and out and then back into another tube and gets chilled twice, for extra cold beers which we dont sell, it will have three trips through the chiller.

Keg beer is not pumped in the same way it is drawn off a tap by gravity or it is pulled up on a beer engine (thats the big leaver pulls you see on proper bar) these are not chilled but in warm weather or in a warm building you use either a water filled blanket called a jacket, or prongs which is a loops of tubing that goes in the vent hole at the top of the barrel, this is fed off a smaller chiller it does not really chill the beer but just drops it a couple of degrees.

The reason is that at cold temps all beer tasts similar, real ales need to be a bit warmer (not hot nor even warm, just warmer than larger beers) in order for the aroma and taste to develop.


Now for anyone REALLY interested in beer then the holly of hollies is this place T brugs beertje, it is a bar in Brugges in Belgium (a country with more beers per head of population than any other in the world), it has been described as the best bar in Europe and probably the best bar in the world, hidden in a side street it is well worth the effort to go and find it, opens at 1600hrs and has a menu not a price list, with beer listed by type Trappist, Dark, Blond, Dubble Tripple, Lambic, fruit etc at last count 400 different all served in a different glass, and ranging from %4 to %16 by volume. Beer drinkers heaven !!!!


http://http://www.brugsbeertje.be/