The Warm Beer Myth

Something that has not escaped my attention in my US tenure so far are the various misconceptions that Americans and, indeed, some of my colleagues from other countries have about the UK. A couple of weeks back, a heated debate was had over European cuisine - where most of the other Europeans in my lab teased that UK food was considered the worst in Europe, apart from the Finnish (according to Jaques Chirac at least - but does anyone care what he says any more?). Anyway, I promptly challenged everyone in the room to name a British dish - and could they? In a word, no. Thus, i countered, how can you judge the food when you don't even know what it is, let alone taste it? Chris 1 - the rest of Europe 0. Another thing that keeps popping up is the subject of beer - possibly because i always seem to consume it whenever I'm at work parties. Now, you probably all know my opinion of most American beer (there are a couple of reasonable ones here or there) - suffice to say, it rhymes with 'miss' - and so im fortunate to have found a couple of places here that sell some other stuff - be it from the UK or another European country. Yet everyone, and i mean everyone, has the opinion that we love to drink our beer warm in the UK and absolutely cannot stand it when it's cold.

Now, whilst i've only been in the UK for three and a bit weeks in the last 15 months (or so), i don't remember the beer being particularly warm when i went to the pub - nor, indeed, do i remember being at friend's parties and seeing all the beer out of the fridge (unless it was being drunk). In fact, i'm almost certain (someone back home, please correct me if i'm wrong) that we like our beer as cold as most other places. Now I DO know that in parts of Germany, they like the beer to be a bit more at room temperature (and, even then, i'm sure it's only some beers) but certainly not in the UK. At first, i met this with somewhat perplexed looks, but now tend to greet it with a general weariness. It seems i'm not the only one either - at a recent departmental BBQ, i mentioned this to a couple of fellow Brits who seem to have had the experience of this as well. We all just shook our heads sadly, and then went back to the ice buckets to get more beer.