13 cu ft chest freezer with an external thermostat set at 33 degrees. And they say I can go overboard...

Which of course, leads to the $64k question: what it the optimum temperature for a "cold" one?

The optimum temp is free and plentiful.

Where's your taps?

29 degrees.

Saw that, this one is deep enough for 5 gallon corny kegs without the 2x4's may add them later for a tap rail.

Meanwhile democrats are trying to do away with ice.

Your 13 cu feet is the same size as mine. I can fit five 5 gallon kegs plus the C02 bottle inside.

Nice, now all I have to do is brew 25 gallons of beer worth drinking.

A medal winning home brewer guy I know says 54 deg for the most flavor. I'll trade a bit of flavor for mid 30's degrees.

I like that stat on the deep freeze idea BTW. It's one of those palm smacks forehead things.

Large, thick, frosted glass beer mugs are way underrated...

Best way to enjoy a nice, ice cold brewsky!

Says some BS beer judge I read once; no serious beer drinker would ever drink from a frosted vessel. They wouldn't chance watering down their brew.

I said well, I've just about heard it all now.

That beer judge would have had a heart attack watching me shake some salt into the beer inside said frosty mug!

He would really flip watching me put olives in too! Preferably jalapeno and garlic stuffed olives.

How cold depends on which beer. Typical mass market beer is best served as cold as possible, less likely to taste it that way.

When I worked as a truck driver at the armor school at Ft. Knox Kentucky I used to exchange /charge the fire extinguishers so that the tankers could cool down their beer in the field.

The 54 degrees is for something like a cask ale, that's the "warm beer" that the brits have which really isn't warm but rather cellar temperature. As Mathman says, typical American rotgut like Budweiser, Miller, and Coors should be as cold as you can get it so you don't have to taste it that much.

The local stuff in Bavaria isn't served freezing cold either.

True, a lot of european beers aren't.

Why do the British drink warm beer?

Lucas refrigerators.

Well, this is a subject known well in my family. My wife is true German. Her father was a beer brewer his entire life. Her step father was a major sales rep for a German brewery. I will never forget taking stepfather, Herbert, into an American establishment where they served the beer with a frosted mug. He would not even taste it as he stated you could not taste it. We may be used to ice cold beer. But to truly taste we must have aroma released just as in a fine wine. No attempt here to change anyone's mind. I will leave a few American references for educational purposes only. I have learned that different beers truly have different flavors at different temps. Still, I won't forget drinking ice cold salted beer deer hunting successfully at about 100 degree temps in Calif a zone. At the time I would have sworn it was perfect.

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/best-beer-temperature

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/proper-beer-serving-temperatures/

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I have found in life there are times when what we "think" we know is different than the actual facts. This is one of those. I have beer sitting on my basement floor at this time and has been a while since I drank any beer ice cold. At first I resisted but found there really was a difference in taste. To be honest, if we are talking ab out crap beer they are crap cold or slightly less cold. But good beer - yea, this is a real difference.

For those than just will not believe. Take a very expensive red wine, chill it to about 35 degrees, and then wonder why I paid so much for this ........

I paid my way through undergraduate school as a vineyard master. To this day I prefer a really good beer to most wine. Honestly, I think it is the early childhood memories of successful hunting ending followed by ice cold cheap beer. We each have our own wants, needs, and memories. This is part of mine.

I've done that to store fruit until we could get it canned & dried. I have a 120v cooling thermostat from a greenhouse that comes on when it gets too warm. It's a hard wired type so I put it inline in an extension cord. I just put it in the freezer, the freezer plugs into it, and it plugs into the wall outlet.

Same thing with quality sipping whisk(e)y. If you're going to pour it over a bunch of ice cubes you may as well start with Old Crow, Usher's Green Stripe or the like.

The BEST bottle of beer I ever drank, was at a little tavern in Bly, Oregon.

It was a long neck Budwiser, that had just a "skiff" of ice floating in the neck of the bottle.

Bud, Coors, etc. needed to be ice cold for me to enjoy them.

Now days, it's room temp red wine.

Virgil B.

A decent beer is still tasty when it's warmed up a few degrees and you are getting down near the bottom. A cheap American beer is often barely drinkable at that point. The dregs tell the tale.

No frozen mugs here:

The best beer is the ice cold one that gets handed to you just after you get done leveling a barley bin on a 90* day.

We all have our preferences, thankfully, but as far as beer temperature goes....buy a 6-er of a decent but not snob beer...Spaten Lager or a Czech Pilsner, for example, chill one to the mid to low thirties, chill one to the mid forties and taste them alternately. 4 out of 5, I bet will go with the beer in the 40's.

I worked for Weyerhaeuser in Bly, drank a beer almost every afternoon at the Pastime. You're right...WONDERFUL.

I need to build a keg-erator. How many have home built ones they can show how they did it? I'm thinking a two keg version. Maybe just do a one keg version.

Those German's and their hot beer!

I knew a German farmer years ago in South Texas. I was driving by his place and he was pulled over next to the road in his old farm truck digging around in the bed...

I stopped because I thought he may need help. He said nah... he was looking for can of beer he knew he'd seen in there just the other day!

It was summer, and over 100 degrees.


He came up with that beer can out from under his tool box... You couldn't even tell what brand it was. It had all the label worn off from rolling around in the truck bed for who knows how long... He popped it open, licked the foam off, and drank it all down, and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. He surely looked proud of himself!

Carbing up and lagering at 32 degrees...5 gallons of "Dirty Bohemian" and 5 of "Sticky Blonde". And yes that is a Busch Light in the corner...don't judge.

Is that in there as a warning to the lagering beer?

"Come out right, or you'll be crap like this!"

i'll probably start lagers again this winter. i've only done ales for the past 20 years. i have a hankering to make a nice oktoberfest and dunkles. i need to start looking for a free fridge.

lot's of ice & melted ice !!

always liked this stuff........

[Linked Image]

Yeah, I like Molson too, but it has to be Canadian, Golden is just not a great beer.(Says the guy with Busch Light in his beer cooler)

Yes. After I began home brewing, I found good beer with some body and flavor is best at about room temp.

After a hard day in the mountains nothing is better than a Silver Bullet that has been chilling in the ice chest all day except the 2nd one for the drive home.



mike r

Note to self: Hard days in the mountains dull the sense of taste.

Easy Peasy, buy a new fridge, take the old one, drill holes and add faucets. Holds 4 - 5 gallon torpedo kegs, room on the top shelf to cold crash a 7 gallon fermenter. Bags of ice and vacuum sealed hop pellets in the freezer.

Best answer yet.

Very funny. There's nothing like Cold beer on a hot day

Because they have COLD guts.

one of the best beers I ever had came straight out of the cooler full of ice. 106 degrees that day.
Happened to be a Budweiser. Those beers are still best served and drank very cold.
Long time ago, circa 1980's.

Any more, I store my beer in the refrigerator. Have turned into a semi snob though and like them out of a stein after warming up a little. Keep sipping as they warm, and once they hit the sweet spot they do not last long.

I like it right out of the Yeti cooler at the deer lease.