Colder than cold
What is it with all these extra-cold beers popping up everywhere at the moment? And how cold are they, anyway? Nigel Huddleston reports
American readers who’ve visited the United Kingdom recently might have noticed something odd about the way Brits are taking their drinks these days.
A gin and tonic will often come in a tall glass crammed with chunks of ice, while convenience stores have banks of chillers displaying ice cold cans of Coke.
Whether it’s because of global warming or the Americanisation of British culture, cold has become the norm rather than the exception – and it’s a trend that’s impinging on the beer market too. Not necessarily at the geeky speciality end of the market that beer writers normally bang on about, but certainly at the bog standard lager end of things ie, the stuff that’s widely popular.
Most of the major lagers have extra cold versions with pumped-up names like Superchilled or Sub-Zero, while some Wetherspoons pubs carry window stickers boasting that they serve ‘the coldest drinks in town.’ Coors Brewers in the UK says that 72 per cent of British pubs carry an extra cold draught beer.
So omnipresent has the ‘extra cold’ phenomenon (and by the way it’s only proper trade grammar always to use the word ‘phenomenon’ immediately after the phrase ‘extra cold’) that even traditional ale producers are jumping on the bandwagon, with Fuller’s announcing that its recently-launched Discovery ale will only be sold through cooling equipment at a temperature of between 8ºC and 10ºC – some 2- 4ºC lower than is normal for ale.
But what does it all mean for committed beer drinkers? How does th.....
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By Nigel Huddleston
Section : Beer Trends
Page number : 30
