Good Warm Beer

[Soulpanda]

Alright, so, last year I threw together a recipe and tried to
make a cherry/vanilla stout for my then girlfriend, now wife's
birthday. I used a half pound of cherries because I didn't know
any better, and some vanilla beans. This is only my second or
third batch, and it came out... disappointing. It was just off every
time I tried it. Well, I started breaking into the last case, because
we could not afford anything else, and I let one get too warm,
and lo, it was suddenly better. Not perfect, but drinkable. She
agreed with me and in a week we are now down to the last
few bottles.
Since we have recently moved twice and I don't know where my
notes are at the moment, can someone tell me how to make
a beer that tastes good warm so I can figure out what I did?
Thanks,

Andrew

 

[RM-MN]

Alright, so, last year I threw together a recipe and tried to
make a cherry/vanilla stout for my then girlfriend, now wife's
birthday. I used a half pound of cherries because I didn't know
any better, and some vanilla beans. This is only my second or
third batch, and it came out... disappointing. It was just off every
time I tried it. Well, I started breaking into the last case, because
we could not afford anything else, and I let one get too warm,
and lo, it was suddenly better. Not perfect, but drinkable. She
agreed with me and in a week we are now down to the last
few bottles.
Since we have recently moved twice and I don't know where my
notes are at the moment, can someone tell me how to make
a beer that tastes good warm so I can figure out what I did?
Thanks, Andrew

Quite simply you made a beer with real flavor and when the beer was cold you couldn't taste it. Much of our perception of taste is the aroma and cold beer doesn't have much. I've learned to take beer out of the refrigerator for a while to let it warm, especially the darker beers, just to get the flavor. When the beers are cold you only get the bitterness.

 

[BrewerBear]

I agree with RM-MN I rarely drink a beer that is actually cold.

 

[rklinck]

Any beer that you want to accentuate the maltiness, you should serve warm. Cold dulls the malt flavors. So bitter beer is good cold.

 

[billpaustin]

I think it is ironic that some major corporate brewers are bragging about how cold their beer should be when drunk. They even add stuff on the label to indicate when it is ice cold.

Of course, ice cold beer masks the real flavor. Ingenious marketing!