Freelance writer extraordinaire, Greg Nagel helms OCBeerBlog.com and leads our Brewday Monday: Craft Beer 101 Q&A. See what local establishments are up to on the beer front here.
Q: Frosty mug: Good or bad?
A: Spawning from decades of post-prohibition lightly flavored American lager, the frosty mug became a staple in pubs, pizza restaurants and home freezers everywhere. Frosty mugs are critical in the process of keeping light lagers as cold as possible, numbing your taste buds into a flavorless bubbly bliss.
With the many styles of craft beer, a frosty mug just isn’t cool. Ever watch a 3D movie without glasses? The hoppy-est of IPA or roasty-est of stouts poured in a frosty glass are a shadow of what they should be. All of the expensive hops and specialty malts (that you paid for) are now frozen in time, bonded to ice crystals and flavorless. Even Heineken’s global draught master Franck Evers agrees, rinse your glass with chilled water prior to pouring, no frosty mug. “I like my lager glass around 37F, just slightly warmer than the beer, so no frozen glass” says Franck. If Heineken’s global draught master of the most massively produced lager says frozen is bad, it must be true.
