Last year, when energy conservation measures were first implemented to help compensate for losing nuclear power, Kirin introduced beer that you could put ice in. My husband wanted to try it, but never got around to it and it vanished from the mark. As a teetotaler (a status which amused some of my students, especially a few of the men, to no end), I'm not really sure why beer shouldn't have ice in it. I figured it smells horrible no matter what you do with it and you couldn't water it down enough to make me want to drink it. All I can say is that it must have been a fairly decent product for Kirin since
it's back again this summer.
If any beer drinkers out there would like to leave a comment and let me know why ice doesn't go in beer, I'd love to understand.
Baiting me, I see... You typically don't ice beer simply because of the reasons you already listed (albeit your versions were more colored by your distaste for it): it waters down the flavor profile. While your average (American) beer drinker isn't shooting for a lot of complex flavors in the beer, they also have a tendency to be very particular about what flavor *is* present. Budweiser may taste like moose piss, but it's a very particular type of piss, and icing it may very well render it no tastier than your average deer piss. And who wants to drink that?
ReplyDeleteAll that said, I've certainly iced beer before, and have been told it's fairly common in countries like Vietnam, where the humidity will water down the beer anyway and you want a drink that isn't boiling itself.
Would I bait *you*? Well, of course I would, but I didn't think that you read this blog. ;-) Now that I know, I will be sure to bait you more often!
ReplyDeleteYour answer makes sense, which is surprising since you're a known crazy individual. I guess what you're saying is that beer is so weak that it can't stand up to an icing unless it is specially formulated to endure the dilution. Thanks!
Awesome! I used to live near the Kirin brewery in Okayama. I need my fix!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing responses from people who try the ice beer. My assumption is it's probably the same beer but the packaging just states you can put ice in it. You can put ice in any beer really but it will water it down. Hmm like a light beer but colder?
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