I did a guick google on the subject, and the preferred temp for Bitter is “cellar temperatur” - about 55 degrees f. Not icy cold but not exactly room temperature either, unless you’re in a chilly room. Lagers are traditionally served colder.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/journal_read/8/
http://www.cask-marque.co.uk/what_is_cask_ale.htm
I like all beer.
Mrs. Gelding and I lived in Germany for three years in the early 70s, and have traveled in Europe since then. Through out Western and Central Europe we always have been served cold, or at least cool, beer. The room temperature story is probably from the time that refrigeration was uncommon and the beer came from barrels kept in the cellar.
One of the consequences of the warm beer myth was the spectacle of my mother, who cherishes all sorts of error, sitting in a little gasthaus loudly demanding “beer mit ice.” The waiter understood this as a crazy American inexplicably demanding ice cream (eis) in her beer.
excuse me, are you saying that people in America
really consider putting ice (as in ice cubes) into
their beer, Spavined Gelding? I never heard about that
before and I didn’t see anyone do that in the States
when I was there.
I am reminded of a Christmas tune that radio personality “The Smash” used to sing from time to time:
Jingle jam, jingle jam
Brewski oh so nice
It don’t matter what brand it is
If the brewski’s cold as ice
I think that nicely backs up Cheesesteak’s observation.
I would also point you to the serving recommendation which can be found on that fine American fortified wine, Thunderbird: “Serve Very Cold.”
ummmmmmmm…beeeeeeeeeeer!
this is short, cause it probably won’t take!
I too had always heard that myth that Germans drink warm beer…and having lived there 15 years, I can promise you that is not true. It has to be cold or they send it back.
However, one day in a local Berlin bar, I watched an old man (in his 80’s) in the corner who requested a “beer warmer” from the waiter. It looked like a test tube with a hook on the top. Hot water was put in the test tube and then it was placed into the beer.
The old guy got a kick out of my expression and told me that this was the way they drank beer in his day on cold winter nights - but he admitted it was hard to find a beer warmer anywhere in Germany since the 1930’s.
On the other hand, my aunt here in the States always takes a glass, fills it half way with ice cubes and pours in her beer. She’s been doing this all her life (she’s now 78).
Biggest difference in European beer and American beer is alcohol content. I would warn first-time visiting Americans every time I would meet them in a bar, but they would say, “No problem dude. I can kill two six packs at home with no problem…”
Most of the time, they were s-faced within an hour.
That would be appalling and liable to get you lynched. It is however not that rare of a sight to see someone putting ice into their beer during the summer in Japan. About 15 years ago, Sapporo even had a beer called “on-the-rocks”, which was formulated to be drunk with ice. It disappeared after one summer.
HIRSEL: no, Americans don’t put ice in their beer. It was just my poor adled mother’s way of trying to make sure that she got a cold beer. She had been told sometime by someone that the benighted Europeans took their beer warm, not cold like a God fearing, red blooded American. 
Most of what has been said about America would also apply to Australia. We like our beer very cold here. This is because the mainstream beers in both countries taste like goats’ water. To my taste, it’s often too cold, and could do with being notched up a degree or two.
In Vietnam, most people put ice in their beer. Not ice cubes as such, but ice -chipped off a large block of the stuff. You usually end up with one or two big, jagged pieces in your beer. This is because many places don’t have refrigeration, and buy their ice in an enormous block, which they keep in an old-fashioned ice-chest. Because we weak-bellied foreigners aren’t supposed to drink the water there, we can’t have the ice either, so finding a cold beer can be difficult. Many places in the cities now advertise cold beer as something incedibly cool and hip. Interestingly, the older Vietnamese men (over, say, 50) living in Australia will still put ice in their pre-chilled beer.
China Guy , that sounds pretty gross, and I believe it. Every manufacturer in Japan has jumped on the “Happoshu” band wagon. This is carbonated water with beer flavoring, for all intents and purposes. It sells for about a third of the price of beer but is being picked up by many restaurants who want to serve a stingy clientele. It can’t even be marketed as beer, but it makes me cry whenever friends come over with a 6 pack of the stuff.
But here’s a question: In my home town, a guy from Bavaria came over and set up a brewery. Very good stuff, good varieties, everything was served chilled. Does that have to be taken into account when brewing? Does that mean you don’t have to put in as much effort? Someone mentioned that beer was chilled to mask “imperfections.” A guy who worked with the Bavarian came over here to Sapporo and helped start up a brewery in town (tastes just like home), and just about everyone here drinks it purdy darn cold. Do brewmasters take that into consideration when making even a good beer?
—Just wanted to add this littel tid-bit
When the Sapporo Brewery was established back in 1876, the American brewer had to actually pay people to drink the stuff. Now Japan has something like the third largest beer market in the world (that may have changed since the advent of the aforementioned evil Happoshu).
Required joke:
** Kniz** We frown upon people who throw too much ice in our drinks.
We see it as “watering down”.
Because Americans are allways surpised of the small amount of ice, you get an extra glass with just icecubes in most pubs.
I notice when I get a MacDonald coke, there’s half ice, half coke in it. * I’m not paying for frozen water* 
Never water your beer down. Lagers here; Heineken, Grolsch etc. are cold, but not icey. Belgian beer; Trappist or other dark beer are at room temp.
Aaaaahh I could use a blonde one right now. 
Sounds like some of the alcohol free beer. IIRC, the Japanese taxation system has different tax levels for different levels of alcohol. I was in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago and noticed a whole slew of low budget beer that sold for yen 160 or 180 is this that Happoshu stuff? At first I thought it was just price deflation, but then I noticed it’s like a budget beer brand.
That’s the stuff. The actually just bumped up the tax on it, but it’s till dirt cheap (and I’d still rather eat dirt than drink the stuff).
Well, I’ve drunk worse beers than that Happoshu stuff. Although, I don’t think I ever drank beer that cost $1.30 per can that tasted that gnarly. At least it was really cold!