You are correct. It keeps the beer fresher and the taste does not leach.
That may be part of it, I suppose, but there’s also a good quality reason for doing so, if you can do it without the off flavors of cans (which the new linings seem to take care of). Beer that is canned should, theoretically, be less susceptible to deteriorating due to light (which is what causes beer to skunk) and oxygen. It’s also a bit easier to pack and carry around (at least in my opinion.) The beer should still be poured into a glass, if you can do so, but good beers in cans are not a bad idea.
The stigma against cans is similar to the stigma against plastic corks or screw tops on wine bottles. Quality-wise, there’s nothing wrong with the latter two, and they’re demonstrably better than old-fashioned corks, as they won’t give you cork taint, which affects an estimated 10% of wines. However, because of the history and types of wines these tops are associated with, they also tend to have a low-rent image to a lot of consumers. You can even put boxed wines in this category.
ETA: Whoops, missed the second page of this thread, so forgive the repeated information.
Ima say the thing that got me booed over at ratebeer.com
I don’t like Coors Light, but if I must drink it, I have discovered that it, just like every other beer, is best served chilled, not ice cold.
Ice cold, it just tastes like carbonated vinegar.
Chilled, it does not taste like beer but what it does taste like is some kind of alcoholic frito concoction. Which is better than carbonated vinegar.
Anyone else picturing just HOW they would do that? :eek:
No one wants a cork taint.
I enjoyed a cold beer in my drinking days, and the colder the better, and it took some getting used to drinking room temperature bitter when I spent some time in England. Then I began to prefer bitter at room temperature. Its heavy on flavour and actually tastes nourishing. The fact is, as an Englishman once told me, that if we need to drink our beer cold, its only because we need to numb our tastebuds. What does that tell you about the flavour of beer we drink in North America ?
That the English are snobbish about their beer. Sure, the mass brews tend to be bland, but there are plenty of flavorful beers here in America. I’m mostly a fan of lagers and pilsners and I like them cold (to start). I did spend 2.5 years in England, so I am familiar with the beers and temperatures they serve them (which isn’t warm, but around 60 degrees F., so not refrigerator cold either). Personally, I preferred the pilsners I had during my two months in Germany and Austria to the lagers I had in England. To the English credit, their mass produced beer (which isn’t produced in the same quantity as our mass produced beers) are better then ours.
Oh, the Germans know their beer. I had a excessive amount of pils and lagers when I was there. Yummmmmy!
Yes, I don’t know why people insist that it’s served at room temperature. Then again, I suppose it depends on the temperature of the rooms you’re used to. “Cellar temperature” is what British “real ales” are served at, and that’s 54-57C. Cite, if you need it, but my experience is that beer I’ve gotten in my time out there is is that the ale is served cool, not room temp but not cold either, and the lagers are served ice cold.
I think you meant 54-57F.
So I had a pretty good guesstimate at 60F. It’s not like I was pub-hopping with a thermometer.
I think 50-55F is pretty typical, so your estimate wasn’t far off.
D’oh! (ETA: Oh, and D_Odds, in case it wasn’t clear, I was supporting your assertion. The cite was for The Flying Dutchman’s benefit.)
European beers are served in Celsius.
I don’t fine myself reacting strongly (+ or -) to these bottles, but I find the chemistry behind color-sensitive dyes to be fascinating. I haven’t looked into this one, but I’m assuming it’s actually a temperature-sensitive pH change which then affects the dye molecules.
Sadly, it seems none of them make it over here. I’d love to try some of your micro-brewed ales, but all I see when I look is Budweiser and Coors. I imagine it’s the same your side of the pond, and you’ve never had the pleasure of trying an Adnams Gunhill or Brew Dog Trashy Blonde.
In the interest of foreign relations I’m going to try a US beer next time I’m at the Cambridge Blue, the pub near here most likely to stock a decent American beer. They stock a beer with coconut in it, so I’m sure they have a palatable American ale 
Will, I did spend 2.5 years on your side of the pond and drank plenty of beer while I was there, but that was a couple of decades ago and I don’t remember any names.
Some of the better stocked stores around here (Binny’s in the Chicago area) will have BrewDog’s products, but I’ve never seen or heard of Adnams.
I’ve had a couple of brewdogs. An IPA and a stout. They’re not bad. Almost as good as some of my local Michigan beers. 
I haven’t been to England since 75, but I had been to at least 100 pubs in Lincolnshire and Norfolk in the 4 months I lived there and I never witnessed any cooling system for their beer. And almost every pub had one lager tap, usually the Danish brew whose name I can’t recall and it was hilarious to see the pub staff waste over half the beer as it foamed and foamed till the liquid level finally reached the legal white line. They didn’t know about pouring down the glass instead of directly into the “puddle” and when lager is warm it foams way more readily than the ales.
ETA Carlsberg was the Danish brew.