Kind of stupid question maybe , not so much about Skyrim but about Nordic stuff and old times in general (Since temperature doesn't really exist in Skyrim)

.........For all those thousands of years before the refridgerator... all those people would have had to been drinking warm ales........ drinking warm beer and such these days is UNHEARD OF!

Do you suppose anyone back then purposely moved to cold regions to have cold beverages? Or that they had some way around not having fridges to make their booze cold? Did they just drink up anyway? Can't miss what you never had I guess?

:foodndrink:

I think in a lot of countries it would suffice to let the bottle hang in water for a while. Especially streaming water tends to be quite cold. Other than that, underground cellars would help, it's often cool there.

Maybe they had a cupboard with a midget casting a frost spell?

Weren't cellars underground because it's cooler down there? I don't know really, but I'm sure there would have been some way to keep it cool.

Hand full of frost magic?

Magic is the answer to everything.

Real ale needs to be only just below room temperature so that you can actually taste its wonderfulness.
These "beers" that you have to have ice cold to drink are disgusting lagers.

Ave! True to Caesar.

Ice houses could be used (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/The_Old_Ice_House_in_1985.jpg), or just your average cool cellar I suppose.

One has to adjust their thinking to "Room Temperature" back then. They had no heat and except for a few months in the Summer, Room Temps were 50 to 60 degrees, if not cooler. Plus, basemants and in ground tanks were used for storage, so they had at least a 55 degree storage system.

On the other hand, most classic alchoholic beverages, or any beverage for that matter, tastes better when the temps of the liquid is above 45 to 50 degrees. Most beers of the time were brewed to taste better at room temps as that is what they had to make. Modern beers are expected to be refrigerated and are brewed to taste better at 40 degrees or less.

Then, one has to look at the safety, or really the complete lack of, domestic water supplies. Wells were dug in the cities, people pooped in the streets or their night soil (this is where the term Chamber Pot came from) were tossed in the street in the mornings. Of course the disease germs associated with poop washed down into and contatminated the wells. Beer was the only safe beverage to drink. Most beers for this purpose were of low alchohol content as they were considered green or not fully proccessed beer. So, best temperature for taste would be different too.

/thread

Pretty much...

Not a beer drinker? I hope you don't consider that swill that Budweiser and the like try to pour down your throat to be beer. They're poor-quality pilsners. Ales are enjoying a popular resurgence among American private brewers, and you better believe those are better served a bit warmer.

This is all very good and accurate information, but if I went down to the White Cross now and they served me a pint of any of the ales at 4 Celsius, I (and any other ale drinker in the pub) would send it back. This would go double for any Winter ale (mmm, they should be getting some on tap any week now).

I did spend a couple of years living in the US of A recently though; I did notice their love of over cooling all of their booze. As I say, the lagers really need it, but the stouts and the micro-brewery ales? No thanks. Perhaps it's a cultural thing.

I have not drank a commercial bottled beer (other than offerings from Micro Breweries that are bottled) in over 20 years.

Besides, there is an old saying, "If you want to know what a Michelob tastes like, drink a Budweiser" Insert any two national brands in that you want and the statement is still valid.

*Summons Frost Atronach*

What exactly qualifies as an Ale then? (Throw out a company name)

Cause honesty I get kind of tired of people talking crap about bud when out of the like... 50 different beers I've tried its the best thing... but some people like to say bud and the like is trash and theres some magical underground beer of the Gods that you can't actually buy anywhere

Bud isn't beer or ale. It's a quite terrible lager.
Apart from if you consider the original Czech Budweiser, which came first and was a high quality lager... then a US company with the same name that came later decided to sue them away.

This isn't the place to discuss the drinking past time - the community boards would be a better place.

edit: Also, try wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ale

edit 2: Yes, lager is considered a type of beer, but not in a dialect that uses bitter and beer interchangeable. Lager != bitter

Yes, lets keep the beverage talk to what would be offered in Skyrim Public Houses and such and why.

We dont' need to get into a debate about the good and bad of different types/brands of beers in this section.

in skyrim the have snow and ice

:dry:

Capture a frost dragon and force 80 sixpacks down its throat. When you want beer cut the beast open.

The back porch storage method keeps things pretty cold when there’s snow on the ground. Unheated cellars would work, too.

I’m afraid I can’t comment on what piss tastes like at any temperature. :foodndrink:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ale -vs- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lager.

Examples of ales: London Pride, Old Speckled Hen, Marston's Pedigree, Wells Bombardier.
Examples of lagers: Heineken, Stella Artois, Grolsch, Becks.

Continental European lagers tend to have a much stronger taste than American lagers, especially light lagers. I personally can't stand American beers like Bud or Miller or Coors.

While I like where you are coming from, and this is more than a little off topic and overly pedantic:

Wait... When was fire discovered? Animal skins? Building your barn into your house? Burying your house in the ground to keep it warm? All of those things are "heat".
While windows (as in holes in walls), glass windows and so on weren't used. And apart from doors, those are the major causes of drafts in houses.

Meanwhile, I read that as 10 degrees centigrade. So during the dead of winter, it would be well into the negatives, using the logic of no "heating", no "insulation" and so on.

Also, basemants are a relatively modern 'invention'. Most European cities would have exploited cave systems. Or, as their houses were literally built on top of other peoples houses, use the top floor from their house.

So I wouldn't tend to believe that "Room temperature" has changed all that much. If anything, it has probably decreased nowadays.