A pint really does taste different when the glass is freezing, and it is not just the fizz. A team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences published the chemistry in the journal Matter on May 1, 2024. First author Xiaotao Yang and materials scientist Lei Jiang measured how ethanol and water cluster as temperature and alcohol concentration change. They used the contact angle of a drop on a surface as a window into those clusters. The idea started as a bar argument about why Chinese baijiu is bottled at particular strengths.<\/p>\n
Ethanol and water do not mix into a smooth soup. At beer strengths \u2014 roughly 5 to 11 percent alcohol \u2014 the molecules form pyramid-shaped, tetrahedral clusters around water. Raise the ethanol and you get chain-like structures that taste more \u00ab\u00a0ethanol-like.\u00a0\u00bb Drop the temperature toward about 41\u00b0F (5\u00b0C) and those chain structures win. That is the cold-pint effect. Carbonation helps because colder liquid holds CO2, but the paper’s claim is the clusters, not the bubbles alone.<\/p>\n
The same physics runs in reverse for high-proof spirits. Baijiu and sake at certain strengths taste more like themselves when warmed. Cooling mutes them. That is why a lager belongs in a frozen mug and a spirit in a small warm cup. Some beer people already serve heavy ales at 46\u201350\u00b0F so the aroma opens. The study is not a commandment. It is a map of why the commandment felt true.<\/p>\n
The AEGIS Alliance covered a more athletic version of the same obsession when wine merchant Tom Gilbey tasted 25 glasses during the London Marathon<\/a> and still finished under five hours. For more science that starts as a joke and ends in a journal, see Science<\/a>. The paper is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Drink if you want. This is not medical advice.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Matter study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows ethanol-water clusters at about 41\u00b0F make typical beer taste more ethanol-like when it is ice cold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":296,"featured_media":1067258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,204522,191987,204504],"tags":[189879,208470,207006,207202,208400,206864,214326,50102,192015],"class_list":["post-1024606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-other-videos","category-science","category-videos","tag-alcohol","tag-bars","tag-beer","tag-food-trends","tag-foodies","tag-lifestyle","tag-pubs","tag-science","tag-science-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yes-your-beer-tastes-better-ice-cold-and-scientists-discovered-why-6.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1024606"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1199527,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024606\/revisions\/1199527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1067258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1024606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1024606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1024606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}