Peter,

Well it firstly depends on your definition of 'room temperature'. Houses over the years have gotten much warmer. Here in the UK the average room temperature is creeping up towards 20C, and from my trips to the USA, they seem to like their rooms even hotter. Stiing around the house sweating in shorts and t-shorts when there's snow on the ground outside is just wrong.

In terms of drinks 'room temperature' is much more like 10-14C, which was the average temperature of a room in the mid 19th century, when people really started to seriously rate (and drink and pay for) good wine (and eventually beer). qf The Bordeaux classification of 1855, which explains why a 1989 Chateaux Petrus will cost you £2,500, and on from the Chateaux next door will cost you a tenth of that.

In terms of beer, here is a short list of my favourite beers, all of which taste much nicer at 10C than they do at 2 or 3C

Badger Tanglefoot
Palmers Copper
Orkney Dark Island
Hogs Back TEA
Greene King IPA (and this is proper IPA, not the over-hopped garbage I get served in the Mid-West)

There is a simple rule - if it comes in a frosted glass, or out of the taps at 2-3C or makes your front teeth hurt when you drink it, it's got something to hide.

If you're drinking for enjoyment, pick something to put in your body that's going in darker than it's going to come out.

However, if you're throwing enough beer down your neck to make the heifer at the end of the bar skinnier before you make your 2am approach, stick to the wife beater (aka Stella)