Beer on the Rocks?

All of use have some food issues.  I confess, I have my fair share: I hate corn, raw tomatoes, raw onions, okra in any form, guacamole and not a fan of milk.  My father used to drink milk over ice.  I couldn't stand the sight of it.  And the thought of ice cubes floating in milk make me nauseous.  My boss drinks beer on ice, as does New York Mayor Micheal Bloomberg.  I'm getting nauseous again.

Joe Sixpack posted an article trying to tamp down the controversy, and while I agree with him, I won't be conducting his little experiment.

It's fairly obvious that ice will chill the beer too cold, and that it will water the beer down.  If it's a Macro Light/Lite lager, then what's wrong with a little more water?  He wrote:

Adding a little more water doesn't necessarily ruin the beer - it just changes it. Could it actually improve the flavor? You won't know till you try.

Which, in the spirit of journalistic curiosity, I did during a recent hot spell.

Appropriately enough, the test beer was Heresy from Weyerbacher of Easton. This dark, rich ale is technically an imperial stout - a style that was designed to survive the cold, cold of a Russian winter.

On this day, though, it was muggy and 85 degrees. I poured it into a glass over two cubes. The beer foamed as expected and, in 30 seconds, it cooled a couple of degrees.

Was it ruined? Absolutely not. Instead, a beer that would otherwise stick to your bones had lightened considerably. The full, roasty flavor was still there, but now it was as easy to gulp as a light lager. A contemplative, cold-weather beer had been transformed into an easy-drinking warm-weather refresher.