Sometimes It's Actually Okay To Drink Beer On The Rocks

For individuals across many cultures, enjoying alcohol comes with unspoken rituals. Oftentimes, such practices don't come with a precise rationale, but are nonetheless staunchly adhered to. Whether it's knowing what to order for an aperitif versus a digestif or participating in convivial beer drinking traditions across the world, boozy customs take on many forms.

In the U.S., one drinking move that's likely to garner looks is pouring a beer over ice. Sure, Americans are obsessed with keeping brews cold. However, the low temperature is typically accomplished via refrigerators, a dedicated beer tap, buckets with chilled salt water, an improvised bag of ice, or — if you're extra desperate — by dousing a beer with a fire extinguisher. Meanwhile, add some ice to a beer mug and you'll need to tell fellow drinking patrons to chill out.

Nevertheless, the combo of beer and ice is practiced elsewhere. Easy-drinking lagers are served over ice in hot and humid Southeast Asia, and beer-based cocktails are crafted with flavored ice in Mexico. So as long as you acknowledge its limitations, you may even take a liking to this practice.

Let's get the pitfalls out of the way; most obviously, ice will water beer down. Melting can occur quickly, so the strength and flavor of the brew may fall off fast. Avoid the cooling method with meticulously brewed craft beer, sticking to domestics instead. 

Pack a glass with abundant ice, then pour in a lager, and you may find the result surprisingly pleasurable. After all, the initial product is designed to be mellow anyways, so extra ice won't skew the experience of sipping on it much. Just make sure to drink it all fairly quickly — you'll want some ice left in the serving vessel as a sign that not too much dilution occurred. Nevertheless, if you acknowledge that some dilution is inevitable, it can actually be used to your advantage.

Another common route for combining beer with ice is in a Mexican michelada. By introducing vibrant flavors like lime, chiles, and salt, the watering down of the beer is no longer an issue; it transitions more into cocktail territory. And for added enhancement, consider crafting those ice cubes out of frozen fruit juice, which will melt into an even more flavorful beverage.