I rarely agree with the Spectator (I occasionally do stuff on beards for them) but they do have it right on the temperature that cask beer should be served at.
At a fringe meeting at Labour conference a junior Minister opined that country pubs that sold warm beer and admitted dogs (unlike Wetherspoons) were right wing.
A Times Editorial of course complained about it but repeated the warm beer point. That occasioned a rare Fletter to the Times pointing out that drinking in a country pub is neither right or left wing and that the beer should not warm but tepid around 12C. That’s what might be called the John Major test who famously went on about beer and cricket.
A further letter from New Zealand in response to mine pointed out that bathing in 12C water would be chilly. No doubt but one is drinking beer not bathing in it. I hope.
Anyway the Spectator has it right on this. Rory Hanrahan writes:
My ale is room temperature, as cask ale ought to be, and it is good. I take pride in that, not in the “warm ale” used in conference speeches. Dogs are allowed in the saloon, the sports bar and the garden. They are not permitted in the restaurant on the days we are cooking. The village is middle class, firmly Liberal Democrat and, as far as I can judge, completely without fascists.
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