At UK beer and music festivals throughout the year, pints of beer are sold in their thousands. Attendees expect a reliable supply of cold beer to always be available. Enjoying a pint or two at such events is considered "part of the experience", after all.

Hired portable air conditioning units supplied by a specialist at festival sites provide a solution to keeping beer stored in temporary beer cellars (and then served) at the right temperature.

Beer demand at festivals is increasing

The number of bars and beer tents at festivals such as T in the Park, Hop Farm and Glastonbury, increases every year in response to rising demand.

On top of entrance fees, and catering and merchandising revenue, beer sales can add a huge amount to the overall takings from a festival; so it is essential that the beer is kept cool. A festival that forges an unwelcome reputation for selling "warm beer" (or ale or cider) will inevitably receive negative press, which could impact upon attendance levels in the following years.

With most festivals taking place in open fields, or in rural areas where there are perhaps a handful of buildings and basic amenities, hired portable air conditioning units are temporarily used to store beer at a sufficient temperature. And although, right now, next summer seems a long time away, festival organisers and promoters are already planning their events, with mobile air con hire being high on their "must-arrange" checklists.

More about festivals

The festival calendar for 2012 really is taking shape with beer festivals and music events such as Glastonbury, Reading, Isle of Wight, Leeds, The V Festival, Rockness and The Lost Weekend - a brand-new festival for next year (to name a few). All of these festivals will require rented air con from an air con hire specialist; preferably one with experience in supplying leased air con units to festivals, positioning the units correctly on site, setting them up, and getting them to work at the right temperature control setting.

Ideal temperatures for beers

It is a widespread myth that English beer should be served at room temperature - and in an outdoor environment, that does not mean a lot anyway. A traditional beer is best served at cellar temperature, which is 12-14 degrees Celsius. Room temperature is 21 degrees Celsius. But as outdoor summer festivals can sometimes take place under scorching sunshine, storing and serving beer at a lower temperature may be required at some large-scale live events. The public’s taste buds are also more accustomed to lower temperature for lagers and pale ales: it is quite common to serve these at between 7-10 degrees.

That said, an experienced air con hire specialist will know that storing beer at too low a temperature could result in ice crystals forming in the liquid. Once the crystals melt, the beer can become lifeless, unappetising and therefore unsalable.

It is essential, then, that a specialist installs and sets up the right models (in terms of size and output capacity), and also units that have excellent temperature-setting controls. A specialist will also have depots nationwide stocked with a full range of modern mobile units (of all sizes and capacities), and they will know exactly which units are most appropriate for outdoor event applications.

Sometimes, beer sales are the only revenue

Although the biggest and the best festivals in Britain each summer show a profit, others are solely reliant on alcohol sales for this; revenue from tickets sales, catering and merchandising, etc. can be swallowed up by the sheer expense of putting the festival on and promoting it.

And so with the takings behind the bar(s) being the only return at some outdoor events, this makes ensuring the beer, ale and cider on offer being at just the right temperature for attendees even more important; hence the clamour from festival organisers each year to secure the services of the best portable air con hire companies in the country during the festival season.