Why American beer is 'ice cold'

We recently went to Britain and there they pride themselves with Ale that is served at cellar temperatures (about 55 °F). I thought it actually tasted quite good. I thought about this as I drank my milk this morning and about how cold it was. I realized that we make stuff really cold simply because we can't taste it as well when it's cold.

This is why I give by child warm formula milk but I drink cold milk. Formula milk for infants is sweeter and actually tastes good warm.

So, when you hear one of the ads that the American beer companies have about how 'ice cold' their beer is, remember that this is just a way to convince us that we really shouldn't be tasting our beer at all.