It seems that the USA has something in common with Australia there. We used to refer to "Kangaroo Valley Beer Disease", thinking that the reason for the "beer" in Earl's Court (known at the time as "Kangaroo Valley", because Australians were rather dense in that part of London - dense in population, I mean, of course, although I've heard it said that the figurative use of the word would also be appropriate for anyone who drank that stuff) being served so cold was that all the bars had been infected with some ghastly microorganism which ensured that if the taste buds were not numbed it would be possible to detect that the Australian beers served there tasted even worse than the most revolting British keg swill.