Carbonation in English Beers

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mew

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I just cracked open a bottle of a mild after 3 weeks in the bottle and the carbonation is very very low. I know English beers are supposed to be low in carbonation, but this seems almost watery and has no head unless poured very vigorously. I've never had an English beer in a real English pub, so it could just be my inexperience.

I added 1.65 oz of priming sugar for 4 gallons at 70 degrees F. I used this carbonation calculator:
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

Is this this normal for this type of beer?
 
Yeah, I did the same thing with a mild a while back, and found it undercarbed for my taste. I'll probably aim a little higher, 1.7-2.0 volumes for my next one. Chalk it up to my crass American tastes...
 
Speaking as an Englishman...

Modern English pubs don't serve real English ales any more: mostly just northern European lagers! Those that do still have "old ale" on tap tend to come with a huge head, but this is a modern invention, not at all how beer would traditionally have been served. The "mild" style in particular is not commercially available anywhere I can find any more.

Traditionally, low carbonation and minimal to no head is exactly right for an English beer.
 
Shawn Hargreaves said:
Speaking as an Englishman...

Modern English pubs don't serve real English ales any more: mostly just northern European lagers! Those that do still have "old ale" on tap tend to come with a huge head, but this is a modern invention, not at all how beer would traditionally have been served. The "mild" style in particular is not commercially available anywhere I can find any more.

QUOTE]

How sad:(

I guess that is why we homebrew.
Click to expand...
 
niquejim said:
How sad:(

I guess that is why we homebrew.
Click to expand...

That's why a mild was one the first brews I made, and will be in regular rotation. I wanted to try it, since I'm a big fan of English beers. I loved the flavor, and with a little more carbonation (not enough to make it spritzy by any means), it'll be in regular rotation for me.
 
Well, I'm glad that it sounds like I didn't screw up, but I'm disappointed that I couldn't tell that it was okay. I blame that on globalization. I think I'll try 1.8 volumes of CO2 next time to acclimatize my inexperienced taste buds (this time I went for 1.65 volumes). Thanks for the help!

Edit: This beer tastes great, by the way!
 
I, um, have a huge meat syringe here. Wait... what? In the beer? We must be talking about different things.
 
Shawn Hargreaves said:
Speaking as an Englishman...

Modern English pubs don't serve real English ales any more: mostly just northern European lagers! Those that do still have "old ale" on tap tend to come with a huge head, but this is a modern invention, not at all how beer would traditionally have been served. The "mild" style in particular is not commercially available anywhere I can find any more.
Click to expand...

Wow, that sounds odd. I was just in England in March and got real ale at a lot of pubs. Most pubs had at least 2 pumps. Of course, I was on the lookout for it. I also had a Mild at a pub in Liverpool.

Real ale has a noticable, but low carbonation. It's definitely low by American standards. The head is small if any. There should at least be a little lacing at the rim.
 
Shawn Hargreaves said:
Speaking as an Englishman...

Modern English pubs don't serve real English ales any more: mostly just northern European lagers! Those that do still have "old ale" on tap tend to come with a huge head, but this is a modern invention, not at all how beer would traditionally have been served. The "mild" style in particular is not commercially available anywhere I can find any more.

Traditionally, low carbonation and minimal to no head is exactly right for an English beer.
Click to expand...

But traditional English pubs still serve real English Ales, and if you go south they won't have the huge head.

There's also plenty of milds available, although they may be a bit more difficult to find than bitters.

-a.
 
Blender said:
What exactly is the meat syringe trick?
Click to expand...

Schlenkerla said:
Yeah what's the meat syringe trick?
Click to expand...

Like what you do with a guiness clone. Take a (clean, not used for oily sh*t) meat syringe and stick the tip in a easy poured low carb beer. Draw some beer into the syringe and quickly push it back into the beer(keeping the tip in the beer) and you will get a 2" rocky head on a low carb beer
 
niquejim said:
Like what you do with a guiness clone. Take a (clean, not used for oily sh*t) meat syringe and stick the tip in a easy poured low carb beer. Draw some beer into the syringe and quickly push it back into the beer(keeping the tip in the beer) and you will get a 2" rocky head on a low carb beer
Click to expand...

Wouldn't that leave the remaining beer with zero carbonation? May not be a bad thing, I guess...
 
mew said:
Wouldn't that leave the remaining beer with zero carbonation? May not be a bad thing, I guess...
Click to expand...

I would imagine that the injected portion would be zeroed but not the rest of the beer.
 
I used a smaller syringe (3 mL) and shot about 2 mL of beer into the glass with the syringe tip above the rest of the beer and it worked like a charm! It turns out the head retention is not bad at all, there is just no head to begin with. The syringe trick is great!
 
menschmaschine said:
Wow, that sounds odd. I was just in England in March and got real ale at a lot of pubs. Most pubs had at least 2 pumps.
Click to expand...

That was certainly the case in London last September, many pubs even had "real ale" posted somewhere outside. I did a LOT of research on this topic. :D

To the American palate, these ales often do come across as flat and even watery. They definitely grow on you though.
 

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