Is totally flat beer acceptable ?

[Wheelspin]

I recently went to quite a well known brew pub and sampled their full range from largers to stouts to ales.

All without exception were totally flat with no head and no hint of carbonation. IMO the flatness made them all a little bland.

The question I ask is "is totally flat beer acceptable ?"

 

[jmd1971]

Were they cask beers or CO2?

 

[ludomonster]

English Pale Ales and Bitters can have little or no carbonation. When served out of a cask or through a beer engine, there's no CO2 to push the beer out of the tap. As part of the style, some people prefer it this way. I don't think I would enjoy a flat stout, though. The head on a good stout is too good to pass up.

 

[Wheelspin]

JMD1971, they are served from a tap so I assume CO2.

I don't like highly carbonated beers but absolutely and totally flat with, as you point out, no head at all, is not to my taste either.

I just wondered if this "Flat" style was widely appreciated.

 

[45_70sharps]

If it's a big brew pub I guess they're selling the idea to someone.
I suppose there could be some form of beer that might be alright flat, but it's not for me.
It's not wine, and to me the carbonation is part of the style and character of the drink.
Some less flavorful mass produced beers I've noticed have a ton of carbonation. I think that and serving it extremely cold are what make people think they are drinking beer and not notice the lacking of flavor or bad flavor.

 

[Gameface]

Did you ask them if that was normal and intentional? Maybe they had an issue with the beers for some reason and either the employees didn't know there was a problem or they knew but decided to sell the beer anyway because it would have been hard to keep the place open if there was no beer to sell.

 

[Wheelspin]

No I didn't ask them because they were selling the stuff by the gallon, thought it was just me who didn't know what was what.

 

[AmandaK]

There is a brewery around my parts (Midwest US) that has serious problems with their CO2 balancing. Out of 23 taps, 5 are his own beers and I swear, he has perfect carbonation on the commercial guest taps and wildly varying carbonation on his own beers. Pouring glasses of foam on one visit, still beer the next. It's silly.

At any rate, I can't say that no carbonation/head would be a good thing - unless of course, it was to style (e.g. straight lambic, 60/-, 70/-, English cask ales). But even then, you need a little carbonation, not none at all.