Preference for Uncarbonated Beer?

[oljimmy]

Hi All,

I've had this odd experience recently where I fermented a cross between a Pale and a European-style ale (decent quantities of vienna and munich malt but 80% 2-row). Tasting upon racking to the keg, I was blown away by the way the hop flavor (centennial and cascade) mixed with the malt bill and combined with the nice, juicy aroma. Best beer I've ever made at that point.

Thing is, it's started to carb up nicely (it's probably at 2.0 vols by now) and I've been greedily sampling it... and I don't like it as much. The CO2/carbonic acid seems to be masking a lot of the qualities that the beer originally had. Yes, fizz is refreshing all on its own, but I'm drinking beer, not soda water.

Anyone else ever had this experience? Actually preferring the below-1.0 vols uncarbonated fermented wort to the "finished" product?

 

[dmtaylor]

It's a personal preference. There's nothing wrong with enjoying uncarbonated or undercarbonated beer. I always drink my specific gravity samples and usually enjoy them. While I really don't like flat beer too much, personally I would rather have my homebrews end up just a little low on the carbonation scale than to overdo it, so for that reason I generally use a little less priming sugar than other people would recommend. Even so, there are still rare occasions when I get gushers and get upset over it. I just dumped a few bottles of gushers that I had in the back of my refrigerator for two years. Why wasn't I drinking these beers? They tasted fine. Oh yeah, after two years I forgot --- they were way overcarbonated. So, down the drain they went.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I much prefer english/irish varieties at very low levels of carbonation. And as for the super carbonated varieties, belgians and some wheat ales, I tend to let them off gas a while before I drink them.

 

[hobomoto]

Yeah I quite like my IPAs at around 1-1.25 volumes. They are very different tasting. Juicier and smoother, a bit sweeter tasting (in a good way) in my experience... but I also really like them at full carbonation when they become familiar beers with appropriate carb levels. Then I enjoy the way the hop flavor and aroma evolves as the beer ages over the month of consumption as the initial dominant hop aroma fades and other hop aromas come forward and clarity increases... not to mention drinking all your hydro samples before you even keg.. love this hobby!

 

[oljimmy]

Yeah I quite like my IPAs at around 1-1.25 volumes. They are very different tasting. Juicier and smoother, a bit sweeter tasting (in a good way) in my experience... but I also really like them at full carbonation when they become familiar beers with appropriate carb levels. Then I enjoy the way the hop flavor and aroma evolves as the beer ages over the month of consumption as the initial dominant hop aroma fades and other hop aromas come forward and clarity increases... not to mention drinking all your hydro samples before you even keg.. love this hobby!

That's all true. I love all the stages. I've just slowly but surely started to wonder why so many people prefer to mask a bunch of the flavors they worked so hard to produce behind a wall of carbonic acid.