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Though some what off topic: Even though style may dictate a different carbonation level. Draft beer is typically carbonated to around 2.4 volumes so it pours on most draft systems at bars. If you carbonate beer to far above this amount of volumes, the beer won't pour well. That is one reason why certain styles may taste different in a bottle versus on draft.


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Depends on the beer.

I had a roommate from Mongolia who disliked beer with carbonation. I never understood the full story of why but he said it was better flat. He would show up with a sixpack, dispense half each can into Gatorade bottles, then shake them and leave them out for a few hours to go completely flat.

The carbonation in Guinness is a blend of CO2 and Nitrogen which creates the different bubbles. Some beers are carbonated in different ways and have a different feeling.


The first time I tasted beer in college, I was surprised to discover it's carbonated. I wasn't aware, and wasn't expecting that. It's still kind of weird and annoying to me, and I prefer beer like Guiness where the carbonation is less pronounced.

Most beers are better at the brewery IMO, and most beers are better on draft. One beer I especially like in a can is Boddingtons because of the CO2 capsule that makes its pour quite similar to a draft beer. I think a few other beers have the same innovation. I believe I’m the only person at my local package store who buys it, as they order very little and I always seem to buy the last couple 4-packs.

Might also have to do with the quality of the beer though ;)

My point was that by definition it's naturally carbonated and all other beer isn't. Cask conditioned ale is common throughout the UK and bottle conditioned ales are common in Belgium and elsewhere. (They're also usually higher rated than mass-produced beer but that wasn't the point I was making.)

That is also true for beers - the ones from 50l kegs taste much better compared to bottle/can. And once you move to 200-400l 'tanks' which use gravity to get beer out, instead of pressurized CO2 which alters the taste (for the worse), you are in beer haven (at least for pilsner type of beer, we don't do much of other types but its slowly changing)

On the note of nitro craft beers, more often than not I find that nitro tap beers are a gimmick and that the beer would be better served be being conventionally carbonated.

It's the same story with cask ales. Some styles really don't work well on a handpull.


The kind of beer also matters. I was never much of a beer drinker, but during my university days, there was one beer that I really liked: Het Kanon, a heavy beer with 11.6% alcohol, sold in .45l bottles. That is really not comparable to drinking a regular beer.

Later they reduced the bottle size to the more common 0.33l. Probably for safety reasons.


I thought beer was naturally carbonated! Not being a drinker, I never gave it much thought.

> switching from drinking beer out of bottles because it "tastes better"

FWIW, that was never true, anyway. It's just that, once upon a time, cheap beer came in cans and expensive beer came in bottles, so it was hard for consumers to make a decent comparison.

When I was in beer judging class, we did an interesting blind taste test among various beers that are available in both bottles and cans. The cans consistently won. It didn't take too long to notice the pattern, either: At least for beers with a more delicate flavor, the bottled version tends to have a certain subtle hint of soggy cardboard that's absent in the canned version.


Both beers are usually 0.33l and ~5-9% alcohol depending on the type (I'd guess the 7-8% versions are the ones in question).

Growlers go flat too quickly. I typically don't want to consume a half gallon of beer in one sitting.

I've actually assimilated this effect and consciously appreciate how certain craft beer labels affect my perception of the taste. There's a local brew I explicitly enjoy more from a 12oz bottle than on tap because of its package design.

Bottled beer does start to acquire off flavors over time

I don't know specifically about your symptoms, but one thing it could be is the carbonation.

All draught Guinness (including Guinness Draught cans) is not carbonated with just CO2, but with nitrogen and CO2 in a 70-30% (thereabouts) mix.

Additionally, when pouring a typically carbonated beer incorrectly (or not pouring it into a glass), a larger amount of CO2 remains in solution, leading to gastro bloat that can feel more uncomfortable than one would expect. You can experience bad pours even at bars, depending on who's behind the tap.

Lagers will have higher carbonation levels than most stouts, so that could be a factor.


It probably helps that beer tends to have a higher water content than liquor.

Sometime do an actual blind taste test with some beers at the PBR level. The differences are subtle to nonexistent.

Interesting! The "Choose your preferred beer strength..." by lightness to darkness doesn't make much sense to me. Stouts (not including doubles and imperials) are usually much lower ABV (4%-6%) than IPAs and imperial IPA (6%-12%). I suggest changing to something like "Choose your preferred beer style...".
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