Unless it asserts itself by, say, fizzing up your nose or aggressively dancing on your tongue, it can be easy to forget about carbonation in beer. Sure, when light filters through a glass and highlights the tiny bubbles as they appear at the bottom it offers a visual moment of enjoyment as they flitter to the surface. Carbonation is the spark of beer; it delivers aroma while effectively stirring it as you drink. It contributes to mouthfeel and its existence (or lack of) can help to establish a brew in its proper category.
To just think of carbonation as merely bubbles in a glass is to dismiss the science, passion and countless hours brewers and researchers have put into making sure the effervescence is all it should be.
Carbonation can be traced back through the centuries. There is evidence that the ancient Sumerians had foam in their beer, which would indicate the existence of carbonation. It would be a few more centuries before airtight commercial bottles allowed drinkers to have stronger carbonation one pop at a time and then a few years more before advances in molecular sciences allowed brewers to force carbonation into the beer itself.
Cask ale expert Alex Hall (Alex Hall)
To just think of carbonation as merely bubbles in a glass is to dismiss the science, passion and countless hours brewers and researchers have put into making sure the effervescence is all it should be.
More Than Bubbles
Carbonation occurs after carbon dioxide (CO2) is dissolved inside a liquid. In beer natural carbonation first occurs during the fermentation process when yeast absorbs the sugar in the wort creating both alcohol and carbon dioxide. Some brewers will also add additional sugars to unpasteurized bottles of beer, allowing yeast to feast a second time, thus allowing additional CO2 into the beer.
