Lately I find myself wondering why so many brews are so highly carbonated. I love Belgian beers, but only after a super hard pour and a long decant do try and drive off much of the carbonation. I find Gulden Draak which is my second favorite beer improves in both depth of flavor and complexity. The prickly carbonation seems to get in the way of a lot of flavors. I have tried many homebrews before they were carbonated, I have to say most of the time I prefer uncarbonated, you just get so many more flavors. Am I missing something, why do so many brewers go to all the trouble to carbonate their beer? Belgian beers take it to the point of being undrinkable for me without at least a hard pour, and usually a long decant.
Yes you are missing something, read about the influence of carbonation on beers and the flavors that are enhanced by carbonation, for instance Saison DuPont is best from the bottle and quite bland on draft also in a keg there is a limit to volumes of Carbonation in order for the beer to be dispensed properly and the bottling process allows more I find a lot of beers in styles like Belgians even IPA's, Kolsch etc. inaccurately carbonated by comparison of beers available fifteen to twenty five years ago, the bubbles are good and what's wrong with a good belch now and then?
Being somewhat over-carbonated is a desirable characteristic of some beers (I think Saisons and Golden Ales fall into this category) so that the higher carbonation is sometimes intentional, but if you are getting so much carbonation that the 'prickly' sensation is too much then that is probably not intended. Many beers are bottle-conditioned by adding more sugar or yeast (or both) at the time of bottling to create the carbonation, and this process is can be delicate to produce just the right amount of CO2. Your better brewers have this process pretty well dialed-in, but even they probably make a mistake sometimes.
I tend to prefer more carb on my beers (especially after having too many undercarbed homebrews); it's not ideal for every style but in general it will help improve the aromatics of most beers, which has a huge influence on the way you taste them as well. Imo lots of hoppy beers on the market could use more carb rather than 20 tons of dry hopping to solve their aroma issues.
