Bottled tastes better than Kegged.

Brewing Processes
1

;D

And what do you think?

I find that for my home brew, packaged with my system and my techniques, and for the taste buds of those that sample my wares, that the bottled samples consistently taste better than the kegged versions. Sometimes dramatically so. (This assumes the beer is otherwise treated the same; that is, force carbed or primed, or cold conditioned the same, same drinking vessel, etc.)

I had a stunning reminder of this just days ago. I made a lightly smoked porter last fall. It was an “improved” version of something I’ve made a couple times years ago, when I only bottled. This version was force carbed in a keg. I had very high expectations for it; but It was only a good, decent, very drinkable beer. It lacked a depth of flavor, richness, and nuance that should’ve been there. So I bottled some up recently to give to friends (used a cheap cobra tap-racking cane setup, force carbed).  I heard some big compliments back. Surprised, I tried a bottle. Wow. A completely better beast. I compared head to head with a friend who agreed (granted, it was not a blind test).

This is not just with dark beers IME. I noticed the same thing with an English Pale Ale last fall. I could not detect any of the fruity ester smell and flavors that are typical of this yeast; but when I bottled it, they were there, very noticeable, and very appealing.

Assuming I’m not off my rocker, I can think of four reasons for this consistent experience:

  1. Oxidation. Kai and others have noted that for big dark beers, oxidation can bring “improved” flavors, or at least the flavors typical of what we expect for styles like dopplebocks. I think this probably holds true for lighter styles as well, within limits. Also, it’s well known that oxidation is key for the development of red wine, and last I checked, they weren’t using any chocolate malt in those. So a little may be a good thing for many styles.

  2. Head space. Someone who has studied gas-liquid physics more recently than me should chime in here. You have one inch of head space in a bottle, say this is 8% of the total volume. You may have 15 inches of head space in a corny keg, and this could be a huge percentage of the total volume. I would expect that volatile aroma and flavor compounds could escape from solution (beer) into the keg head space with much greater ease than in the bottle.

  3. Gravity. Unpleasant compounds in a bottle only have to drop six inches or so to precipitate out. In a keg, these same compounds may have to travel much further.

  4. Dip tube location vs. top of bottle. You can leave most of the dregs behind in a bottle, but in a keg, regardless of how clear your beer may seem to be, I find it hard to believe that a dip tube located a millimeter above sediment, under pressure, is not going to pull some of that stuff into your glass. Regardless of whether it is forced or primed.

I have of course had better beer in kegs than the bottled version on occasion; but for me, in every one of those cases, I can point out that the bottled version got less favorable treatment than the keg. For example, maybe the keg got to sit all comfy in a fridge for six months, while the bottles had to sit in the cellar at 58 to 65 degrees during that time.

Very interested to hear from others on this.

Unfortunately for my taste buds, bottling just takes too much time so it’s going to have to be a part-time pleasure!

2

You left out some other possibilities. ;D

  1. Carbonation level.  Those bottles you filled from your keg will have less CO2 than the keg does.

  2. Imagination. Your head to head wasn’t blind, do a triangle test and see if you can taste a difference and which is preferred.

3

This one gets my vote based on my own experience…

4

cynics!

heh heh, true enough. One should never rule out imagination in my case.

Still I think it’s a real effect. The carbonation is one I definitely forgot. Although I’ve noticed this effect with “equally” primed samples as well (hard to exactly control that).

Will have to do a real scientific test some day.

There’s another factor, and that is individual taste thresholds. My main drinking friends and I all greatly prefer “smoother” brews, like German Lagers, over the big American styles like double IPAs, for example. Could be a simple matter of different sensitivities or slightly higher taste perceptions of some chemicals on an individual level, or perhaps even a certain preference for slight “oxidized” flavors. I seem to always prefer my ales after they have conditioned for a long time, even the occasional IPA that I make.

5

A couple more you could consider:

  1. Keg sanitation.  Have you thoroughly cleaned your dip tubes?

  2. Serving lines and taps.  How clean are you lines and taps?

Both of these sneak up on me every once in awhile.

Paul

6

Good points too Paul. I try to be meticulous, but I bake bottles until they are probably sterile. Hard for a cobra tap and plastic hose to compete against that. I recently switched to Perlick faucets so will have to try this again.

7

I’m also a fan of triangle testing as was mentioned in a previous post. This will eliminate any subjectivity during the tasting. It is belived by some that bottle conditioning is the ideal method to age certain styles of beer.

I have had fantastic examles of some Belgians in both bottled and kegged versions. I think it will be style dependent in most cases.