mew

Recipes 

Has anyone else noticed that most bottled microbrews are overcarbed and bland compared to the kegged versions?

I sure have, especially with hoppy beers. A bottled hoppy microbrew tends to have all the bitterness with none of the flavor, whereas the kegged versions have a ton of flavor and just the right amount of bitterness to balance everything else.

I'm guessing the phenomenon is merely due to bottled beer being past it's prime, because it doesn't seem to happen with malt-centric beer (except for the overcarbonation part).

This gives me even more reason to homebrew, because I can't afford to pay $3.00/pint every day, and I'm not willing to sacrifice quality.

Any thoughts?

Desert_Sky

Recipes 

Bottles are pasteurized and kegs most of the time are not. Once bottles leave the brewery the brewer has no clue whats going to happen to them. They could sit in a 100* warehouse for 6 weeks before being sent to stores. Alot of brewers don't bother to filter kegs since they go from a cold cellar at the brewery, to a air conditioned truck, to a cold room at a bar.

__________________
Desert Sky Brewing Co.
Sierra Vista, AZ

TwoHeadsBrewing

Recipes 

Absolutely! In fact, at the Sierra Nevada pub they have a "Draught-Style Pale Ale" and a draft "Pale Ale". The former is a slightly different recipe to get the beer to taste very close to what you get in the bottle, and the latter is a kegged version of Pale Ale. They are very similar, but you can taste the difference in a side by side taste test.

__________________

Fermenting: ESB
Kegged: Extra IPA, Brown Ale, American Wheat, Blackheart Stout
Coming Up: Dunkleweizen, 3C Pale Ale


DIY Fermentation Chamber
More Brew Stuff

Desert_Sky

Recipes 

Also some breweries will contract out their big distributed beers and then make the kegs for their pubs in house. Sometimes it's just easier to have someone who has the capability to do a 100BBL batch produce your big seller, which leaves you more time to concentrate on your other brews.

Once again, its only some breweries who do this, not all for you nitpicking types

__________________
Desert Sky Brewing Co.
Sierra Vista, AZ

blacklab

Recipes 

I find this difference very evident in Sierra Nevada. The weird thing is, I like SN better in bottles than on tap.

mew

Recipes 

Yeah, SN Pale Ale is pretty good in the bottle. But I'd say Mirror Pond Pale Ale on tap from Deschutes blows it away. Unfortunately, the bottled Mirror Pond is just alright.

david_42

Recipes 

In general that's true. The main exceptions are when I buy bottles at the brewery and store them properly. It's the only way you can be certain of getting the same beer, other than buying a cornie-full.

__________________
Remember one unassailable statistic, as explained by the late, great George Carlin: "Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!"

"I would like to die on Mars, just not on impact." Elon Musk

blacklab

Recipes 

Tell me about it. I lived in Bend for 8 years. I think one of the barstools at Deschutes Brewco still has my name on it.

Everyone once in awhile they had a Mirror Pond keg on nitro. That was niiiice.

Slinggalin

Recipes 

So I take it that is why Guiness on tap taste different from Guiness in the bottle???

I guess they try to make em taste similar by putting that wedget in the bottles..

Don't work.. Guiness on tap is me favorite beer.

Not too found of the bottled product..

__________________
Kat Daddy

z987k

Recipes 

I always go for what's on tap. It's always better.

__________________
Beer Style Guidelines - Kaiser's Brewing Experiments - American Society of Brewing Chemists - Journal of the Institute of Brewing