Bottle Conditioned Beer vs Kegged

Hello All,

I need some input please. I've been brewing for about three years now. I used to bottle everything and loved it. No seriously, it was the bomb. I finally broke down about a year ago and started kegging. Loved the ease of it and the time savings. Wasn't as happy with the beer flavor though as compared to my old bottle conditioned beers. Well, here recently I built myself a big ole home brewery and now I'm bottling some again. (mainly to get me through the summer because I don't want to brew during hot weather)

Well, now that I've been drinking kegged beer for a year.......I've been sampling some bottles that are more than aged and ready to drink......good carbonation.....nice and clear........no excessive sediment. Went from primary to secondary to bottles. I just know I'm doing everything right.

The problem is......the bottled beer tastes weird to me now. Like there are off flavors or something. I can have two identical 5 gallon buckets and bottle one and keg one and I'm completely unhappy with the bottles now.

I even tried priming some with DME and some with corn sugur to see if that would make a difference.....nope.

Any insight or thoughts on this? It's really got me bummed, because I can buy a bottled Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or a pint on tap and it tastes the same to me......?????? It's gotta be something I'm doing wrong.....but what?

I have found that I enjoy my bottle conditioned beers more than my kegged/force carbed ones. But I still hate cleaning bottles so kegging it is for me.

Sorry if that didn't help, but it's just a data point for you to consider.

Most homebrewed beers taste different bottles vs. kegged. During the conditioning phase (it doesn't have to be in a bottle, you can sugar carb a keg to do the same thing) the yeast will be cleaning up some of the fermentation by-products. Sometimes that is a good thing, sometimes you want to drink it fresh.

With commercial breweries, they have the perfected the fermentation process, and there is less for the yeast to clean up.

"More than aged"

Are they just maybe past their prime? The kegs are stored cold, so will age more slowly. Could be your bottling process is picking up a little O2 that has done some damage by the time you get to the bottles?

We're talkin 6-10 weeks down the line......that's more than aged to me.

I bottled my first 30 or so batches and I could always detect slight off flavors. My best guess was acetylhyde, like they could never get over tasting "green" even after many many weeks of aging. Or else maybe slightly phenolic, who knows. I tried everything to improve/eliminate, and got pretty close. Even when I entered a few competitions I usually scored well, upper 30's and low 40's. However, now that I am kegging, those slight off flavors are GONE! My beer is absolutely superb (according to me anyway!!!) and I'll never bottle another batch, unless its from the keg. I should add that I brew mostly IPA's, APA's Amber's and stouts. Not really the type that benefit a whole lot from bottle conditioning.

-TH- said:

I'll never bottle another batch, unless its from the keg.

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I've been thinking about that very thing here as of late. I've just started looking for info on bottling from force carbed kegs. Does anyone have any handy links for me? I've bottled a few here and there to take to a friends house or something, but I can't fill em up all the way because of the head so I have to keep em cold and drink em fast or they get kinda flat.

This works like a charm:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

I was just gonna suggest that too. Bottle it from the keg. Best of both worlds.

Thanks Guys......

If you're using extracts (LME/DME) your beer will "break down" fairly quick. After doing some research on the topic, I have found that the vacuum drying PROCESS to make these extracts, makes them prone to break down. The sure tale signs are off flavor (that "home brew" taste), and even more easily spotted.. the large bubbles for a head, instead of that nice frothy one we all look for. With all grain, this does not happen. I had a 2 yr old, all grain brown ale last week.. OUTSTANDING, like it was brewed last month. All grain does not break down. If it does, it's super slow, and fairly undetectable.

Last week, we did a taste test. We we have some of our top notch rye ipa in both kegs and bottles. Poured a bottle into a glass, and drew a pint from the keg. The aroma from the bottle totally blew away the kegged pint. Flavor from the bottle was "softer" or more smooth. This was undeniable. Beer/ale conditions much better in glass. It's a fact.

one other bit of advice, we only use the Coopers clear bottling drops. We got away from adding a bag of corn sugar. The idea that you have the perfect, even amount in each bottle, is always best. They're clear (like a halls cough drop) dissolve nicely and leave no residue.

I don't know that it's extract vs non-extract related as far as aging and fine bubbles. Three of my recent beers have been this way after 6 weeks in the bottle - 2 all grain and the other a partial mash. Two things I did differently were using whirlfloc 5 minutes from end of the boil, and straining the wort before putting it in my fermenter. Both of these led to much clearer beer with less sediment. I think if you do that with an extract batch it will work just as well.

QuercusMax said:

I don't know that it's extract vs non-extract related as far as aging and fine bubbles. Three of my recent beers have been this way after 6 weeks in the bottle - 2 all grain and the other a partial mash. Two things I did differently were using whirlfloc 5 minutes from end of the boil, and straining the wort before putting it in my fermenter. Both of these led to much clearer beer with less sediment. I think if you do that with an extract batch it will work just as well.

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You are correct, it does work just as well. Although I use whirlfloc 15 min before flame out.