Kegging vs. Bottling beer taste

I started kegging before the summer to save some time and space. Bottling was just taking too long and having hundreds of bottles around was becoming a problem.

I kegged three beers and put them on tap, a Sam Adams winter lager clone, a belgian wit and a Kolsch. With the Belgian I made 6 gallons and bottled 1 gallon to give away. I cracked open a bottle of the Belgian the other day and was surprised at how much better the beer tasted. The Orange was much more pronounced in the aroma and taste, and the bottled beer had much better spiciness. I also thought the overall bitterness was closer to what I wanted.

My question is has anyone else noticed this with beers they've kegged and bottled? If this is generally the case it may make me go back to bottling. Why spend so much time brewing if I'm not getting the best results.

The only thing between kegging and bottling is the size- kegs are basically just big bottles. Maybe you aged the bottles at room temperature during bottling conditioning, and forgot to age the keg before chilling and carbonating? Or if the keg is overcarbed, especially early, that carbonic acid "bite" might still be present. Otherwise, I can't imagine the difference.

YooperBrew said:

Or if the keg is overcarbed, especially early, that carbonic acid "bite" might still be present.

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Please expand on this.

YooperBrew said:

The only thing between kegging and bottling is the size- kegs are basically just big bottles. Maybe you aged the bottles at room temperature during bottling conditioning, and forgot to age the keg before chilling and carbonating? Or if the keg is overcarbed, especially early, that carbonic acid "bite" might still be present. Otherwise, I can't imagine the difference.

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Thanks for the reply. I did exactly what you said, threw the keg right in the kegerator while the bottles were at room temperature for 6+ weeks to carbonate. I didn't think this would make a huge difference since the beer was in a secondary carboy for over a month after fermentation was finished. I'll probably use sugar to carbonate my next keg and leave the keg and bottles side by side and then check to see how the beers taste. Thanks for the help.

I have never noticed any difference..one thing I do love about kegging taste is I can dry hop in the keg and get much better aroma than in the bottle..but other than that they should be very close to the same..I do notice a slight difference in comercial bottle and draft beers but this could be how they age them as well..

J

joejoe1881 said:

Thanks for the reply. I did exactly what you said, threw the keg right in the kegerator while the bottles were at room temperature for 6+ weeks to carbonate. I didn't think this would make a huge difference since the beer was in a secondary carboy for over a month after fermentation was finished. I'll probably use sugar to carbonate my next keg and leave the keg and bottles side by side and then check to see how the beers taste. Thanks for the help.

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Make sure you give the keg a shot of CO2 to purge oxigen from the headspace and to make sure that the lid seals properly. Some (most?) corny kegs will not seal properly just by putting the lid on. They need CO2 pressure to firmly close the lid.