Beers that need Bottle conditioning?

I was reading How to Brew, and in this section John Palmer says " In some styles, like Belgian Strong Ale, bottle conditioning and the resultant flavors are the hallmark of the style. These styles cannot be produced with the same flavors via kegging."

I'm wondering what other styles may need to be bottle conditioned, and how much of a difference is there really?

Right now I've got a Belgian Tripel in secondary, so I'm thinking about bottling vs. kegging. usually I keg, and I'm trying to decide if it's ok to keg it, or if I need the bottle conditioning? If so I was thinking about whether I can just add priming sugar to the secondary to get the flavors, but not the pressure, or just prime and let the batch naturaly carb in the keg for the same results as a bottle conditioned beer?

-Nick

Any beer over 8% probably should be bottled (or aged in the keg for three months). Two recent beers I made were 9% and 8% ABV. I kegged those batches but did manage to bottle a few of them. Now that those beers have had time to age in the bottle they taste great.

I think the flavors that Palmer is talking about are achieved during the condition period where the beer ferments in the serving vessel and carbs. Adding more sugar to the secondary will just result in more alcohol.

I don't think there would be much difference if you bottle conditioned vs. naturally carbing in the keg w/ priming sugar. The only significant difference that I can think of is you're filling one large steel bottle as a opposed to many small glass bottles.

That being said, I've had many Triples (home brewed and from local micros) that were kegged after fermentation, force carbed and served. They were all great beers and I really don't think they would have benefited from an extended aging/conditioning period.

Val Dieu Grand Cru is way better out of a keg ???

smellysell said:

Val Dieu Grand Cru is way better out of a keg ???

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I don't think anyone said that.

hoplobster said:

I don't think anyone said that.

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I'm saying that.

Guess what I should have just said that in my experience BSAs aren't necessarily better because they're bottle conditioned. Not EVERYTHING Palmer says is law.

smellysell said:

I'm saying that.

Guess what I should have just said that in my experience BSAs aren't necessarily better because they're bottle conditioned. Not EVERYTHING Palmer says is law.

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Gotcha, very true. :rockin:

That's what I was trying to do with the ???