Difference in taste between bottle and keg

I keg almost all of my beer. Sometimes I bottle a 6 or 12 pack with those carb pills and then keg the rest. I made an arrogant bastard clone and then oaked it with chips for awhile. It ended up with too much oak flavor but it's still pretty good. The kegged version tastes a bit like butterscotch and the oak is "smooth". I tried a bottle last night and the beer tastes completely different. It's still a pretty good beer but definately nothing like the kegged version. Why would this happen?

In a bottle there's a much higher exposure to air due to the (top) surface area to volume ratio. This means that you probably have more oxygen getting to your beer, especially if you purge it out your keg when you put it in there (I'm not a kegger so don't fully understand that process). In what way is it different?

theonecynic said:

In a bottle there's a much higher exposure to air due to the (top) surface area to volume ratio. This means that you probably have more oxygen getting to your beer, especially if you purge it out your keg when you put it in there (I'm not a kegger so don't fully understand that process). In what way is it different?

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The bottled version isn't as smooth and it hasn't a much different oak taste. I don't really know how to describe what I taste. 4 of us did a side by side comparison and they didn't believe it was the same beer because they were so different tasting.

When kegging I purge the oxygen out really good with co2.

Hmmm... Could be carb tabs? Could be your beer lines?

I force carb and then bottle using Biermuncher's method. They always taste the same.

I like beer from the keg as well. Hard to tell it's the same batch. I.ve been bottling a couple liters as the batch is 23 and the kegs are 19.. I don't know if it's the added sugar for priming or what,,but it's hard to tell they are the same batch of brew

Bottle conditioned beers will taste different that force carb'd kegs.

It's the yeast.

When I started doing 10-gallon batches, I would force carb the first keg and prime the second keg and allow it to carbonate naturally at room temperature...just like a big bottle.

When I tapped the second keg, it always had that familiar yeast bite.

Another thing....when you bottle and prime, your bottles get set aside at warmer temps to carbonate. Often there is still some residual sugars in this beer (in addition to your priming sugar) and letting those bottles sit at room temp allows a more thorough fermentation...under pressure...causing slightly higher carbonation and a less "smooth" profile.

Your keg on the other hand will usually go straight to the chiller and all yeast activity will cease.

As a new "kegger" - I noticed this as well.
Keg beer is "smoother" and taste different than bottled. The last beer I made I put in a 2 gallon keg, and the rest bottled. You would have though this was two different batches. It is just different. They both taste good, just different.