Over the past couple of months I've brewed 10 gallons each weekend, 5 going into a corny keg and 5 going into bottles. I start each 5 gallon batch in a bucket, then after a week I transfer the batch that I will be bottling into a glass secondary for an additional two weeks. The batch that I will be kegging I leave in the bucket for a total of two weeks before transferring to a corny keg. I force carbonate the kegs and leave them at about 40 degrees until I decide to tap them.
Since I started this 10 gallon routine, two batches have aged long enough to begin drinking them. What I've noticed is that the bottles in each batch taste better than the kegged beer. Its not that the kegged beer is bad, its just not as good. The only real difference between the two beers should be that bottled beers use priming sugar while the kegged beer doesn't (shouldn't make that much difference to the taste). And that the bottled beer remains at room temp for a total of 6 weeks (3 in fermenters, 3 in bottles), while the kegged beer goes straight to crash cooling 2 weeks after brew day. Now I'm beginning to wonder if my kegging schedule/routine is flawed. Should I be keeping the kegs at room temp for a few weeks before cooling them down? Or is it fairly common for either the kegged beer or bottled beer to be slightly better than the other and I should just RDWDHB?
Since I started this 10 gallon routine, two batches have aged long enough to begin drinking them. What I've noticed is that the bottles in each batch taste better than the kegged beer. Its not that the kegged beer is bad, its just not as good. The only real difference between the two beers should be that bottled beers use priming sugar while the kegged beer doesn't (shouldn't make that much difference to the taste). And that the bottled beer remains at room temp for a total of 6 weeks (3 in fermenters, 3 in bottles), while the kegged beer goes straight to crash cooling 2 weeks after brew day. Now I'm beginning to wonder if my kegging schedule/routine is flawed. Should I be keeping the kegs at room temp for a few weeks before cooling them down? Or is it fairly common for either the kegged beer or bottled beer to be slightly better than the other and I should just RDWDHB?