Beer Taste: kegged beer vs. bottles?

[spaceyaquarius]

I have bottled 3 times now, and kegged 5 times now. I overcarbed my kegged beer the first 3 times (burst carbing), got a drinkable batch the 4th keg, and a pretty good batch on the 5th keg.

As an experiment I made 2 batches of Blue Moon clone on the same day. One went in the keg, and one batch into the bottles. The bottles tasted so much better, more flavor, more complexity, better than the real Blue Moon, and no aftertaste.

The kegged beer was 2 and a half weeks old before going in the keg, then a full 3 weeks in the keg with "set it and forget it" method at 39F and 10-12 PSI. It had a sharp/metallic aftertaste, and the full citrus and wheat flavor was only barely noticeable when compared to the bottles. The head pour and head retention was toally inconsistent. Some good, sometimes no head at all. Carbonation mistake? Or can the aluminum inside the keg really make that much difference in the beer taste? When I go to a bar and order Blue Moon out of their keg, it doesn't taste metallic.

 

[n240sxguy]

That is kinda weird. I know it can take some tweaking to get the co2 just right on any given batch. Your keg should be stainless unless it is something different than what I've seen.

 

[spaceyaquarius]

Stainless steel? It's a Corny keg. Maybe it is steel, but it sure looks like aluminum and is not very heavy.

Maybe it's oxidation, though I do purge the air out 2 times at 15 PSI.

 

[cruizer8]

I only recently started kegging but I have had the opposite experience with mine. However, I haven't bottled and kegged the same batch to compare flavors. It could be either my mind or my bottling process but the kegged beer seems to taste better to me.

 

[spaceyaquarius]

Hmmm. If you were kegging a Belgian Wit, and using the set it and forget it method, what PSI would you set it at and for how long?

It does seem weird that the head is completely inconsistent (though I'm basically concerned with the taste).

 

[zachattack]

Corny kegs are stainless, not aluminum. Inconsistent head retention sounds like your glassware isn't consistently clean. How are you cleaning your kegs?

 

[JDGator]

i started a thread a few weeks ago about kegging and bottling taste. i find the complete opposite. i don't like my bottled homebrew. i have been kegging my beer and bottling from the keg. the added sugar seems to mess with the taste for me.

 

[spaceyaquarius]

Corny kegs are stainless, not aluminum. Inconsistent head retention sounds like your glassware isn't consistently clean. How are you cleaning your kegs?

It could be that the glassware is not completely clean.

Do you change glasses between pours, or just stick with one? My beer glasses are only used for beer, but I didn't think it would affect head retention.

I use SanStar for cleaning the keg, but it is very possible that I put a higher concentration in there than necessary.

 

[zachattack]

I generally use the same glass until I'm done for the night. Washing the glasses by hand can help, as a lot of dishwasher detergent can leave a residue. Make sure you rinse really well.

Starsan is a sanitizer, not a cleaner. Are you using a cleaner like Oxyclean or PBW?

 

[spaceyaquarius]

I use starsan, a sanitizer. Am I also supposed to be using a cleaner in the keg?

 

[TexasBrew88]

Yes. Oxyclean is awesome for corny kegs. I don't mess with em myself (I do prefer to bottle and have kegged in the past, just prefer the taste of natural carbing), but you have to scrub em out and brush out the dip tube, lines, etc. Plenty of tutorials on it on here.

Imagine you bottled with unwashed bottles. After a few batches, do you think you'd notice some off flavors?

 

[zachattack]

Yeah, you definitely want to clean the keg with hot oxyclean free or PBW (which one depends on how hard your water is), let it soak for a while, scrub if necessary, then rinse thoroughly with hot water. It's good to break down the keg once in a while and clean the posts/diptubes etc, a diptube brush is a good thing to have. Then sanitize with the star san right before you fill.

 

[spaceyaquarius]

Thanks!