why does kegged commercial beer always taste better than bottled ?

[fluketamer]

not talking homebrew here. i already started enough trouble with my dark grains. lol

when i was younger ( in the 80's) before legal drinking age. i always heard kegged budweiser tastes better than canned . then when i tried my first kegged beer (still underage) i found it was def true. kegged beer always tasted better than canned. splurging on a keg back then didnt just mean a lot of beer it meant much better beer.

and it still does. side by side the keg tasts better than the cans. anyone else notice this.

i bring this up cause i recently had a merman ipa on tap and it was really really good to the point where i descided i have to make this.
then i had one in the can and it tastes like cr@p.

why?

why does commercial kegged beer taste so much better than commercial canned beer. ?

isnt it the same beer going into the bottle as the keg?

anyone who worked on the inside know?

am i missing something simple.

(being politically correct, ) i have a feeling i know why MY bottles dont taste as good as MY kegs but why does this happen at the macro level? whats going on?

just curious.

i am not comparing homebrew bottles to homebrew kegging, i am strictly talking about commercial beer.

 

[Rish]

I agree. Beer on tap tastes better to me than bottles or cans. The first time I had Killian's Red was on tap and I liked it enough to look for it. I didn't enjoy it at all from the bottle. I've noticed this in a lot of other beers but don't know why this is the case.

 

[day_trippr]

Speculation: most kegged macro beer is not pasteurized while bottled and canned macro beers usually are.

Cheers!

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

I wouldn't not say it alway tastes better

However, kegged beer is more often stored cold and is served fresher.

Bottles may be sitting on random shelves in sub optimal storage conditions

 

[sibelman]

On a marginally related note, a guy I used to sing with claimed that some beer varieties s are better in a glass, and others are better straight from the bottle. (kegs not involved)

 

[fluketamer]

Speculation: most kegged macro beer is not pasteurized while bottled and canned macro beers usually are.

Cheers!

wow that was a lot quicker than i expected . thanks

a simple google search would have prolly given me the answer. i had no idea kegs arent pasteurized or more correctly that they dont NEED to be pasteurized.

this really explains a lot

On a marginally related note, a guy I used to sing with claimed that some beer varieties s are better in a glass, and others are better straight from the bottle. (kegs not involved)

all beer varieties are better in a glass.

i think we had this discussion before.

 

[Broothru]

wow that was a lot quicker than i expected . thanks

a simple google search would have prolly given me the answer. i had no idea kegs arent pasteurized or more correctly that they dont NEED to be pasteurized.

this really explains a lot

all beer varieties are better in a glass.

i think we had this discussion before.

Assuming the glasses are ‘beer clean’ and (aesthetically) are the proper type for the beer. Speaking of which, any ideas where I can find a proper set of Kolsch glasses (Stange)?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I prefer kegged beers, too, but I'm not sure it's rational. Food tastes better served outdoors. All you have to do is take your plate outside, and BANG, the food is better.

 

[Yesfan]

Then there's the brewery and/or the brewing process. I've always wondered what a Guinness from the motherland would taste like compared to the one I can get at my local beer store. I recently saw a video where a guy compared a can from Dublin to a can from his local beer store. No contest for him, he preferred the can from Dublin.

That's one example. A better for me is Founder All Day from the tap vs the can. I can only get that beer in cans in my area. It's my got to brew, so I'd love to sample some from a tap to compare.

 

[Yesfan]

I prefer kegged beers, too, but I'm not sure it's rational. Food tastes better served outdoors. All you have to do is take your plate outside, and BANG, the food is better.

Same thing I say when I go camping. The food just seems to taste better.

 

[Yesfan]

Assuming the glasses are ‘beer clean’ and (aesthetically) are the proper type for the beer. Speaking of which, any ideas where I can find a proper set of Kolsch glasses (Stange)?

I have a few but can't remember where I got mine. Amazon has some, but I think I got mine form Dollar Tree, which were (obviously) much cheaper. If you have a Dollar Tree nearby, they are worth checking out to see what they have.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Let me set satisfy people's curiosity. I spent a couple of weeks in Ireland. Guinness and Murphy's tasted like they do here.

I can't mention his name, but a famous idiot once said he tried Guinness for the first time at the Shannon airport, and he realized it was better than it was in the States. Multiple press outlets have repeated this asinine story without asking how he knew it was better if he had never had it before.

Schneider Weisse tastes the same in Europe. Hoegaarden. Oranjeboom. Budweiser probably tastes bad everywhere.

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

Let me set satisfy people's curiosity. I spent a couple of weeks in Ireland. Guinness and Murphy's tasted like they do here.

I can't mention his name, but a famous idiot once said he tried Guinness for the first time at the Shannon airport, and he realized it was better than it was in the States. Multiple press outlets have repeated this asinine story without asking how he knew it was better if he had never had it before.

Schneider Weisse tastes the same in Europe. Hoegaarden. Oranjeboom. Budweiser probably tastes bad everywhere.

I would disagree in some cases

It all has a lot to do with freshness, especially with certain oxygen sensitive styles.

De Dolle Arabier for example tastes dramatically better when consumed directly at the brewery than from a bottle.

The freshness at the brewery just can't be matched. See example in picture

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Yeah, I didn't get to try that one.

 

[Skeeter686]

I had a friend bring several cans of Guinness over from Ireland and I did a side-by-side with local North American cans of Guinness. There was a difference and I preferred the ones from Ireland. I don't believe that I checked for dates on the cans, and I should have thought of that. I can't say if the age of the cans were part of it.

In any case, it does seem that kegged beer tastes better to me than what I'd get from a can or bottle.

 

[mac_1103]

all beer varieties are better in a glass.

i think we had this discussion before.

But does it taste better in a $30 glass?

 

[Broothru]

Then there's the brewery and/or the brewing process. I've always wondered what a Guinness from the motherland would taste like compared to the one I can get at my local beer store. I recently saw a video where a guy compared a can from Dublin to a can from his local beer store. No contest for him, he preferred the can from Dublin.

That's one example. A better for me is Founder All Day from the tap vs the can. I can only get that beer in cans in my area. It's my got to brew, so I'd love to sample some from a tap to compare.

Let me set satisfy people's curiosity. I spent a couple of weeks in Ireland. Guinness and Murphy's tasted like they do here.

I can't mention his name, but a famous idiot once said he tried Guinness for the first time at the Shannon airport, and he realized it was better than it was in the States. Multiple press outlets have repeated this asinine story without asking how he knew it was better if he had never had it before.

Schneider Weisse tastes the same in Europe. Hoegaarden. Oranjeboom. Budweiser probably tastes bad everywhere.

 

[sibelman]

does it taste better in a $30 glass

It tastes better in the 8 oz. tulip glass the owner of my local taphouse gifted me. (Also, lattes taste better if there's "latte art" in the foam)

Without some effort to do blind tasting comparisons, these anecdotes are ... anecdotal. So many factors influence our perceptions, notably including the now-infamous confirmation bias.

But, enjoy that $30 glass and the beer in it. Why not?

 

[Halfakneecap]

Definately mass produced lagers i find much better on tap, than in a bottle.

Recently went to Hobart, Tasmania which has a long running ( longest in Aus i think ? ) brewery at the top of the hill. Beer in the local pubs was the best lager i think i've ever had. I'm assuming freshness. At the brewery itself, same, so good.

 

[Wasted Fish]

I've been bartendering in craft beer bar for a long time and had the opportunity to taste few dozen different beers side-by-side keg vs. bottle and theres allways been slight difference, even if the product has been from same lot.
By my thinking, the difference in taste keg vs. bottle/can comes from difference in freshness, storage and oxygen contact.
Kegs are allmost allways fresher than other packaging. Kegs usually go straight from brewery to bars and don't sit around on warehouse or store in suboptimal conditions as long.

Don't get me wrong, restaurants rarely have the capasity to store the kegs and bottles cold all the time, but the turnaround time in kegs is often much less than in other packaging.

Theres also minimal oxygen and light contact in packaging stage of the beer in kegs vs. bottles/cans.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Some bars serve from old kegs.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Let me set satisfy people's curiosity. I spent a couple of weeks in Ireland. Guinness and Murphy's tasted like they do here.

I can't mention his name, but a famous idiot once said he tried Guinness for the first time at the Shannon airport, and he realized it was better than it was in the States. Multiple press outlets have repeated this asinine story without asking how he knew it was better if he had never had it before.

Schneider Weisse tastes the same in Europe. Hoegaarden. Oranjeboom. Budweiser probably tastes bad everywhere.

I disagree... I was just in Ireland two months ago, and the Guinness definitely seemed different. Smoother and creamier. Possible it was just in my head, but I drank them at the brewery and at several different pubs/restaurants, and it seemed to track.

I think it's possible that a portion of it is freshness. That should be less of an issue now that Guinness brews in the US, but then that also means that Guinness brewed in the US isn't Guinness brewed at the original brewery, so maybe there are other differences.

All that said, I'm not 100% sure it isn't in my head, because I don't drink a lot of Guinness here anyway... Maybe next time I'm out at a restaurant with it on tap I should try it again...

BTW the bartender in Killarney said they only keep Murphy's on tap during tourist season for Americans.

 

[odie]

kegged beer is typically not pasteurized.

That's why when you drink leftover keg beer from a frat party, after it got warm for a while, that it tastes funky.

Assuming there is leftover beer...

 

[wepeeler]

Assuming the glasses are ‘beer clean’ and (aesthetically) are the proper type for the beer. Speaking of which, any ideas where I can find a proper set of Kolsch glasses (Stange)?

I've been meaning to pull the trigger on these: https://www.amazon.com/Beverage-Collection-Restaurant-Dishwasher-Microwave/dp/B08WM3RSCL/

I just don't need 6 of them...

 

[Broothru]

I've been meaning to pull the trigger on these: https://www.amazon.com/Beverage-Collection-Restaurant-Dishwasher-Microwave/dp/B08WM3RSCL/

I just don't need 6 of them...

I don't need six either, but.....

Trigger pulled!

Just what I was looking for. Thanks for the link.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

kegged beer is typically not pasteurized.

That's why when you drink leftover keg beer from a frat party, after it got warm for a while, that it tastes funky.

Assuming there is leftover beer...

IMHO it's not from getting warm. It's from the hand pump that's pushing a ton of oxygen into the keg. The beer gets oxidized, badly, and quickly.

Kegged homebrew is not pasteurized and is often (especially for those of us who brew 10 gallon batches so it yields two corny kegs per batch) stored warm. As long as it's stored under CO2 pressure it does just fine. And many of us have served at events where the beer is stored warm and served through a jockey box pushed by CO2, and it does just fine.

If just getting warm was an issue, it wouldn't be feasible to store homebrew kegs at room temp and/or to serve kegs that have gotten warm for 24+ hours through a jockey box.

 

[odie]

IMHO it's not from getting warm. It's from the hand pump that's pushing a ton of oxygen into the keg. The beer gets oxidized, badly, and quickly.

Kegged homebrew is not pasteurized and is often (especially for those of us who brew 10 gallon batches so it yields two corny kegs per batch) stored warm. As long as it's stored under CO2 pressure it does just fine. And many of us have served at events where the beer is stored warm and served through a jockey box pushed by CO2, and it does just fine.

If just getting warm was an issue, it wouldn't be feasible to store homebrew kegs at room temp and/or to serve kegs that have gotten warm for 24+ hours through a jockey box.

excellent points

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I disagree... I was just in Ireland two months ago, and the Guinness definitely seemed different. Smoother and creamier. Possible it was just in my head

It was just in your head.

BTW the bartender in Killarney said they only keep Murphy's on tap during tourist season for Americans.

I didn't even think about what the locals drank, because why would I? The web says Murphy's is big where it's made but nowhere else.

I found Ireland to be extremely touristy everywhere, and they sell tourists garbage. Thin, disposable Aran Islands sweaters made by machines. T-shirts as sturdy as paper towels. Dublin was like Gatlinburg with worse food, no bears, and an increased likelihood of stepping in vomit. And most people we dealt with were immigrants from the continent and Africa. I guess the Irish all moved to Boston and Chicago.

Your bartender was probably playing you, by the way. I drank Murphy's in Killarney in March. I doubt they go to the trouble of changing kegs when Americans are perfectly happy with Guinness or even Bud.

Here's something surprising about Ireland: their fish and chips are usually disappointing. Long John Silver's buries them. I tried fish and chips in several cities, and I started to feel like Charlie Brown, running up to that football over and over. I didn't realize how good Long John's was until I went to Ireland. I thought fish and chips would be spectacular everywhere in the British Isles, but it turns out cities like Cincinnati and Tucson do it better than the Irish. The pub in Killarney did a decent job, but I would not eat there again.

The food in Ireland is generally bad, unless my wife and I just got unlucky a whole bunch of times in different cities, which is about as likely as it sounds. One place I really liked was Joe Watty's on Inis Mor, but the price you pay is having to visit a boring rock.

We found good Italian food here and there. We also had the British breakfast, which, for all I know, is also the Irish breakfast. Really useless. One miserable egg. Cold canned beans. A seasoned scab pretending to be sausage. No cream for the coffee. Americans are the kings of breakfast food.

I thought Ireland seemed like a nice place to live but not great to visit. The actual Irish people we met were wonderful, and the immigrants were also pleasant.

 

[Broothru]

It was just in your head.

I didn't even think about what the locals drank, because why would I? The web says Murphy's is big where it's made but nowhere else.

I found Ireland to be extremely touristy everywhere, and they sell tourists garbage. Thin, disposable Aran Islands sweaters made by machines. T-shirts as sturdy as paper towels. Dublin was like Gatlinburg with worse food, no bears, and an increased likelihood of stepping in vomit. And most people we dealt with were immigrants from the continent and Africa. I guess the Irish all moved to Boston and Chicago.

Your bartender was probably playing you, by the way. I drank Murphy's in Killarney in March. I doubt they go to the trouble of changing kegs when Americans are perfectly happy with Guinness or even Bud.

Here's something surprising about Ireland: their fish and chips are usually disappointing. Long John Silver's buries them. I tried fish and chips in several cities, and I started to feel like Charlie Brown, running up to that football over and over. I didn't realize how good Long John's was until I went to Ireland. I thought fish and chips would be spectacular everywhere in the British Isles, but it turns out cities like Cincinnati and Tucson do it better than the Irish. The pub in Killarney did a decent job, but I would not eat there again.

The food in Ireland is generally bad, unless my wife and I just got unlucky a whole bunch of times in different cities, which is about as likely as it sounds. One place I really liked was Joe Watty's on Inis Mor, but the price you pay is having to visit a boring rock.

We found good Italian food here and there. We also had the British breakfast, which, for all I know, is also the Irish breakfast. Really useless. One miserable egg. Cold canned beans. A seasoned scab pretending to be sausage. No cream for the coffee. Americans are the kings of breakfast food.

I thought Ireland seemed like a nice place to live but not great to visit. The actual Irish people we met were wonderful, and the immigrants were also pleasant.

"Dublin was like Gatlinburg with worse food, no bears, and an increased likelihood of stepping in vomit."

That there was the best thing I've read all day!

 

[Yesfan]

I disagree... I was just in Ireland two months ago, and the Guinness definitely seemed different. Smoother and creamier. Possible it was just in my head, but I drank them at the brewery and at several different pubs/restaurants, and it seemed to track.

I think it's possible that a portion of it is freshness. That should be less of an issue now that Guinness brews in the US, but then that also means that Guinness brewed in the US isn't Guinness brewed at the original brewery, so maybe there are other differences.

All that said, I'm not 100% sure it isn't in my head, because I don't drink a lot of Guinness here anyway... Maybe next time I'm out at a restaurant with it on tap I should try it again...

BTW the bartender in Killarney said they only keep Murphy's on tap during tourist season for Americans.

Took the words right out of my mouth. I've not had an Irish brewed Guinness and I'm willing to bet that is the sole reason why folks who claim a difference is what they are tasting.

 

[Bassman2003]

1) I took a trip to Ireland and had Guinness all over southern Ireland. While there was variation, I felt the beer had more chocolate flavor and an overall richer presentation than what we get in states. But, every beer shipped from overseas is a pale comparison to its real, fresh self. Although beers do not usually get thinner as they age...

2) I think kegged commercial beer is the closest to the intended product IF it is fresh. Canning and bottling trap oxygen and see light along with being for longer term delivery. It seems easier to keep oxygen out of a keg.

 

[fluketamer]

clint - that was harsh .....but awesome.
guiness foreign extra stout is good.
one of my patients was the head brewmaster at guiness nigeria. and he didnt like to drink beer!!!!!!! every year at christmas time he was gifted dozens of surplus cases of FES. he said he would have free beer parties for all his freinds to get rid of it.

pasteurizing def changes the flavor of beverages. thats why my attempts at pasteurized cider (to stop fermentation and leave residual sugar )sucks.

 

[tracer bullet]

I've had a Guinness at the Gravity bar above the brewery, with a few other coworkers. As well as in various places in Ireland where we had the goal of having at least one per day. We talked about if it tasted different and the conclusion we all came to was - nope.

The chocolate candy like kit-kats and so did, brought some back for side by side. Sugar instead of corn syrup, and you could tell. That was at least 5 years ago though, things may have changed since then.

I've always thought kegged beer tasted better than canned or bottled as well, but agree it's the same beer and so it's just how it's handled in the time between being brewed and served. I'm sure you can find examples either direction.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

There were a lot of great things about Ireland. The people were wonderful, except for the gypsy crime mobs that make a living attacking and robbing people in pedestrian areas.

I actually liked the weather. Northern Florida is a furnace for about 5 months every year, so I enjoyed being closer to the North Pole. Western Europe is really lucky to have air conditioning from God.

The landscape was very pleasant, although I think people who say Ireland is beautiful need to travel more. No Swiss person has ever visited Ireland and gone home and told everyone how beautiful it was.

I was really disappointed in the sweaters. I noticed the Irish didn't wear them. They have great-looking sweaters for $60, but when you hold them up to the light, you can see right through them. The real ones cost several times as much.

I have relatives who love claiming the family is Irish. So weird. Why do Americans love pretending they're Irish or part American Indian? I'm probably somewhere around 5% Irish. We have an ancestor named Murphy, but he was English. My aunt visited Ireland with her daughter, and she was full of stories about visiting the old country. Hogwash. Her ancestors were the ones who basically owned the Irish. She should have said, "Hi! My ancestors hated yours and caused the Potato Famine!"

My cousin ran into Conan O'Brien outside a bar. Weird.

My sister loves telling people we're Indians because she has high cheekbones. Yeah, okay. Her and Elizabeth Warren.

 

[mac_1103]

Gotta say I never really noticed Elizabeth Warren's cheekbones.

 

[Broken Crow]

all beer varieties are better in a glass.

Maybe today, but not where and when I lived... It took unitl the late 90's before 'microbrews' and later 'craft-beers' got any real traction in this BMC city. The few places that carried the unpopular 'better' beers did not have have a very high turnover on lesser-known brands and they were regularly staled by the time the keg finally kicked. Since that time things have changed dramatically for the better and now; most varieties are better from a keg but there still are a few exceptions to the rule; Sleeman's makes 2 of them, but then Sleeman's is problematic in that they use clear glass bottles which was my reason for ignoring them for the first 8-9 years they were rebuilding a customer base after having been barred from brewing for 50 years owing to undeclared bootlegging income. Sleeman's Cream Ale (reputed to have been Al Capones favourite) and their Honey Brown do actually taste better from the bottle (provided it has never seen UV-rich light..at one of my favourite cafe's, the boss had UV-protective film over the doors and interior lights of his cooler and stored the cases in a lightless room).
This is the other exception:
https://www.wellingtonbrewery.ca/beers/year-round/wellington-imperial-stout
.... I dunno why, but from a keg it just tastes 'too fresh' for a stout. My apologies, but I can't think of any other way to describe it and it's been over 10 years since I've been able to sit in a bar and repeat the comparison.
For the most part though; I agree...but keep an open mind and palate.

 

[Bobby_M]

Any liquor store I've ever been to keeps 100% of the kegs in the walk in cold box. All the bottles and cans are essentially stored on their shelves warm and cycle them into the cold box for the people that want to walk out with cold beer for practical purposes. If both kegs and cans where packaged around the same time and kept cold, they would be about the same when they hit the glass. As they both age, smaller packages are going to degrade a little faster as well. The canning operations are extremely sophisticated, but the PPB of oxygen is going to be higher in the cans because however small that amount of oxygen is, it's just 12/16 ounces of beer there.