Why doesn't bottled beer very often (if at all) taste as good as beer on tap?

[Silver_Is_Money]

For both homebrewers and professionals?

Not long ago I had a highly ranked and very popular local microbrewers Stout on tap and it was delicious. So I bought some in bottles, and it tastes awful. No comparison is possible between them. The bottled Stout also has precisely the same flavor defects that I often find within my own bottled beers.

Some of what I noticed between them:
The bottled product tasted very thin vs. the tap tasting creamy and rich.
The bottled tasted more bitter and hoppy.
The deep roasted malt(s) tasted sharp and quite distinctly burnt in the bottled product, and I had no such perception from the tap product.

 

[mongoose33]

Hard to draw a broad conclusion from a singular instance. They may have just packaged that beer in bottles poorly.

They may also have had a slightly different recipe on tap than what was in the bottle.

The bottles might have been badly handled after packaging. Heat/cold/heat/cold isn't necessarily going to help with stability.

I bottle my beers directly off the faucets using a growler filler. I can't tell any difference between the bottled version and the tap version.

***********

Freshness matters. I remember during my misspent youth drinking Pabst at a local bar in the Milwaukee area. At that time, Pabst had a brewery in Milwaukee. They went through a lot of beer in this bar, and a lot of Pabst. I can remember times thinking how great that beer tasted--and I know part of that was how fresh it was. Often, it seems, right off the truck and right from the brewery. Almost like drinking candy as I recall.

 

[mashpaddled]

There's a lot of potential factors. Poor bottling practices, poor bottle storage, age of bottles, etc. Tapped beer usually stays cold throughout its life, packaging beer in kegs is less susceptible to oxidation during packaging (generally) and often kegged beer is served fresher than bottles that may have sat for months before you bought it.

You can see this a lot of times in competition where beers score poorly in which the beers were bottled off the tap marked with a lot of muted flavors and off flavors yet tastes great from the exact same tap, even a month later. Packaging and package conditions have a lot to do with beer quality.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I've often heard that bottled beers sometimes taste worse because they are generally more highly carbonated than the same beer served on tap. Is there any truth to this?

 

[sixhotdogneck]

Properly bottled beer should taste as good, the same, or better than properly kegged beer provided the beer was brewed properly.

Bottling beer properly is a difficult task that requires special equipment and knowledge to eliminate O2 and achieve proper carbonation.

Kegging beer properly requires the same.

Consumption must ensue properly.

I recall a fishing trip to Ontario, CA where bottles of Budweiser were being served at the lodge. It was the best Budweiser I've ever experienced. It had hop aroma and flavor and the malt/rice was just perfectly balanced. Not sure what caused it, maybe it was just that fresh, right place right time, etc...

My brother won't drink Bud Light off the tap. He claims that the bottled beer is superior. Why? I don't know but he can accurately identify a BL poured from a bottle vs. one poured from a tap.

Anyway I'm off to have a bottle of Proper (TM), you know that beer that was properly brewed and bottled...

 

[Northern_Brewer]

The bottled product tasted very thin vs. the tap tasting creamy and rich.

That specifically can be because the draught is being served on nitrogen - something that tends to happen with stouts but not many other beers, because everyone wants to be Guinness.

Even from good breweries, different styles suit different formats. I've had beers in bottle, cask, bottle and cans, and the best format was different for different beers. OK, I don't think I've had one where can was my favourite format, but certainly the other three.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

That specifically can be because the draught is being served on nitrogen - something that tends to happen with stouts but not many other beers, because everyone wants to be Guinness.

Even from good breweries, different styles suit different formats. I've had beers in bottle, cask, bottle and cans, and the best format was different for different beers. OK, I don't think I've had one where can was my favourite format, but certainly the other three.

It is an oatmeal stout, and I believe they only bottle this one on occasion, whereas on tap it is more readily available. Is it possible that on tap this type of Stout is being served on a nitrogen blend?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It depends on the sophistication of the bar, but in general if they have access to nitrogen then most bars tend to use nitrogen for keg stouts. The fact you describe it as creamy makes me think that it's nitrogen - nitrogen makes smaller bubbles than CO2, as demonstrated by draught Guinness.

It's not impossible to put nitrogen in smallpack, but the average small brewery uses CO2 for packaging.

 

[Jag75]

To me it always taste better on draft

 

[Vale71]

I think mostly it's a sort of placebo effect. We are convinced that beer on tap must taste better and then we perceive what we want to perceive.

But of course there might be cases where beer is bottled poorly or the bottles are on average much older that the kegged version because of distribution issues etc. etc. On the other hand, insufficient sanitation and maintenance of a draft system can ruin even the freshest beer.

 

[kh54s10]

Can't comment on your singular instance. But IMO, my bottled beers taste every bit as good as my kegged beers, sometimes better. That said I have never bottled and kegged the same recipe.

 

[Lefou]

The absolute worst swill I've ever drank was a bottled beer, Killian's Red. The experience of a week-long heartburn afterwards has put me off the brand ever since. The stuff surely had to be mishandled, improperly stored, and old. As a bottler, none of my properly prepared beer has ever gone beyond a couple months save one batch of amber bock over 6% ABV ... and it was still good over a year later.
Have to agree, though, kegged beer is better but it's a good idea to check "brewed on" or "best by" dates when purchasing commercial beers.