Keg and Bottle

[Piperbrew]

Not sure if this is a dumb question but are there certain beers that are better in a keg/barrel and others that are better bottled or does it not make any difference. Reason I ask is I want to make some beers that can be kegged for drinking and others for bottling to put away to forget about to improve.

 

[Rincon]

I’m far from an expert, in fact the more I brew the more i realise I don’t know much at all, however, in my limited experience all the beers I’ve made I have bottled and keged. The only differences I can see is the keg tastes nicer and tend to be less fizzy but the bottles last longer.

Sure you will get better answers but that’s my experience

 

[Saisonator]

If you gave a beer that needs plenty of conditioning time, you won't want it tying up a keg for 2 or 3 months.

 

[MrRook]

There's really no one right answer to this question. There are brewers that never expand beyond bottles. There are brewers who only keg; I've read posts from brewers who have dozens of kegs and have no problem tying up a keg for several months.

 

[Saisonator]

There's really no one right answer to this question. There are brewers that never expand beyond bottles. There are brewers who only keg; I've read posts from brewers who have dozens of kegs and have no problem tying up a keg for several months.

Not many brewers have space, temperature control or even the money for dozens of kegs.
I think there is some psycology when it comes to keg and bottle. Beer does look more appetising being poured from a tap. If you give me the option of keg or bottle in a pub I would go keg every time.
But if I was given the two in a blind taste test, I wouldn't mind betting that I would not know which is which.
Much like having a clear or cloudy pilsner, they could well taste the same but put both in front of you in a nice glass, I wouldn't be surprised if the clear one tasted better. Put on a blind fold, the result may well be different.

 

[Saisonator]

Another thing is if you have invested in a lot of kegging kit, you are going to be hard pushed to even admit to yourself that the beer is the same.
Not saying it is though, I would have to have a side by side taste test with the same batch of beer to know.

 

[terrym]

You can put any beer into a bottle.
Standard PBs are limited by their pressure rating (usually 15psig). So if more than about 95g of priming sugar has been added to 20 plus litres of beer in a PB, it is initially difficult to dispense through a standard tap due to excess foam, even more sugar may start to pressure stress the PB, and even more and the relief device will vent. So high carb beers like wheat beers, AIPAs and lagers are not really suited to PBs due to the limit on carbonation. Stouts are ideal for a PB in my view since you can get a creamy head when dispensed under pressure.

 

[Braufather]

As I understand it bottles are better for high carbonated beers such as wheat beers, but these are also best drunk young. Old school English ales I am told are better in barrels and aging helps too. I like American style hop forward ales and kegging has been a revelation.

I only recently started kegging and so far my IPAs taste better and and more consistant from the keg. I split a last batch and the corny kegged beer was noticably much better. That’s only one sample so not very scientific but enough to convince me to get more cornies!