Tapped vs Bottled beer

Are you doing a true side by side? I have not found that to be the way but very anecdotal and rarely do we have them from the same year at the same time so left with memory.

The last Black Note I had on draft had been kept at a steady 36 degrees for 3-4 years and was just magical. It was softer than a current one in a bottle but had lots of depth and by no means felt thinner. I just had one from this year--so several mos old-- and just spectacular. Seemed a little more "alive." I thought this year's KBS in a bottle to be solid and yet to have it on tap--have you compared those?

 

I don't notice a difference between tap and bottled/canned. Then again, when I read reviews and see that some folks pick up like 20 different smells and tastes in a beer, I get thinking my senses are lacking. Or they have a great imagination. Either way, I don't notice any appreciable difference.

 

Lol, yeah I know what you mean. I'm lucky to pick up a couple of basic traits while others are saying things like "This beer offers up the unmistakable aroma of fermented Himalayan sloth droppings".

 

I have had a couple of occasions in restaurants where I ordered a craft beer and what came was the correct style but it was totally different than it should have been. On one specific occasion, I ordered an Abyss 2016 and what I got tasted like no Abyss I'd ever had. I initially wrote it off to year-to-year variation, but later had it from a bomber and then realized they probably brought (or tapped) the wrong beer - that's always a risk with tap.

 

You left out the possibility that you haven't had any explicit sensory training in how to detect and describe the flavor components that are there. E.g., when was the last time you tasted grains of paradise all by themselves to see what the flavor was like?

 

And memory, despite the strengths it gives us sometimes plays tricks upon us that we often don't recognize at the time.

 

Remember - how well that bar takes care of their draft equipment will play part in how you perceive or receive the beer.

I go to a bar fairly regular for deer season. I get Keweenaw Brewing Pick Axe Blonde. Straight glass of butter on draft. Order a can - perfect. Same beer and likely made at the same time but different taste.

Knowing the area and bar - it's likely the last time the beer lines were cleaned was when they were installed. Sometime during the Nixon administration.

I've even been places I KNOW get their lines cleaned regular and it just didn't get cleaned well enough or got everything they should. It happens. Humans are humans.

Stout wise - I rarely get the chance to get good stout on tap. Usually if a place has it - Guinness and that's pretty thin to begin with.

 

I caught a few places putting on a beer with the wrong tap handle. I only had 1 owner of a bar tell me that I was wrong. Breckenridge 471 IPA vs the ESB...

 

Hmm lots of good suspects to account for OP experiencing marked differences between tap stout and same stout from bottle. Least likely of them is that the liquid in the keg is different than the liquid in the bottles. I agree with all the others mentioned, could be any or all of them

 

But it is quite common for UK brewers to put stronger versions in bottles/cans than the cask version.This tries with limited success to compensate for the dumbing down effect of bottling/canning.
So London Pride goes from 4.1% to 4.7% and Adnams Broadside goes from 4.6% to 6.3% ABV.

 

I think this makes a difference. When I open a nice stout at home I generally have plenty of time to finish it and drink it at my leisure. At a restaurant I am generally on some sort of schedule and I am surrounded by distractions.

 

I fall victim to this thinking myself. I have done blind tastings and confirmed that it was all in my head. This is with beers that I brewed myself and I thought there was a difference, but couldn’t understand why there would be. I did a tasting myself and couldn’t identify the draught sample. When I knew which was which, I could have sworn I tasted a difference. After being perplexed, I used my tasting panel to confirm that I was insane. A trained 12 person tasting panel couldn’t identify the draught sample in a triangle test.

 

Do you really think there is enough water in the glass to water the beer down?


Enjoy

 

Big stouts on tap here are rare I suppose, I've only seen Bcbs and Expedition. In a few weeks they'll be Bcbs available for $12 for a 10 oz pour. I hate myself but I can't resist.

 

I didn't see anyone above mention two other factors that can make a huge difference when comparing the bottle vs. the draft versions of a beer -- carbonation and temp. You don't know what carbonation level the bar uses in comparison to what is in the bottle. Bottled stouts don't impress me as usually having much carbonation, but the bar has a carbonation level set in their draft system that also pushes IPAs, ambers, etc. out of the kegs. It seems to me that more carbonation in a stout that is served at a bar would produce a thicker mouth-feel.

And beer temp works the same -- the bar is pushing the beer at a temp that also stores the kegs of IPAs, etc that we all like to drink colder, but your bottle at home may not be as cold (or warms up more quickly), thus the mouth-feel can be different again with a warmer home version.

Taste also correlates to being more intense (better) when the beer has warmed, and that's true whether it is a stout or an IPA.