Barrel Vs Bottle difference in taste

markags

Help please. I have made my first brew a Woodforde's Wherry and siphoned 30 pints into a pressure barrel and 10 pints into bottles. They taste completely different. The beer in the barrel is great but the bottled beer has a pungent nose and is not pleasant. I left the bottles an extra 4 weeks before tasting and it hasn't improved with age whilst the beer in the barrel seemed to get better and better. What worries me is I've put a full 40 pints of Munton's premium gold into bottles and the first one I opened had that same pungent taste. I'm wondering if there's anything which needs doing differently with bottles over the barrel. I followed the sugar instruction as per label and sterilised the bottles the same as the barrel.

HBO_Staff

Hi Markags. Barreling and bottling should be the same process just different amounts of sugar, the sugar shouldnt effect the taste at all and they should condition at about the same rate. I've done the same as you a few times, bottled a few and barreled the rest, I find it does taste slightly different but both have been nice. Could it be the bottles you used? What type of bottles did you use and how did you clean and steralise them? It is a strange one.

mansfieldbitter

Have the bottles been exposed to high heat or light? Both can create a lovely skunky aroma, especially if you have transparent bottles! Steering clear of table sugar can help too although just using it for priming should be okay.

markags

Hi both,
thanks for your comments. To answer the queries the bottles are ones I bought with the kit, flip top brown bottles. I did use table sugar but the barrel beer tasted lovely with that sugar. I steralised them in the same way as I did the barrels but I'm wondering if they needed more rinsing out. From your feedback I reckon that's where I've got it wrong. Going to give it another go. Thanks for your help.

TheBols

Hi, I am just about to start to brew my first beer, but I'm a bit concern about to where the beer would be better storage, keg, plastic bottle or glass bottles? I've heard that bottle the beer in glass is much better than plastic bottles. Is it true? But now, after read the above comments I created a big doubt about it. I'm thinking to buy a Keg instead. Is anyone could help me with that? Thanks

HBO_Staff

There are a couple of things to bear in mind, but whatever you choose shouldn't affect the taste: If using plastic bottles they should be PET (food grade) plastic to ensure that they are suitable. Whether using plastic, glass or a barrel, they must be fully sterilised to ensure they are clean so as not to spoil the brew (with VWP or similar, and well rinsed with clean water). Traditionally it is often said that glass is best, and different people have their own preference, but one advantage of plastic is that they will not shatter if accidentally dropped. Bottles have the advantage over barrels if you intend to chill your brew in the fridge before drinking, as not many people can get a 40 pint barrel in their fridge (or they're not allowed to even though the beer is perhaps more important than the food in there!). Transporting - if you think you may like to take a few pints to that party, BBQ, etc you're off to, then bottles are easier to transport, rather than having to lug a barrel around. The beer/lager will keep for longer in a bottle, and will not need any CO2 adding later, but if you're barrel starts to 'glug' when getting low, it means it is letting air in through the tap which will limit the life of the brew inside, and dispensing it may become quite slow. The way around this is to inject CO2 into the top of the barrel with a brass injector valve and CO2 bulbs.
If you're still undecided, you could always just have an experiment, try some bottled in plastic, some in glass, and maybe barrel some, see what you think....

markags

Just posted on another forum and remembered I started this chain.

I hope this helps anyone searching the same issue. What I have discovered is that my bottled beer takes months to be ready while the barrel takes a couple of weeks. I left a batch of bottled bitter for 6 months by accident and, as throwing beer away is wrong, I tasted it, it was great.

I have found this with bitter, stout and cider. When I used to put 2 brews on, I would keg 1 and bottle the 2nd. Kegs ready in 2 weeks and by the time I've worked through that the bottles are ready.

I have no scientific rationale for this, just know that when I test the bottled beers at the same time I drink the keg, the bottled stuff is undrinkable but comes good in the end - just needed to be patient.