Beer much sweeter in bottle than keg? advice needed.

[trhr]

Hi all,

I did an amber ale fresh wort kit last year and after the ferment and a 4 day cold crash was complete, I kegged up half of it for Xmas day and force carbonated to drink that day.
I haven't done any brewing in years, so I was surprised when it was actually nice, good malt and decent hops at the back end from the hop boiling I'd done. It's just getting better and better in the keg as time goes on.

With the remaining 10 litres, I left it to cold crash for another 6 days (cold crash 10 days total) as I was too busy on the holidays.
I then bottled it up in 750ml brown swing top bottles from the LHBS and used two carbonation drops per bottle as per the packet instructions. I left it to bottle carb for 15 days at 20 degrees in the ferment fridge as I read you should.

I've cracked open a bottle tonight, and to my dismay, it's very sweet with caramel overtones that nearly wipe out the hops :angry:
It's a totally different beer: in taste, aroma and even looks darker.

Any advice? I've been kegging for years, but I'm pretty much a bottling newbie. I used Mangrove Jack's carb drops and the carbonation in the bottle is good, so I don't think it's because there's still priming sugar left to carb out??
I've put a few bottles in the fridge and the rest are still in the ferment fridge. Should I leave them longer at ferment temp then try a bottle in a few more days?

Cheers

 

[Danscraftbeer]

This sounds like a case of nicely balanced beer compared with a variation of the same beer.
I made this Gallaxy Ale IPA balanced thing. In the keg it was of highest personal best I've made. I also bottled conditioned some too. They were a similar disappointment as you describe. Mine were under carbonated. Too sweet and heavy bodied. Other times the bottle conditioned samples have been as good, sometimes better! but never the same as keg carbonated etc. Fine lines.

 

[Beamer]

I think you will find that kegged beer will always taste better (hop wise) than bottled beer as the beer is younger from the keg rather then waiting for it to be carbed. Just my personal experience with hoppier beers, and don't forget you have added extra sweetness to your beer with the carb drops. I think its near a tablespoon for a tallie

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Yep. The secondary fermentation of bottling. Dose make a difference no doubt.

 

[Rocker1986]

The added sweetness from carb drops or sugar in bottles is a non issue - it gets fermented by the yeast anyway, which is where the carbonation comes from. None of it is left in the beer and it doesn't contribute any sweet flavours. If you're getting caramel overtones it'll be from the crystal malt, or whatever specialty grain was used in the FWK.

It's an interesting situation. Kegged beer conditions quicker than bottled beer for some reason. So in a way, you'd expect the kegged beer to be more sweet, if it's theoretically further along in the conditioning phase than the bottled portion, so theoretically the bitterness should have mellowed more in the keg than the bottle. But, it is theory.

I had a similar situation just last week. I have (or had) an IPA on tap, and the surplus bottled. The kegged portion tasted fresher, crisper, than the bottled version, whose flavour was seemingly more muddied.

 

[trhr]

Thanks for the replies and advice, seems like there's no easy answer.
I was just surprised by the massive difference between kegged and bottled, so assumed I'd cocked it up somehow.

The OG was 1.047 and the FG before kegging/bottling was 1.014.
I just degassed a bit of a leftover bottle and checked the FG again and it's 1.012, so the carb drops are probably done I'm guessing?
Carbonation is fine, same as from keg.

I think I will just bottle from the keg in future with my blichmann gun and only bottle from the fermentator if I'm all out of kegs.