Bitterness and Kegging

[Jonathan Hesford]

Here's a question for the home-brewers.
I condition my beer by carbonating it with CO2 in a keg. I'm noticing that when I do this I lose the bitterness that I had in the still beer.
Does anyone know whether this is a result of the carbonation and if there is any fix other than making the beer more bitter in the first place?

 

[Kinley Smith]

Force carbing generally increases perception of bitterness through lowering pH (carbonic acid) and that's been my experience. A couple of things spring to mind. Firstly oxidation can lessen bitterness - are you flushing with CO2 before you transfer to keg? Secondly infection will also make the beer taste less bitter - I strip down every part of a keg, clean, sterilise, reassemble and sterilise again before transferring. Lastly it may be a function of non-alpha acid bitter agents (yeast, phenolics) settling or being metabolised as the beer matures.

 

[Jonathan Hesford]

Force carbing generally increases perception of bitterness through lowering pH (carbonic acid) and that's been my experience. A couple of things spring to mind. Firstly oxidation can lessen bitterness - are you flushing with CO2 before you transfer to keg? Secondly infection will also make the beer taste less bitter - I strip down every part of a keg, clean, sterilise, reassemble and sterilise again before transferring. Lastly it may be a function of non-alpha acid bitter agents (yeast, phenolics) settling or being metabolised as the beer matures.

I fill the keg with CO2 before racking the beer into it so it never comes into contact with oxygen. And I sterilize it too. The settled beer tastes pretty bitter but once I start drawing from the keg it has lost that. Maybe it's the chilling.