[Kaiser]

I believe the only way to find out the real truth is to do a blind tasting of the same beer, one bottle conditioned and another force carbed and bottled as Kai has suggested.

I think it is important to make a distinction between two factors:

- yeast consumes sugars and produces the CO2 for carbonation AND
- yeast is merely present in the bottle

My approach tries to identify if the latter makes a difference. If you bottle condition one part and force carbonate the other either one of the two factors can make a difference. Still a valid experiment though.

Kai

[blatz]

I believe the only way to find out the real truth is to do a blind tasting of the same beer, one bottle conditioned and another force carbed and bottled as Kai has suggested.

I think it is important to make a distinction between two factors:

- yeast consumes sugars and produces the CO2 for carbonation AND
- yeast is merely present in the bottle

My approach tries to identify if the latter makes a difference. If you bottle condition one part and force carbonate the other either one of the two factors can make a difference. Still a valid experiment though.

Kai

that will also be somewhat difficult to get the CO2 volumes exact, which presents another issue.

[corkybstewart]

I decided to keg and Beergun mine, it would be tough to get the carbonation right on an old beer like this.

[beerrat]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I couldn't find any history.  My question is, When bottling a whole batch of beer is it good to use priming sugar, Or should I force carbonate and use a beer gun.  I know for shorter term bottling and comp. beers a beer gun is great.  What about long term bottled beers or just the whole batch in general.   

I relativity new at kegging. When I tried my home made beer gun (racking cane in the picnic tap) I wasted too much beer and ended up making a mess.  So for my last 3 batches, I used a variation of the method than Gordon Strong talks about in his Zymurgy "Think Like a judge" article.
Chill 2 liter bottle, dispense beer from keg into 2 liter.  Using a carbonator cap, up the carbonation a few psi to adjust for CO2 loss in the transfers. Pour beer from 2 liter into freezer cold bottles ( pre purges with CO2), cap on the foam.

I am only kegging 2 6-packs, so maybe not good for large scale, but pretty smooth and clean operation for my needs. 

[babalu87]

High alcohol is detrimental to yest.
Big beer are aged for some times.
If we bottle condition big beers would not we have atolises (decomposition of dead yeast) in there?

I've had OLD Bigfoot Barleywine and Thomas Hardys, if there are off flavors from the yeast I want that in my beers 

Bottled a RIS today, it got half a pack of S-23.
English Barleywine will get bottle later this week with the other half.
Anything I plan on cellaring gets bottle conditioned.

[Rhoobarb]

Resurrecting a really old thread here, but I'm wondering if anyone who said they were going to do a side by side test of one bottle conditioned and another force carbed beer actually did it.  If so, what were your observations?  I'm grappling with this myself right now.

Thanks.

[kylekohlmorgen]

I normally bottle from a keg, mostly because I'm a HUGE fan of secondary fermentation and/or conditioning in kegs.

And comparatively - bottle conditioning is a PITA.

I'm actually finishing up a blog post about this right now. It mostly pertains to sour beers, but the pros and cons can be applied to any beer.

I'll update this thread when I finish the post - hopefully by next week. Promise I'm not just out for the shameless plug.