Stupid question - why's bottled beer crap (usually)?

Are you buying Bottle Conditioned Beers (CAMRA's Real Ale in a Bottle) or Run-Of-The-Supermarket beers? BCB's range from OK to very good, but most ROTS are pretty vile. They're filtered and pasteurized to keep longer, but all I can taste in them is a sickly caramel taste, so I never buy them any more.

Further to my reply above, I'm still trying to get a reply to the question of why don't I get this caramelly taste in ROTS lagers. I know they're crap beers, but frankly I'd prefer one of the ROTS lagers to a ROTS beer. But surely they're also pasteurized? Or doers anyone know different?

Not all supermarket bottled beers are pasteurised, some might even be carefully pasteurised & still taste OK or better (Anchor Steam, etc are pasteurised, but IMO taste very good).

I'm not sure why pasteurised ales might taste worse than lagers - I would've thought that the delicate flavour of lager would be more likely to be impaired by pasteurisation.

The other option to pasteurisation or bottle-conditioning is filtration of some sort, normally sterile filtration (i.e. 0.45microns IIRC - where the idea is to remove any 'bugs' to help keep the beer fresher longer). Filtration robs flavour & colour, but you can add more in to account for both.

Talking of BC & supermarkets, AFAIK all supermarket BCs have been sterile-filtered before then reseeding with fresh yeast - not exactly most people's idea of 'real'? cheers Mike.

I've had Hop Back Summer Lightning in both cask and (BCA) bottle form. There is little to choose between them. Both excellent. So it is possible.

I seem to find the summer(y) beers, quite hoppy - work pretty well in bottles - for example the Wychwood stuff, St Peters Ale and so on works out OK if you're on a night in

Cheers - Neil

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Supermarkets sell what people take off the shelves. Sometimes this happens because of effective marketing either generally or at point-of-sale. Fancy a cracking good gueuze - well most supermarket customers would want their money back. The other thing to remember is that anything in a supermarket is brewed down to a price and then the price is cut more.

So there you have it : Mass produced beer for mass consumption. (The answer is to educate the masses which for those that have forgotten is the main purpose of beer festivals.)

My favourite bottled beer is the white beer Etalon. It is a Ukrainian lager. Leffe is also very good. Netto is about to sell Bishop's Finger for 99p a bottle.

Offramp wrote, On 03/12/2009 11:00 AM:

Etalon is brewed in the same manner as a Bavarian-style wheat beer, which uses a top-fermenting yeast. It is *not* a lager.

This is also not a lager.

In message , Peter Fox wrote

The cost of brewing is probably the same for beer sold in supermarkets and in the pubs. The price charged in pubs bears no relationship to the cost of manufacture. For example, now that Greene King is aiming their leading brands at the bottom end of the market their IPA can be sold by some pubs for less than £1 pint but in others at £2.50+. Same brewery, same beer and probably the same dray delivering it.

It is not unknown for small brewers to produce the same quality of beer as that disliked by many as the national blands. Just calling something real ale or that saying that it comes from a small brewer doesn't necessarily make it good.

The publican or cellar-man also makes a massive difference to the quality of the ale on sale, either from the main producers or a micro brewery. In my area, which is not noted for pubs of distinction, I occasionally find a good tasting pint brewed by one of the big players in the market. Unfortunately if I go back to the same pub a day later I will be served with something with the same name but tasting completely different. Many of the brewery tied/managed houses don't seem to want repeat custom from real ale drinkers and so do not bother with any quality control.

I don't know.I used to be a very keen home brewer but however hard I tried the beer tasted "dumbed down" after being in a bottle or pressure cask.It lacked so much of the subtle nuances the beer had before I bottled it. The commercial brewers are aware of this and the bottled versions of cask ale are usually significantly stronger to compensate. Much bottled beer seems pleasant and drinkable but put it side by side with a pint from a well kept cask you will be amazed at how many extra flavours the cask version has.

OTOH, the best bottled beer -- white shield or most Belgians--has not cask equivlaent and works fine in the bottle.