Competition entries - bottle conditioned vs bottled from keg

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Does anyone know, either anecdotally or otherwise, if bottle conditioned beers tend to do better at comps vs those entries bottled from keg, or the other way round, or generally no difference?
I had a recent entry to a comp and the feedback was that it was undrinkable, so something clearly went wrong when transferring to bottles from keg and packaging up.
At the same time, my second entry got silver on it's table, packaged the same way at the same time.
I'm planning to send a bottle conditioned version to an upcoming competition to see the comparison, but wondered if anyone knows whether there's much difference. I imagine not, or at least it could be style-dependent.

 

[Its 6pm somewhere]

Did you deliver them yourself or did they go through the mail...the issue might not have been with your process but the mail handling systems

 

[Agentgonzo]

Entirely anecdotally:

All my beers are bottle conditioned. I don't enter many comps, but from a small handful (both forum and non-forum comps) I've had good results (gold, silver, two bronze I think), so I don't think that bottle conditioning "harms" my chances. I've never had feedback that it was to cloudy, so either the judges acknowledge (or ignore) the sediment, or it's left long enough after shipment to settle again.

When judging forum comps/swaps, I let the bottles settle in the fridge for as long as possible and ignore any sediment when judging it.
The only bottles I've had sent to me that had gone off or exhibited signs of staling were bottled from the keg. Obviously I don't have the keg or a bottle conditioned version for comparison, but it was very noticeable. So from this anecdotal point of view, I would say that bottling from the keg is far riskier when posting your beer. (I've also been sent plenty of keg-bottled beers that were great)

 

[Stu's Brews]

The vast majority of beers I send off to competitions are bottled from keg and I've had a reasonable amount of success with that.

However, I have previously had a couple of instances where beers oxidised due to teething issues using my counter pressure bottle filler. Seem to have got my bottling process sorted now though so that hasn't occurred recently.

I have also had success with bottle conditioned beers. I mostly reserve this for things that need a higher level of carbonation (e.g. Belgian beers) or beers that need aging (e.g. Imperial Stouts).

 

[JockyBrewer]

Personally my beers dramatically improved when I started bottling from keg with a counter pressure filler. The process removes all oxygen from the bottle and even after a month sitting on a warm shelf I can’t tell the difference from the kegged beer. Hops stay fresh and hoppy, and malt flavours stay bright and malty (I do recognise now that my bottling technique before that was poor, and it’s as much an advance in my skill and knowledge as it is in equipment).

When you send a beer off to a competition do an extra bottle, stick it on a room temperature shelf and drink it while reading your feedback sheet. It’ll help you understand what the judges are picking up on.

Things do sometimes go wrong when bottling from a keg. For example I have in the past picked up a bit of a diacetyl taint from dirty beer lines that then develops more in the bottle.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Thank you for all your responses! Plenty to think about.

Did you deliver them yourself or did they go through the mail...the issue might not have been with your process but the mail handling systems

I posted with courier. I was puzzled by was why one entry was undrinkable and the other won silver on it's table - perhaps since I shared the unsuccessful entry with fellow club members, something has gone wrong with it prior to bottling. Mystery!

Entirely anecdotally:

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Interesting!. I am leaning toward bottling the remainder of the batch after filling a keg and reserving those bottle conditioned ones for competition.

The vast majority of beers I send off to competitions are bottled from keg and I've had a reasonable amount of success with that.

However, I have previously had a couple of instances where beers oxidised due to teething issues using my counter pressure bottle filler. Seem to have got my bottling process sorted now though so that hasn't occurred recently.

I have also had success with bottle conditioned beers. I mostly reserve this for things that need a higher level of carbonation (e.g. Belgian beers) or beers that need aging (e.g. Imperial Stouts).

Likewise, I bottle condition aged beers. Perhaps my process is not as slick and faultless as I thought it was. I don't particularly like the Nukatap counterpressure filler - I find it hard to set the purging dials on it, but there could be other issues in my process too.

Personally my beers dramatically improved when I started bottling from keg with a counter pressure filler. The process removes all oxygen from the bottle and even after a month sitting on a warm shelf I can’t tell the difference from the kegged beer. Hops stay fresh and hoppy, and malt flavours stay bright and malty (I do recognise now that my bottling technique before that was poor, and it’s as much an advance in my skill and knowledge as it is in equipment).

When you send a beer off to a competition do an extra bottle, stick it on a room temperature shelf and drink it while reading your feedback sheet. It’ll help you understand what the judges are picking up on.

Things do sometimes go wrong when bottling from a keg. For example I have in the past picked up a bit of a diacetyl taint from dirty beer lines that then develops more in the bottle.

Good idea! I'll do that with my Lager than Life entry I shall also work on my process too.

 

[Stu's Brews]

I don't particularly like the Nukatap counterpressure filler - I find it hard to set the purging dials on it, but there could be other issues in my process too.

I have a TapCooler filler, which is very similar to the Nukatap filler. My process is as follows:

1. Clean and sanitiser bottles.
2. Set the pressure of the gas going into the filler to 12psi (same as my kegs).
3. Purge a bottle with CO2 for 10 seconds.
4. Seal the bottle against the stopper and pressurise until you can hear gas being forced out the relief valve.
5. Open the tap and fill the bottle slowly. I reckon it takes a minute for me to fill a bottle. I stop when beer reaches the top of the bottle, this means any foam is pushed out the relief valve.
6. Spray an oxygen scavenging cap with sanitiser, whilst holding the bottle in place.
7. Remove the bottle and immediately place the cap on top. Usually this means I am capping on a small amount of foam.
8. Seal with bottle capper.
9. Leave the bottles to stand for 12-24 hours before packaging to give the oxygen scavenging caps a chance to work.

I often get comments on score sheets about my bottles having a high fill level, which is true when comparing to bottle conditioned beers. However, this approach seems to minimise, if not eliminate, any oxygen getting into the bottle.

 

[JockyBrewer]

I have a TapCooler filler, which is very similar to the Nukatap filler. My process is as follows:

1. Clean and sanitiser bottles.
2. Set the pressure of the gas going into the filler to 12psi (same as my kegs).
3. Purge a bottle with CO2 for 10 seconds.
4. Seal the bottle against the stopper and pressurise until you can hear gas being forced out the relief valve.
5. Open the tap and fill the bottle slowly. I reckon it takes a minute for me to fill a bottle. I stop when beer reaches the top of the bottle, this means any foam is pushed out the relief valve.
6. Spray an oxygen scavenging cap with sanitiser, whilst holding the bottle in place.
7. Remove the bottle and immediately place the cap on top. Usually this means I am capping on a small amount of foam.
8. Seal with bottle capper.
9. Leave the bottles to stand for 12-24 hours before packaging to give the oxygen scavenging caps a chance to work.

I often get comments on score sheets about my bottles having a high fill level, which is true when comparing to bottle conditioned beers. However, this approach seems to minimise, if not eliminate, any oxygen getting into the bottle.

The one thing I’d add to that is that I fill until liquid comes out of the pressure relief valve.

This stops the beer from ‘spurting’ when you remove the bottle from the filler, which can cause mess and the beer to foam excessively. You then have to give the beer a gentle shake to generate foam to fill the headspace before capping.