Belgians--capped or corked?

Could Roger or someone explain if and why there is any difference between the quality of a single corked bottle (say, Duvel) compared to four smaller capped bottles. My gut assumption is that corked is always better, but perhaps that's not correct.

The difference, if any, is not with the closure but the size of the bottle. A larger bottle has more thermal mass so is not as prone to heat shock. Heats up slower, cools down faster.

...My gut assumption is that corked is always better........

Careful when saying that in front of a wine drinker!

Does beer under cork experience "cork taint" or TCA as you occasionally find in wine?

[Robin Garr]

Does beer under cork experience "cork taint" or TCA as you occasionally find in wine?

Bingo! We've even had reports of Scotch being "corked" from a TCA-infected T-cork, Jay.

I'd say it's similar to wine: The big, Champagne-top Belgian abbey ales look cool and traditional, but the cork doesn't really contribute anything but looks, and it COULD (albeit only rarely) taint the wine with a non-toxic but unpleasant flavor.

Most of the Belgians that come in a corked bottle are pretty big beer to start off with. So in my opinion there is far less chance of getting much cork flavor. Now with the more delicate lighter farm house ales I have experienced cork flavors really coming out. There used to be a French ale available locally called Jenlain that had a very pronounced cork flavor in the blonde version. What I want to know is why the split sized bottles of lambics often come with a cork and a cap.

Beers have just as much chance of getting cork taint as wine. It has everything to do with the cork itself and nothing to do with what is in the bottle. I had major issues with a certain Belgian producer's cork topped beer one year.

I believe the reason it seems more rare is the relative boldness of beer compared to wine tends to make TCA less discernible in addition to the fact most beer drinkers are less sensitive to it than wine drinkers. There have been many times I have raised concerns about a beer's soundness to those who know more about beer than myself. Their reply has almost always been "it is part of the beer". Instead of arguing the fact, I usually pretend to finish my glass until the next beer is opened.

[Robin Garr]

cork flavor.

Just to clarify definitions here, Joel, "cork flavor" (which is perceived in wine most often only in older Champagne), is a different matter from "cork taint" (which is a musty, mushroomy, "wet-basement" stench that results when wine, beer, liquor or other beverage comes in contact with a natural cork randomly infected with a fungus that, on exposure to the liquid, creates a stinky organic compound called tricloroanisole [TCA for short].) This has the effect of ruining the wine, and as I said further up the thread, it's certainly not unknown in cork-stoppered beer or liquor.

Brett has a good point about the taint being more perceptible in wine, although I'd say this is more a matter of wine's "transparency" of flavor rather than beer's perceived "boldness."

Either way, natural cork is a 17th century technology, and it's specifically because of this ongoing problem that we're starting to see more on more high-quality wine showing up in bottles sealed with metal screwcaps or synthetic closures.

I've had some bourbon with the "cork taint" too. Very unpleasant.

i'll go with Pierce on this one

size does matter when it comes to heat
but i've never had any problems with the cork taint on any Belgians i've tried

i think the corks are mainly used because of the champagne method of fermentation preferred by many Belgian brewers