Why doesn't bottled beer taste as good as draught beer? Bottled beer is significantly different than the same label beer available on tap.

How does bottled beer differ from draught beer? What is done to the bottled beer in order to prolong its shelf life in the bottle?

And finally, why does draught beer taste so much better than bottled beer?
There was a study about this which concluded that tapped beer can actually be better for different reasons (although taste is rather subjective). The reasons are:


Beer on draught tends to have less air within the barrel compared to its bottled counterpart, meaning that the beer doesn't oxidise as quickly
Beer within a barrel tends to remain cool for longer periods. A bottled beer cools and warms up a lot faster, which (when this occurs) has a nefast effect on the beer's taste