Article on Skunking

[mr_wibble]

BeerSci: Why You Should Never Drink Beer From A Clear Glass Bottle

"What those researchers found is that there are two distinct pathways to getting skunky-smelling compounds in your beer. The two main actors is this tale of woe: hop alpha acids and light. Not heat. Not oxygen. Light."

Link: http://www.popsci.com.au/science/beersci-why-you-should-never-drink-beer-from-a-clear-glass-bottle

 

[Mattrox]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[carniebrew]

This takes me back....I first heard about skunking during a trip to the USA back in 1998...in Sea World San Diego of all places. Back then the Sea World chain was owned by Anheuser-Busch, better known of course as the makers of Budweiser. They had a "Budweiser Beer School" facility inside the Sea World park, I guess to give all the dad's something to do while their kids ran around looking at killer whales. I immediately enrolled...it was beer school after all. They spent a lot of time discussing how their beer was made, and then at the end gave everyone a taste of various AB brews...including some beer that had deliberately been exposed to light, while still being kept cold. I think at the time it was to 'show off' the fact they only used brown glass bottles for Bud. I don't recall exactly...I was in my 20's and was at Beer School in America...

Say what you will about American megaswill, but they were (are?) a passionate bunch. I guess billions of dollars will do that for an organisation....

 

[jc64]

Great article, thanks.

 

[NewtownClown]

When Light Meets Beer - bookmarked this years ago

Whilst living in WuXi, China, Lion Nathan took over a local brewery - Tai Hu Shui (Lake Tai Water).
The LN crew all lived in the one hotel and would crowd the bar in the evening causing headaches for the bar staff as they insisted on drinking only the beer in the brown bottles and refusing the green ones (Tai Hu Shui bottled the same beer in both).
They explained to me the green ones would be more likely to be "light struck" and be "skunky" as the beer was commonly transported in uncovered trucks and stored outside. No-one knew what the science was behind it though, it was pre-2000.

 

[probablynathan]

Interesting article,

I think this may be the study on light struck flavours in light stable beer referenced in the article
http://www.uclouvain.be/cps/ucl/doc/inbr/documents/GROS_Light-struck.PDF