What makes beer skunky

Reminiscent of rotten cabbage with a scent of skunk that curls its way from the back of your throat through your nasal cavity, hammering into the tiny spaces of your consciousness reserved for the most noxious of stimuli -- your boyfriend after burrito night, fresh dog poo on the sole of your shoe, that steak tartar you threw away three days before the trash man cometh.

Your beer is skunky, emitting an aroma and taste that was never part of the brewer's plan. Something went wrong between the time the beer was bottled and the time it was opened. Most likely, light is to blame. Remember that tempting display of beer in front of the store window, bathing in the ultraviolet light?

A veritable recipe for skunky beer. Even brightly, artificially lit commercial coolers can spell disaster, as can the bottle itself. Clear, light-brown, blue and green bottles allow light to interact with -- and turn -- their contents in a matter of seconds. Even dark brown bottles can, over time, let in too much light. When this happens, the bitter, light-sensitive compounds in hops known as isohumulones break down and bind with the beer's sulfur compounds.

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Andy Baraghani puts his bold, stylish spin on Thanksgiving classics. All Sections. About Us. B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. Since light is an essential ingredient in the skunking process, beers packaged in kegs, cans, and opaque bottles cannot be skunked. Slight temperature changes will not spoil your beer. Large temperature changes will.

The "skunky" beer is actually lightstruck. This is exactly what it says: the beer has been damaged by light, such as sunlight or florescent light. When UV lights penetrate the glass of a beer bottle, they mess with the chemical makeup of some acids produced by the hops. The result is a new compound called methyl mercaptan, which is one of the components of the defense mechanisms found in the skunk. This is prevented by packaging beer in brown bottles, which is better protected from UV rays.

Unfortunately, this lets those green rays get in, which makes sense as to why some beers are served with lime: it keeps away the "skunky" smell for a while. In reality, it doesn't take much to spoil your beer.

If your beer in a green or clear bottle has not already been spoiled before it got to the store, about a minute's worth of exposure to the sun would do it. I've hauled everything that comes out of the brewery in Golden, CO.

None of it was hauled in a reefer trailer. All in a dry van. Some loads sat in 95 degrees for days before delivery. Just saying. Actually beers from Anheiser Busch have preservatives in them witch it can get warm or cold or whatever. Coors beer products on the other hand do not have preservatives and have to stay cold all the time.

I worked for Coors Distributing and we kept the beer cold on the train to the warehouse to the trucks, to the customer. All refrigerated. That is all I know that i was told.. I have read a lot on this and keep finding it's a myth. I am a raging alchy and drink beer all the time.