Skunked beer? someone help me with this?!
Skunked beer? someone help me with this?
ok whats the deal with skunked beer and does it really happen? i tryed looking it up and i found out that skinked beer is from the light shining onto the beer and it does chemically change the taste of the beer or something. what i was trying to find out is if your beer goes from cold to hot back to cold, does it taste rally bad? can someone please explain if it does and why? because i would think it shouldnt from temp change, mainly because wine and hard alchohol dont and they are very similar
Answers:
Skunked beer (also known as light-struck) occurs when UV light causes a chemical reaction with the hop acids found in beer. It has nothing to do with temperature. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! The people who say it does know nothing about beer except what's the cheapest at the kwik mart.
http://beeradvocate.com/news/stories_rea...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/321019...
http://www.flashback.se/bibliotek/index....
Hopefully, everyone will read these sources and learn something so they stop spouting this 'hot and cold skunks beers' nonsense.
skunk beer is when you change the temperature from
hot to cold and visa versa, must be some reaction with
the chemical breakdown.
Beer should be maintained at a pretty constant temp-37-45 degrees. It does affect the beer when light hits it for long periods of time, especially if the temp is above 45. Try icing it down for 20-30 min-this will make the "skunked beer" taste much better!!
ok, so at temperatures below oh, about 37 or so, the alcohol and water will chemically separate causing the skunked flavor.. at warmer temperatures the chemical activity of the water is higher causing the bond between it and the alcohol to break. once it goes back to cold it should taste ok again (as long as you don't freeze it) since it has the proper ratio of water/alcohol... hard liquior doesnt have this problem since there is much less water in it.. hope this helps
Wine and hard liquor are different because of the higher percentage of alcohol--that is why beer explodes in the freezer and vodka belongs there.
Beer does get "skunky" for different reasons, but I think it depends on the type of beer.
Heineken seems to be very finicky, while your regular domestics are like Timex watches--take a licking and keep on ticking.
All drinks should be kept out of direct light--buy milk in cartons, but maybe it is the type of ingredients that does it--more wheat or hops or barley--good question.
Skunked beer is mostly the result of light (incandescent but worse, fluorescent) reacting with the oils from the hops used to brew beer and breaking them down into a chemical compound that is (I'm sorry to say) found in the scent glands of a skunk. It is harmless but offensive to the taste buds. The Heineken in the green bottle may look impressive to your date, but if it has sat on a shelf in fluorescent light, that impressive IMPORT taste may well be - the skunk! I have been a home brewer for 6 years and never, NEVER use clear (the worst - MGD..Miller) bottles or the green ones unless I plan on keeping them away from any light sources. Temperature fluctuation may cause some skunking but light is the ENEMY!
The above responses are correct that ONLY LIGHT contributes to beer skunking. However, beer is susceptible to other negative effects that can be caused by heat and temperature fluctuations. Beer is also susceptible to oxidizing if it is kept too long or on its side. The four enemies of beer are light, heat, oxygen, and time (for different reasons).
To be clear, the difference between beer and wine/spirits with respect to skunking is that the latter do not contain hops.