Skunked Sierra Nevada in Birmingham, AL

True "skunking" is strictly the effect of light on beer, or more specifically, a beer's hop content, and is made worse by green or clear glass (brown glass protects the beer better, but a few days in sunlight won't help any beer). That's not to say that old, mishandled beers can't taste bad (most do) just that "skunked" is often used to describe all old, bad tasting beer (you know, as a euphemism for "sh*tty"). For all the beers to be skunked, from many different retailers, means that all of the retailers are exposing them to light.

Are you buying by the sealed case or exposed 6-pack off a shelf? If it's a case, what's the bottling date listed? (I only buy Bigfoot and Celebration from SN- both those cases feature an easy to read bottling date- I don't recall if the date's legible on the bottle, label or six-pack basket.) Ideally, a beer like SNPA should be consumed within 3 months. It's entirely possible that a local distributor has old beer in it's warehouse and continues to supple it to retailers. (Something tells me Alabama isn't a big SN market.) I'd drop an email to SN once you get the date code info.

Yeah, I had that... I posted here some months ago about how vile SNPA was... you must've gotten some of the same batch I got or something. Strange... I've picked up a few sixers lately though, and it's good here... the bad stuff must be making its way east.

Here's the scoop on "skunked beer"

BeerAdvocate's got some good stuff on beer basics...but I don't think this is one of their best pieces. They're simultaneously trying to cover a bit too much territory, stay at a basic knowledge level, and maintain their signature smartass attitude. I don't have a problem with any of that, but it just doesn't work that well in this piece, and the information transfer suffers because of it. JMO, YMMV.

And technically, a "scoop" is a report of a news item in advance of anybody else. I suspect skunking has been known since even before the Web existed.

Well, much like a case of debilitating diarrhea, this too has passed. It is back to its normal, beautiful, exquisitely refreshing taste. Life is good.

Regards,

Ben

I'm going back over some posts which I marked to reply and got busy, after reading this again I have to disagree on how quickly beer goes bad on small light exposure. If that were true most of my home brew, aged in the cellar for 3-6 months, would be skunked due to diffuse sunlight coming in the windows. Tain't so.

And one minute in direct sunlight? Think about a picnic with bottles in a tub of ice, if you can remember any part of the picnic after the first few, were they skunked? Not mine.

However, light as the enemy of shelf life is true, and commercial beers have far less shelf life (in my experience) than bottle or cask conditioned beers.

The article is confusing on the issue, I agree (they ignore brown bottles and seem to trying to make the point that green glass doesn't CAUSE skunking, only doesn't prevent it). Most of other articles I've seen with those sorts of time frames are talking about beer in clear glass bottles (and green's not much better). I'm assuming your homebrew is in brown bottles but why you would have them loose, out a case/shell, in sunlight is beyond me...

Yup, ESPECIALLY the stuff in green or clear bottles. I recall once being reduced to drinking a Corona Light out of such a tub- the most skunked beer I've had since I left a Black Horse Ale in a field of Christmas trees I was mowing and found it the next day...

Again, why would you put good homebrew in an open tub of ice? If you don't have a cooler, at least get a piece of cardboard or something... (when I buy Jever, only by the sealed case, I STILL throw a blanket or something over it for the ride home...)...

I've poured an unskunked, hoppy beer (Two-Hearted Ale) into a clear glass on a bright summer day in my backyard and had it more or less immediately blowing off skunk aroma. Made a believer out of me.

I think most people who drink beer outdoors have had this sort of thing happen. I had a draft Wagner Valley pilsner (somewhat hoppy; not like Jever) served to me at an outdoor seat on a sunny afternoon; I could smell the skunk aroma increasing in intensity from sip to sip.

It simply happens. In a tub of ice, I would suspect the sun isn't hitting the beer as directly (the ice and water blocks the sun's rays), plus, well, brown glass helps even in direct sunlight.

Witzel

ObMeToo: Same thing happened to me in Vegas this weekend. Spent Saturday afternoon at the pool (given the eye candy, I would have spent the rest of my life there given half the chance), and I could literally smell the beer skunking as I waded back from the (shaded) bar to where we were camped out.

To the previous post's skepticism about beer skunking that quickly, and using their basement storage as a counterpoint, it's really comparing apples to rocks. Put a beer without brown glass in direct sunlight, and it goes south damn quickly. Keep a beer in brown glass, in diffuse light conditions, and it'll likely be ages before it starts smelling like really bad roadkill.

-Steve