Let's Talk About Weihenstephaner

I don't see Weihenstephaner in green bottles, and yeah -- I know brown can let light in over a good amount of time too, but I've never had a skunked Weihenstephaner beer.

Now stale is another question. This brings us back to the current state of beer popularity and just what's selling.

 

They got me to overcome a bit of hesitation about wheat beers. Their Kristall is a unique and delicious beer that I try to always have. If you haven't tried it , do!

 

Try decoding the bottles the next time you see them. I frequently see 3 month old Weihenstephaner in Ohio.

 

I've twice read posts the last few days, once with Weihenstephaner and once with Pilsner Urquell, alleging that the brown bottled beers are skunked (or at least have a higher than normal propensity to be skunked).

My suspicion is that they are not skunked, and there could be some other possible explanations:
- The beer is old (stale) and they are picking up on that flavor.
-They associate the flavor and aroma of noble hops with a "skunk" flavor.
-They've never had a skunked version of these particular beers at all. They've had a skunked Euro lager before and assume all European light lagers skunk easily.

 

To add to what @steveh and @kellyst said, I buy/bought A LOT of beer off an open shelf, and I can't remember the last time I bought a skunked beer (assuming it's not a green bottle, and isn't TOO old).

I don't mean any disrespect at all, what you taste is what you taste, but maybe you're just confusing old beer with a skunked one as @steveh and @kellyst suggested?

 

It's when they complain about the Urquell cans being skunked that you can actually hear my eyes click when they roll.

 

Don't forget, nc41 is only saying he steers away from the shelved bottles because he's worried about skunk, hasn't said he's actually had skunked Weihenstephan. We need to assuage his fears and build his confidence in the brown bottle.
At least, brown bottles that aren't over a year old.

 

My apologies @nc41!

As an n = 1, I actually don't even know if I've purchased a skunked brown bottle either from a fridge or off the shelf.

I've purchased Ayinger, Schlenkerla, Andechs, Weihenstephan, Coniston, Timothy Taylor, Fruh, Freigeist, Sunner, Reissdorf...the list goes on and on. And multiple bottles of each, mostly off a room temp shelf.

I don't recall one ever being skunked. Now...stale, there's been a few. But when I know it's fresh due to bottle dating, I can't think of many instances the beer has been stale. In the case of Schlenkerla/Ayinger (no bottle dating) if they JUST arrived at the store, I'll take a flyer on them if I feel like gambling that day. No guarantee there, and I've been burned a few times.

As an example, I had a Schlenkerla Urbock a few months ago that tasted too bacony. I recently saw their Maerzen show up, so I gambled, and it was exceedingly smoky and delicious. Regardless, none of these tasted skunked.

 

You can read a 30 year old industry report on light struck brown bottled beer on my site at
Light-Struck Flavor Formation in Beer in Illuminated Display Cabinets

 

No I've had skunked beer before , when you pop the top you can smell the cabbage stench.
The primary culprits are German imports in green bottles, low turnover older stock , in this case St Pauli Girl. I had some skunked Pils Urquell a few weeks ago, lightly skunked but still off. There's nothing tricky with these beers as far as flavors go. I'm just leery about buying beers that are low turnover brews that could have been sitting in the light for months.Weihenstephan IMO is prime from what I can see, at least what's at Total Wine.

 

Therein lies the major cause.

 

Yep, and as much as I want to pull the trigger on a Krystal I just can't do it, but I'm always tempted and those bottles call sometimes. Then I wise up and just buy Prima or the like.

 

A single bottle could be worth the gamble.

 

This thread is dangerously close to a derailment. On the other hand, it inspired me to have a Vitus last night and a Ayinger weizenbock tonight.

 

2 threads got merged late last night or early this morning.

 

I'm kinda old news myself.