Review Skunked Beer?

I agree that the color of the bottle is not the cause of the beer being skunked, light exposure is the cause, but the color of the bottle chosen can make the beer more susceptible to being light stuck, and I shouldn't blame the brewer for that?

Henekin for example, chooses to put their beer in green glass for marketing purposes, knowing full well that this makes their beer more susceptible to skunking. They choose marketing over protecting their beer from damage as best they can, and therefore I am more likely to buy a damaged product because of their choice, yet I can't blame them for that? That's a load of bullshit, the brewer should do everything in their power to make sure that their product gets to me in good condition and the color of the bottle is well within their power. If they should choose to ignore this issue because they like the asthetics of green of clear glass or because of marketing then I'm going to call them out on selling me a product In an inferior package.

 

GRG1313 wrote-
"So there you have it. Just remember that before you give up on a beer and write it off as being skunked, keep in mind that there's a lot more that could be going on, and that perception of characters is highly subjective. What you might call skunked due to lack of knowledge could be a tasty German-style Pils to another."

Mercaptin smells has a different smell from H2S in a German Pils. Many may not know what they are smelling and might call the Pils skunked, but once you know the rotten egg smell is not skunk, you don't.

GRG1313 wrote-
Drinking from the bottle is a more concentrated experience. Drinking from a glass allows the beer's characters to become more volatile, thus a less concentrated experience. It doesn't necessarily mean that the beer in the bottle is skunked.

Drinking from the bottle is less concentrated as far as the olefactory experience goes. Drinking from the proper glass will get more aroma to the nose, and give a better experience. 80% or more of taste experience is in the olefactory, you only get 5 tastes on the tongue.

Bottles
On the Heineken green bottle thing. Heineken is a big international company. I would wager that they have more staff in marketing than they have in the brewhouse.



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No, you should allocate blame. The brewer chose green. The distributor gets a pass since they don't open the packaging. The retailer who knows green offers less protection deliberately stored the beer where it was exposed to light. The customer who knows green offers less protection deliberately gambled and lost. All three are to blame.

 

I didn't write a lot of what's quoted to me directly above. I quoted (set forth actually but apparently it's been deleted already) a 2003 article by the Alstroms. (See Yemenmocha, above for link).

 

You can put me on the "Blame the brewery" bandwagon. Minimal light exposure is the only way to avoid skunking. You are going to have a hell of a time as a retailer selling beer on a dark shelf or out of unopened cases. Its damn near impossible to not expose beer bottles to light sitting on a store shelf. I wholly blame the brewery for packaging beer in bottles that offer little to no light protection.

Yes I would still blame the brewer for the beer being skunked. I can take an identical IPA and put it in a brown bottle under those same conditions. After 3 years, or 10, or 20 years my IPA likely won't be skunked. It will taste something awful, but not skunked.

Yes retailers should take steps to minimize the risk of damage. The first line of defense against damage lies in the hands of the breweries and the bottles they use.

 

Wrong. It will skunk under those conditions in a brown bottle as well. The difference between brown and green is that the beer will become light struck faster in a green bottle, but it will still get light struck in a brown bottle.