i enjoy the"skunk" flavor in beers like Heineken, becks, stella. does the color of the glass affect the skunk flavor? if i put a glass carboy in the sun, would it taste different than a green bottle in the sun?
omigod... if you really want it, put your carboy in the sun for a couple hours. The flavor won't be quite the same because the beers you mentioned are usually stale/oxidized in addition to being skunked. Good aeration at the end of fermentation might get that done - basically just do everything brewing texts tell you not to do. Green and clear bottles provide less protection than brown and will skunk faster. Thinking you're probably trolling, but there's the info anyway...
not trolling, wasnt sure if clear vs green glass makes any difference. the beers i mentioned are all green glass...clear beers like corona, i rather not be skunked
I doubt there's a lot of difference between clear and green. A clear bottle might skunk slightly quicker than green, but there should be no difference in flavor.
There is something reasonable about the skunky flavors you get from German pils malt, but I don't think I'd want that overwhelming my beer. It happens naturally as the beer cleans up, and yes, would probably be intensified by slight oxidation or uv exposure. I'd start out easy with a couple of days in the sun and then rack to package. <--- brown bottles or bust, buddy!
I always referred to that pils flavor as a "macro like" flavor, rather than skunky. I can see the similarity though.
Why don't you try homebrewing some, allowing some bottles to skunk and preventing it in others. Report which ones you like. To the group at large: didn't I read in the Hops book that breweries can use a type of hop extract that does not skunk? I thought that Corona uses it. Others?
Pils malt has more DMS. Lager yeast produce more H2S, rotten egg. As sulfur compounds, they are often confused with skunky aromas, as mercaptins are also sulfur compounds.
It still skunks a little bit, just not at Heinekin levels. If you doubt this buy a bottle of Bud and a bottle of Miller, crack open and do a sniff test.
Most imported beer drinkers I knew back in the day (pre-microbrews) just thought that is what European hops tasted like and got used to that flavor. I know I used to prefer that skunky smell and if by some miracle my Beck's bomber wasn't exposed to light, I would deem it as inferior. I still like to set some green bottle imports out in the sun once in a while before drinking them just for nostalgia sakes.
