Pilsner Urquell rant

Pilsner revisited: giving a beer a second try

I was way ahead of you all on this . Actually not really but it was a new style case totally sealed off from light. It was a beer so inspiring I created a reflective thread about giving a beer a second chance. Little did I know at the time I was simply comparing skunked beer to non skunked beer! Eh, I was prolly I bit loaded!

 

This use to be one of my favorite beers. But except for the occasional Belgian or Samuel Smith, I don't buy imports. Way too many good American craft beers to try.

 

I cut my beer eye teeth on Pilsner Urquell from the tap in Bavaria, oh little did I know at the time (late 80's). Do I buy it now? On the rare occasion, there is just to many solid, great American Brews out my back door. Do I love this iteration of Urquell, in fact I do. But, life it just to short to be pigeon holed into 1 beer or 1 beer style or 1 brewery. My uncle lived and died drinking Budweiser. I NEVER witnessed him drinking another beer of any kind, nor do I recall him ever NOT having a bud in his hand.

Life is to short.

 

A good, fresh pilsner is one of the beer worlds' great joys. Unfortunately, finding import bottles in peak condition has long been a problem.

 

Exactly. Sad, ain't it?

 

Really? Did you try it in any of the Tankovna bars?

 

Yes this was a brown bottle. I remember many years (20-30) ago having Heineken beer, and it had a skunk aroma and taste to it. Was told it was due to the pasteurization that it went through to get in to the states. Cannot remember the source. I have to admit I'm not sure that it causes the skunk flavor/aroma.

 

True "skunking" - technically called "light struck" - is caused by (as the name implies) exposure to light - particularly sunlight or strong florescent light. Brown bottles protect beer better (though not completely) than green or clear glass.

Pasteurization does not cause a beer to become light struck, nor does age or going from warm to cold to warm, etc. (other commonly blamed factors). Most pre-craft US bottled and canned beers (Budweiser, Miller High Life, Yuengling, etc.) and many imported beers are routinely pasteurized with no "skunking" effect.

Some people do confuse the smell and taste of Noble hops used in many European lagers with "skunk" as they do with the slight sulfur smell some of those beers have from the yeast.

 

as jesskidden says, skunking is only caused by light exposure (including parts of the visible spectrum, not just UV, as many people think). brown bottles almost never skunk since the crucial wavelengths of light are filtered out almost completely, although leaving a bottle under direct sunlight for a couple days will probably eventually do it. the aroma of skunked, lightstruck beer is from a very specific compound, 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol, a mercaptan that is closely related to the same chemicals produced by skunks (the animal). many people still confuse this with di-methyl-sulfide (DMS) or other sulfurous compounds produced during mashing or fermentation (more common in pale lagers), and sometimes with calcium sulfate in very hard water (more common in certain british ales). i have found in my years of preaching about beer that many people have to be explicitly taught the difference, often with actual physical samples for direct sensory experience.

 

Thank you. I still didn't enjoy the beer, but now I have an understanding of why I didn't enjoy it. Cheers.

 

My understanding is that good quality amber glass blocks 90-95% of light that will skunk beer, whereas green glass blocks only 30-40%. Amber glass will definitely still be susceptible to skunking, just not as quickly or as badly as green glass.

(And obviously clear glass blocks approximately 0% of light :-)

 

it's hard to quantify a single number, since there are several offending wavelengths of light, and each wavelength is filtered to different amounts. this study shows that some wavelengths for green glass can block as little as 19%, while brown glass almost never goes below 96%.

http://ec.libsyn.com/p/8/d/d/8dde0d...1ce3dae902ea1d06c98734d4ca5432ad&c_id=1452594

 

Was in Prague a couple of times, didn't know I had to go to any specific bars. The stuff was everywhere...

 

Thanks for the link!

 

That's it. I never believed it was "skunking" in the sense of a light struck beer, as it is inherent in most (non dark) lagers I've had from the region. So for me anyway, it isn't confusion, but rather an aspect of these beers that I dislike.

 

yes, but in the realm of beer, "skunk" should ideally only refer to lightstruck beer. i concede that prescriptive linguistic standards are difficult to enforce, but otherwise it generates confusion, misunderstanding, and the perpetuation of myths - such as the prevalent one about cycles of warming and cooling being the cause of "skunk".

 

Agreed. That's why I avoid the word, but understand exactly what @AdmiralOzone was trying to convey. It comes across to me as a certain mustiness. I think it is simply a characteristic of the style.

 

Is it cheaper to use less packaging material and move to brown glass? Or do they simply figure, it's in brown glass, why bother using closed six pack boxes if we don't have to?