Skunky Saison Dupont

Well I must confess that Saison Dupont and Heineken don't taste much alike to me. And neither of them taste skunky to me.

It may be you just don't care for the beer, but I also suspect you are using the term "skunky" without having actually ever having had a skunked beer. The reason I suspect this is that the small bottles around here are brown and move off the shelf so quickly they don't have time to get light struck, which is what causes skunking, and when I've had Heinekin it hasn't been skunked since it has come from a keg or a can and so has not been exposed to light. So what you are calling "skunky" may be the hops used in the beers.

Try deliberately skunking a beer. Buy yourself two bottles of an inexpensive beer that comes in a green bottle. Be sure to buy them out of the sealed case they came in so you know they haven't been light struck. Then put one in the fridge and put the other out in direct sunlight for an hour or so. Put that bottle in the fridge as well. After both are thoroughly chilled take out both bottles and open them. You'll know immediately which is the skunky beer as you'll smell skunk probably before you even have to pour.

 

I have been drinking Saison Dupont for years, and never had a skunked bottle. It amazes my how many people here say the have skunked Dupont, but I have never had one. Either people don't like Saison Dupont, never had it before, or don't know what a skunked beer is.

 

Just bad luck. I only had it once. It smelled skunky but didn't taste like it. That's the risk they run by putting it in green bottles. Are you buying it from the same store/general area? Maybe that distributor doesn't take the care necessary to prevent it from getting skunked.

 

How is a wholesale distributor responsible for light-struck beer? The only control they could possibly have is to warn the retailer (the level at which the beer is removed from the case and exposed to store light) of their less-than-ideal storage. And, good luck with that.

 

Someone is responsible for it. And I'm gonna find out or die trying. Now you can either sit back and criticize my investigation or you can help me nail the bastards.

 

Exactly! Smelled like an old Heineken but tasted delicious.

 

My local shop stores the Saison Duponts in a tanning bed so I run into this issue all the time.

 

Email Vanberg & Dewolf, the importers and complain. Also, the 4pk 11.2oz bottles are in brown glass. They are all i recommend to customers because of this reason.

Also, remember that everyone has different sensory thresholds. Not everyone is as sensitive to skunking as another. Personally, i'm EXTREMELY senstive to it.

 

I often notice a slight skunk to the aroma and flavor, but I attribute that to the yeast. Dupont has a very distinctive yeast. Personally, I really like the slightest touch of skunk in my saison dupont. But, if it were indeed truly light-struck (skunked) then I probably wouldn't enjoy it. I usually grab my single bottles from further back in the display, where there isn't as much light, because the green bottle does make me wary.

 

Brown bottles? I had one when they were still in green and it was very skunked and very awful sitting in the front of a cooler by a fluorescent bulb. If you ever see it on a dark shelf or in the back of a shelf grab it and put it in your jacket immediately.

 

I personally refuse to buy Saison DuPont in the large green bottles. I am not willing to accept the risk that they will be skunked. I recall reading a BA post where the person stated that when he opened his big bottle of Saison DuPont his whole kitchen smelled of skunk and this was before he even poured the beer.

I only purchase Saison DuPont in the small brown bottles or on draft. It is a truly wonderful Saison beer!

Cheers!

 

I have no idea what you're talking about. Saison Dupont is still available only in green bottles in my market (the only brown ones I've ever seen were photos) and it's one of my all-time favorites, probably the one beer most responsible for getting me seriously into craft. Maybe I just love skunked beer.

 

I really think you would know if your Saison DuPont was skunked. You apparently have been lucky in that the green bottled Saison DuPont beers that you purchased were not skunked. I don’t know exactly when the small brown bottles became available near me (a couple of years ago?) but that is the only format I am willing to buy. Saison DuPont is just too damn expensive for me to take a risk of skunking.

One of my favorite German brewed Pilsners is Jever Pilsner. Jever is bottled in 12 ounce green bottles. I have been lucky that I have never personally experienced a skunked Jever but lots of folks on BA have. Lately I have only purchased Jever by the case (since the case it an enclosed cardboard box; no risk of skunking).

Cheers!

 

This is what happened to me. Everyone in the house was complaining about how awful my beer smelled, and most were on the other side of the room. That is the only time I've had it so I'm not positive I got a bad bottle, but if it wasn't skunked then I don't know what the hell is.

 

“I'm not positive I got a bad bottle” You only have to smell a skunk once and there will be no confusion what the smell of a skunked beer is.

I use to have skunks in my neighborhood (many years ago). On a warm summer evening when the windows were open there was never a doubt when they were in my yard (looking for grubs I think). Skunks stink all of the time!

Cheers!

 

Trust me, if they sold it in the brown bottles here that's what I'd buy too. I still haven't figured out why certain areas get green vs. brown bottles, I don't think these are old bottles or anything. I think it's an East/West Coast thing. Saison Dupont does have a kind of funky yeasty smell (it is a farmhouse ale after all), but to me it's not objectionable. In fact, it's one of the few beers my wife actually likes, and she has a very keen sense of smell, far superior to mine. I could see how some people might be more sensitive to that aroma though.

 

I know, I was really just referring to the earlier post saying people don't know what skunked beer is and how often they think it happens with this beer. I don't get too many bad bottles (I've drain poured less than 5 beers in the last 5 years), but this was awful; smelled just like a skunk and was just as strong.

 

“ ..smelled just like a skunk and was just as strong.” Then I am 100% positive that you bought a bad (skunked) bottle.

Damn green bottles!

 

Plenty of times Siason Dupont sits on the shelf for too long and it does indeed skunk, it comes in a green bottle, doesn't have much hops but enough. Your comment makes absolutely no sense because you are probably in a situation where the stock of Saison Dupont available to you is well-kept and fresh. That being said the proper thing to do is just buy the brown bottles and tell your retailer to stop buying the green ones from the distributor. Eventually the company will wake the fuck up. At that point even if you get an old bottle or an under-kept one it wont have the possibility of skunking easily.