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No More Bottled Beer

This topic can be found at:
https://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/320601935/m/2510025515

June 04, 2025, 12:53 PM
Captain Morgan
No More Bottled Beer
quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
quote:
Originally posted by Captain Morgan:
As far as skunked beer, Ive had it more from aluminum than bottles.


That doesn't make sense.

Beer is skunked by exposure to UV from sunlight.

Cans don't allow any sunlight exposure.

Glass does.


I had a case of Budweiser in cans that was skunked. I don't know why, perhaps a bad batch or maybe it went from hot to cold many times. Then another time while partying at a friends college.
I would say 95 percent of my beer is in brown bottles which is better than clear and never had skunked beer.



Let all Men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows.
Benjamin Franklin
June 04, 2025, 01:41 PM
Ogie
The only stout I drink in cans is Guinness. All the other beer or ale I drink is in bottles: Fat Tire, Becks, and Heineken.

Bottled beer is generally better.
June 04, 2025, 01:48 PM
pedropcola
Hmmm. I read that article. It basically agreed with what I wrote but instead of calling the beer skunked they said “The good news? It can never make you sick. It just might not taste very good.” It went on to say it might only take a couple days. So I resend my question to the masses. If only UV can “skunk” a beer then what the heck do we call it when it has been kept unrefrigerated and it just “tastes bad”?

Tastes bad and skunked apparently aren’t the same thing? I have always conflated the two apparently. lol
June 04, 2025, 01:49 PM
Skins2881
quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
quote:
Originally posted by pedropcola:
Hmmm. I always thought that the easiest way to skunk a beer was to let it go from cold to warm back to cold. Ie, if you bought cold beer you had to keep it cold. My anecdotal experience has backed this up. And yes I’m talking cans. I always called that skunked beer. Is there skunked beer and then another name for what I just described? If it is merely UV that skunks beer then it would be nearly impossible to skunk a can right?


From https://brew-ed.com/ashevilleb...and-is-cooled-again/

quote:
It’s an old wives’ tale we’ve all heard. Likely you were in high school and had a friend with a car who had an older brother, and that older brother could buy beer. Everyone went to someone’s house whose parents were out of town, and the crew drank as much of this beer as they could. What was left was put into the trunk of this kid’s car. He drove around with it for a week, and the next weekend it was put into the fridge of someone else’s unsuspecting parents. Inevitably, someone who grabbed a beer that night would say, “Ah man! The beer got skunky!”. Sound familiar? It is a worldwide myth that somehow temperature cycling “skunks” beer. The truth is that temperature cycling has little to no effect on beer freshness.

.....


I don't believe it. I have witnessed skunky beer many times in my youth. I do think letting beer get hot after it's been refrigerated affects the taste and I don't think there's much someone could say to change my mind.



Jesse

Sic Semper Tyrannis
June 04, 2025, 02:36 PM
WaterburyBob
quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
quote:
Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
To me, beer is MUCH better in a bottle. Cans have a plastic coating inside that affects the taste.
Glass all the way for me; it's not even close.


I have never experienced this.

What is it you are tasting?

I can only assume I’m tasting chemicals leaching out of the plastic liner.



"If Gun Control worked, Chicago would look like Mayberry, not Thunderdome" - Cam Edwards
June 04, 2025, 02:38 PM
WaterburyBob
quote:
Originally posted by nhracecraft:
quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
quote:
Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
To me, beer is MUCH better in a bottle. Cans have a plastic coating inside that affects the taste.
Glass all the way for me; it's not even close.

I have never experienced this.

What is it you are tasting?

If I'm a betting man...Shitty Beer! Wink

No, I don’t drink shitty beer ..



"If Gun Control worked, Chicago would look like Mayberry, not Thunderdome" - Cam Edwards
June 04, 2025, 04:18 PM
flesheatingvirus
quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
Cruising through this thread, I had a sudden thought. If beer is bad in cans, how come it's good from great big cans, like a keg?


Not sure. I don't think draught beer tastes like beer from a can. Are kegs lined in the same way that aluminum cans are?


________________________________________

-- Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. --
June 04, 2025, 05:01 PM
dsiets
quote:
Originally posted by Skins2881:
quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
quote:
Originally posted by pedropcola:
Hmmm. I always thought that the easiest way to skunk a beer was to let it go from cold to warm back to cold. Ie, if you bought cold beer you had to keep it cold. My anecdotal experience has backed this up. And yes I’m talking cans. I always called that skunked beer. Is there skunked beer and then another name for what I just described? If it is merely UV that skunks beer then it would be nearly impossible to skunk a can right?


From https://brew-ed.com/ashevilleb...and-is-cooled-again/

quote:
It’s an old wives’ tale we’ve all heard. Likely you were in high school and had a friend with a car who had an older brother, and that older brother could buy beer. Everyone went to someone’s house whose parents were out of town, and the crew drank as much of this beer as they could. What was left was put into the trunk of this kid’s car. He drove around with it for a week, and the next weekend it was put into the fridge of someone else’s unsuspecting parents. Inevitably, someone who grabbed a beer that night would say, “Ah man! The beer got skunky!”. Sound familiar? It is a worldwide myth that somehow temperature cycling “skunks” beer. The truth is that temperature cycling has little to no effect on beer freshness.

.....


I don't believe it. I have witnessed skunky beer many times in my youth. I do think letting beer get hot after it's been refrigerated affects the taste and I don't think there's much someone could say to change my mind.

Skins, you're mission, if you accept it.

If you could perform a test for us, that would be great. The downside, you're going to have to open at least one beer.

The mission: buy a bottle of Grolsch, Heineken, or other euro beer that comes in green bottles.
Take one bottle, put it onto your window sill or somewhere in the sunlight and let it be for an hour. Then uncap it and tell us what does it smell like.

Do the same w/ a can of any beer at the same time and tell us what it smells like.

This post will self destruct in 30 sec.
June 04, 2025, 05:13 PM
sigmonkey
I am going to the store and get canned Bud Platinum. I have 2 bottles in the fridge.

I will do a side by side taste test of on can and one bottle.

(But I already know I can "taste" a difference of canned beer, but it may just be phycological, as I am the same way about coffee in glass vs ceramic mug.)

But, if I do a side by side, I will know if there is in fact a difference, as I will pour both into the same type glass so there is no possibility of the metal "odor" factoring into taste outside of the beer itself. (and I will also taste test from the can).

I'll report back after I sleep off the test.

Empirical testing requires repeatability, to I may need to do this test for the rest of the evening and into the night...



(And FWIW, I actually like a little "skonky" beer, usually with lime, like Corona's, especially when it's hot out and I have been working and am done, but I will drink it without the lime. It just grew on my taste buds after a while, as odd as it might be.)




"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב!
June 04, 2025, 05:25 PM
dsiets
The key here is Skunky, as in, smells like a skunk.
It's a result of light struck beers, generally in green bottles. The reaction is w/ hop oils and the result is an actual skunk smell.

Not a can flavor or other poor storage flavors. It occurs faster in green bottles, slower in brown bottles. There should be no actual skunk aroma in a can.

Miller clear bottles (which would be the worst) get around this by using a filtered hop oil where you get no actual skunk aroma.

The best test would be an already on the shelf for many weeks, under display light, 6 pack of Heineken vs Heineken on tap. Both kept cold, but night and day difference for all the bottle huggers here.
June 04, 2025, 05:59 PM
RogueJSK
quote:
Originally posted by Skins2881:
I don't believe it. I have witnessed skunky beer many times in my youth. I do think letting beer get hot after it's been refrigerated affects the taste and I don't think there's much someone could say to change my mind.


... Did you actually read the article I posted?

Beer getting hot does affect the taste, it just doesn't specifically cause the skunky taste/smell, which is caused by UV exposure in particular. The very next section after the one you quoted states:

quote:
Temperature does affect beer. However, it is not temperature cycling that destroys beer, but exposure to warm temperatures. Beer is best preserved when kept cold… kind of like milk. A gallon of 2% will last a lot longer in your fridge than on your kitchen counter. Much the same way, keeping beer refrigerated will keep its flavor as the brewer intended for much longer. Keeping beer at room temperature can drop a beer’s shelf life from nearly six months to only a few weeks, and exposing the same beer to very warm temperatures can affect its flavor in a matter of a couple of days.

The good news? It can never make you sick. It just might not taste very good. Hop flavors and aromas will be diminished, first. Malt flavors that used to remind you of chocolate and caramel will begin to meld into a generic sickly “sweet” flavor, and in some beers reminders of wet cardboard and paper can develop. Not pleasant, but none of this will remind you of a skunk.


And it elaborates further from there.

I posted all this in response to pedropcola's inquiry about UV vs. temp exposure, and specifically if "skunked beer" is a specific term, or just a general term for beer that tastes bad/off as he had been using it.

You seem to likewise be using that phrase to describe any beer that tastes bad in general, including after getting hot, whereas "skunked beer" is a specific term for the phenomenon that only occurs from UV exposure's chemical transformation of iso-humulone into 3-MBT and the resulting skunk spray taste/smell. 3-MBT isn't created by temperature swings, only UV.

The article covers all this.

quote:
Originally posted by dsiets:
The key here is Skunky, as in, smells like a skunk.
It's a result of light struck beers, generally in green bottles. The reaction is w/ hop oils and the result is an actual skunk smell.

Not a can flavor or other poor storage flavors.


Exactly.

Not all bad tasting beer tastes bad because it is "skunked".

quote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
And FWIW, I actually like a little "skonky" beer, usually with lime, like Corona's


Funnily enough, Corona's money-saving move of using clear bottles - which unlike green or especially brown bottles block zero UV light - and therefore basically guaranteeing their beer will be skunked is what led to the "Enjoy your Corona with a lime!" advertising move, as the lime helps mask the inevitable skunking.
June 04, 2025, 06:22 PM
vinnybass
I keep a coupla' types on hand which I like. Usually Peroni and Modelo Negra depending on my mood. Occasionaly Grolsch, Bass, or Newcastle. once in a while others of a similar vein.

I don't see me buying any of those in cans. That ain't gonna fly, IMO.

Besides aren't the aluminum coils of sheets for cans going to be tariffed, thus partially offsetting the cost of domestically produced (are they indeed?) glass?

Side note: I heard a guy on the radio today talking about the price of canned goods going up because the coils of sheet steel were imported.



"We're all travelers in this world. From the sweet grass to the packing house. Birth 'til death. We travel between the eternities."
June 05, 2025, 07:47 AM
Skins2881
quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
quote:
Originally posted by Skins2881:
I don't believe it. I have witnessed skunky beer many times in my youth. I do think letting beer get hot after it's been refrigerated affects the taste and I don't think there's much someone could say to change my mind.


... Did you actually read the article I posted?

Beer getting hot does affect the taste, it just doesn't specifically cause the skunky taste/smell, which is caused by UV exposure in particular. The very next section after the one you quoted states:

quote:
Temperature does affect beer. However, it is not temperature cycling that destroys beer, but exposure to warm temperatures. Beer is best preserved when kept cold… kind of like milk. A gallon of 2% will last a lot longer in your fridge than on your kitchen counter. Much the same way, keeping beer refrigerated will keep its flavor as the brewer intended for much longer. Keeping beer at room temperature can drop a beer’s shelf life from nearly six months to only a few weeks, and exposing the same beer to very warm temperatures can affect its flavor in a matter of a couple of days.

The good news? It can never make you sick. It just might not taste very good. Hop flavors and aromas will be diminished, first. Malt flavors that used to remind you of chocolate and caramel will begin to meld into a generic sickly “sweet” flavor, and in some beers reminders of wet cardboard and paper can develop. Not pleasant, but none of this will remind you of a skunk.


And it elaborates further from there.

I posted all this in response to pedropcola's inquiry about UV vs. temp exposure, and specifically if "skunked beer" is a specific term, or just a general term for beer that tastes bad/off as he had been using it.

You seem to likewise be using that phrase to describe any beer that tastes bad in general, including after getting hot, whereas "skunked beer" is a specific term for the phenomenon that only occurs from UV exposure's chemical transformation of iso-humulone into 3-MBT and the resulting skunk spray taste/smell. 3-MBT isn't created by temperature swings, only UV.

The article covers all this.

quote:
Originally posted by dsiets:
The key here is Skunky, as in, smells like a skunk.
It's a result of light struck beers, generally in green bottles. The reaction is w/ hop oils and the result is an actual skunk smell.

Not a can flavor or other poor storage flavors.


Exactly.

Not all bad tasting beer tastes bad because it is "skunked".

quote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
And FWIW, I actually like a little "skonky" beer, usually with lime, like Corona's


Funnily enough, Corona's money-saving move of using clear bottles - which unlike green or especially brown bottles block zero UV light - and therefore basically guaranteeing their beer will be skunked is what led to the "Enjoy your Corona with a lime!" advertising move, as the lime helps mask the inevitable skunking.


I said nothing anyone would say would change my mind. Including reposting the information. I still think it gets w skunky flavor from getting hot after refrigeration.



Jesse

Sic Semper Tyrannis
June 05, 2025, 08:53 AM
Pipe Smoker
^^^^^
I’ll just note that skunky isn’t a very objective word.



Serious about crackers.
June 05, 2025, 09:51 AM
egregore


I can't even tell who said what in some of these posts.
June 05, 2025, 10:03 AM
Johnny 3eagles
Not ALL beer is skunked. Not all beer goes bad because it was stored incorrectly. Some of it is BUDWEISERSmile





If you're goin' through hell, keep on going.
Don't slow down. If you're scared don't show it.
You might get out before the devil even knows you're there.


NRA ENDOWMENT LIFE MEMBER
June 05, 2025, 10:11 AM
egregore
^^^ Now there's an example of what I said earlier about the very same beer in bottles vs. cans. Bud went from nasty to barely passable when changing from can to bottle.
June 05, 2025, 11:13 AM
Captain Morgan
Hes one article: Beer advocate

Give me glass...



Let all Men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows.
Benjamin Franklin
June 05, 2025, 11:32 AM
sadlerbw
I like bottles, but not to the point where I will refuse to drink canned beer. If a product I like now switched to cans I’d probably still give it a try, but I wouldn’t be happy if the flavor changed. If it tastes the same, I’ll deal with the change.

For me personally, I think the thing I like better about bottles is the extra insulation and thermal mass compared to a can. If I’m pouring it into a glass it doesn’t much matter, but when I’m drinking direct from the can/bottle, I like the beer to stay cool as long as possible, and glass bottles are better at that. Maybe not a lot better, but enough that I prefer them.

- Bret
June 05, 2025, 01:42 PM
lyman
quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
quote:
Originally posted by egregore:
It's funny how the otherwise very same beer tastes better from a bottle than a can.

I assume - if true - this means glass bottles. There is no reason (from their point of view) why it couldn't be put in plastic bottles. I believe this is done at sports venues (sample of one over 20 years ago) to avoid broken glass hazards, although cans would also accomplish this.


I have never seen a plastic bottle of beer. I don't think plastic can do the pressures associated with beer and its carbonation, maybe that's not the case as soda does just fine but there must be a reason.

They do make metal bottles, those are common at sporting events:




Miller had LITE in plastic bottles at one time,

Baltika imported a lot of beer in plastic liter bottles,



I'll buy either, but mostly pour it in a glass


tastes better to me in a glass (as in cup) due to it allowing you to smell as well as taste it



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