Humans are remarkably good at detecting 3-MBT -- just four parts-per-trillion of the compound can be noticeable, making it one of the most powerful flavors in beer.
The reaction happens fast enough that a glass of beer can become noticeably lightstruck in seconds when exposed to direct sun. Watch out where you set your brewski down at the next barbecue. Lightstruck beer is such a common occurrence that many folks just assume that Corona or Heineken is supposed to taste like that.
The truth is that skunky beer is flawed, and no brewer wants their beer to taste like the back-end of a skunk. You can now find cans of some of the most commonly affected beers like Heineken and Corona or Corona Familiar, which is the same beer as Corona Extra but packed in large, brown bottles , and these packages are a better representation of how the beer should taste.
Miller Brewing still uses clear bottles for some of their brands High Life , and they skirt the lightstruck issue by using specially formulated hop extracts that do not react with UV light to create 3-MBT. They're added to the wort, or not-yet-beer, during the brewing process. When boiled, hops release iso-alpha acids into the liquid. But if beer is exposed to sunlight, the sun's power breaks down those iso-alpha acids. The resulting compounds bind with proteins that contain sulfur.
People can taste this chemical in concentrations of one part per billion. As the video explains, "if you filled an Olympic-sized swimming pool with beer, one eyedropper of this stuff would change the way it tasted. So treat your beer with respect and keep it out of the sun, especially if the beer is in a clear glass.
Supposedly, enough light can get through a green bottle to skunk it, if given enough time. Watch the full video for more. This post is part of a continuing series that answers all of your "why" questions related to science.
Or a properly packed cooler. Other compounds that can negatively impact beer smell and taste are acetaldehyde aromas of grass or green apple and dimethyl sulfide sometimes likened to creamed corn. Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest tips, tricks, recipes and more, sent twice a week. By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Newsletter Shop Help Center.
Warm storage, while damaging to the flavor of beer, does not skunk it. Cycling the temperature of beer from warm to cold and back again is also not implicated. Storing beer in the dark is the simple way to prevent skunking. The photochemical reaction that skunks beer occurs very quickly; a well-hopped beer in clear glass can become noticeably offensive with just 30 seconds of exposure to sunshine.
Since light is an essential ingredient in the skunking process, beers packaged in kegs, cans, and opaque bottles cannot be skunked. Slight temperature changes will not spoil your beer. Large temperature changes will. The "skunky" beer is actually lightstruck. This is exactly what it says: the beer has been damaged by light, such as sunlight or florescent light. When UV lights penetrate the glass of a beer bottle, they mess with the chemical makeup of some acids produced by the hops.
The result is a new compound called methyl mercaptan, which is one of the components of the defense mechanisms found in the skunk. This is prevented by packaging beer in brown bottles, which is better protected from UV rays.
Unfortunately, this lets those green rays get in, which makes sense as to why some beers are served with lime: it keeps away the "skunky" smell for a while. In reality, it doesn't take much to spoil your beer. If your beer in a green or clear bottle has not already been spoiled before it got to the store, about a minute's worth of exposure to the sun would do it. I've hauled everything that comes out of the brewery in Golden, CO. None of it was hauled in a reefer trailer.
All in a dry van. Some loads sat in 95 degrees for days before delivery. Just saying. Actually beers from Anheiser Busch have preservatives in them witch it can get warm or cold or whatever. Coors beer products on the other hand do not have preservatives and have to stay cold all the time.
I worked for Coors Distributing and we kept the beer cold on the train to the warehouse to the trucks, to the customer.
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