Skunking in bottles

[Rusticus]

I was in my local HBS today and spotted some bottles of beer in his shop window in the sunshine (what bit there was), I think some of them were clear too.

When I expressed surprise and suggested he would end up with skunked beer he said he always left bottles to prime in that way for a week to speed up carbonation.

He seemed to think it would take weeks to cause any problem, and I have been under the impression it could be a matter of hours.

I have done a bit of searching and find conflicting opinions, what do others think/know?

He also thought because they were lagers they were less likely to be affected.

To be honest I have never knowingly tasted this, either my tastebuds are truly knackered or I have never encountered it.

Russell.

[Sadfield]

I think you are both right, skunking can happen quite quickly, but is a hop issue and so probably not as critical in a lager, and although still a fault is often prevalent in commercial lagers.

Want to experience skunking? Take two fresh bottles of a hoppy IPA (Either homebrew or commercial). Store one in a cool cupboard, the other in window for a week (even in brown bottles) then compare the two beers.

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[Rusticus]

Thanks for the tip Sadfield, bit wary of trying commercial samples, might have been made using hop "product" which resists skunking.

Will have to make some for the experiment, all my bottles that I have at the moment are brown. I'll bottle one in a clear bottle, that should be interesting.

Russell.

[Sadfield]

Have done this with commercial IPA in brown bottles. Hop products are used for bittering, so any beer with flavour/aroma hopping will still skunk as some degree of hop isomerisation will have occurred in the boil. Beer will still skunk in brown bottles, just at a slower rate.

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