Skunky flavour from keg->bottle->serving glass

[MarcGuay]

Hi folks,

I've sampled a few beers and noticed a very strong skunky aroma and taste. The only thing they seem to have in common is having gone from a keg, to a (brown) bottle for transportation, then put in a serving glass. They were entirely different styles and from 2 different sources, 1 from a local homebrewer who brought samples to a club meeting, and the other from a local brewpub that just started selling growlers to go. Nobody else seems to notice the flavour, and googling didn't turn up anything, so I thought I'd ask here if I'm in some 1%-of-people-who-can-taste-this category or something, although usually I'm not that special.

Cheers,
Marc

 

[bleme]

The most common source of skunk aroma/taste is light-struck. UV light reacts with hop resin to create that skunk flavor. Brown bottles block most UV light, but not all. It also depends on how long it sat in your serving glass.

I have had a few homebrews where I detected some slight 'skunk' straight from the keg though. I figure this is probably from mishandling of the hops, either before or after purchase, or from the beer getting light-struck on brew day.

 

[MarcGuay]

Thanks. I'd written off UV as the problem because I watched the guy at the brewpub put it straight from the tap into the growler, then walked it home for 10 minutes, poured a glass and took a sniff. Beer smelled and tasted really good to my wife but way skunked to me. I've tasted the same beer at the bar and enjoyed it.

 

[bleme]

Columbus hops can have a skunky taste to them, but more in a good way. You might be more sensitive to the smell than normal. My wife is always claiming that she can smell someone smoking pot, when I don't smell a thing.