How easy is it to detect skunked beer? Certain beers always seem a bit sour.?

There are quite a few Yahoo! Answers relating to the etiology of skunked beer, so there's no need to discuss light and temperature in your answer. I want to know whether skunked beer is obvious to detect, or whether it can be subtle or slowly developing (e.g. if one beer in a six-pack is a bit sour, if I wait a week, will the other get really sour?). Thanks.How easy is it to detect skunked beer? Certain beers always seem a bit sour.?
This really also depends a lot on the quality of the beer and the quality of the packaging... If you're drinking Corona (the clear glass) or Heineken (the green glass) there is a higher chance your beer will be ';light-struck';. Which is the cause of that skunky taste. Any light can skunk a beer easily, that's why brown bottles are the best... although not perfect they do a much better job of keeping light away from the beer. Drinking skunked beer isn't really dangerous its just unpleasant... Once you become familiar with what a beer style tastes like you will be able to tell easily whether the beer is past its prime... also a lot of breweries label their bottles or labels with a ';bottled on'; or ';best by'; date,,,





If you're wondering about the sour issue... then it depends whether you mean ';sour'; or ';bitter';, because some styles of beer are bitter and are meant to be bitter (IPAs, Imperial/Double IPAs, some ESBs, etc.)





It is usually pretty obvious to detect because beer that is really skunked is awful... http://beeradvocate.com/articles/527


its an article on the beer enthusiast website, beer advocate, you should find this helpfulHow easy is it to detect skunked beer? Certain beers always seem a bit sour.?
Smell it. If it smells musky it's skunked. Beer gets that way if it's old, in a clear bottle stored in the sun or light, or slightly oxygenated.


Canned beer don't get skunky because light can't get to it. The bottled imports are more likely to end up that way simply because of the time involved in travel and handling.


If one beer is bad, you're probably going to find the others are bad too, but, it could be the cap on that one bottle.
I'm pretty sure the people above me are wrong about canned beer getting skunked. I toured the Budweiser factory near Vallejo about 6 years ago with my stepdad and they had everyone on the tour do a contest to see who was best at detecting skunked Bud.


One was a 6-pack of fresh off the assembly Bud and the other was a 6er that they leave in a special ';hot box'; on the roof in 110 degree weather for at least 3 weeks. Both were chilled in a refridgerator at the same temperature before the testing.


To me, the skunked beer wasn't that much worse than the fresh beer, but my stepdad, who's been drinking Bud for like 40 years, was immediately repulsed by the skunked beer and refused to finish it.