Is my beer lightstruck?

Question

I have a six of Strumer Pils in my fridge. I opened one and it tasted skunky, as if it were lightstruck. Are pilsners supposed to taste this way, or is my beer really lightstruck?

Answer 1

im pretty sure its lightstruck - pilsner is not meant to be skunky. im not familar with strumer pils, but im guessing its got a clear (or even green) bottle.. this seems to be happening alot where the marketing guys get in the way of the acutal brewers and dont use brown bottles (that filter the UV light alot more).

it happens :( try getting another strumer pils and seeing the difference, also (and ive had to do this before) take the rest of the 6er back to the bottleshop and make them replace it.

Answer 2

Could be lightstruck, but it's just as likely that it's simply OLD.
Old beer tastes skunky, and NO, it's NOT supposed to taste that way. It's funny you used the term skunky, because that's exactly the word I use to describe it.

I've found out over the years that old beer goes bad. Plain and simple. It even has a nasty odor to it.

Polly
(who LOVES her beer! :-)

p.s. If you're wondering how I discovered this, it's because my mom always keeps beer in her fridge for me and she used to stock up on it, when it was on sale. Since we don't see each other all that often, sometimes the beer would be very old before it was opened. Beer doesn't last long enough to get old in MY house. Since this discovery, and it actually took awhile to figure out the reason, she no longer buys too much beer in advance.
She now goes out and gets it fresh when we'll be getting together.

.

Answer 3

Pilsners, like other beers, contain hops...it's the hops that reacts with UV light to cause it to be lightstruck or "skunked." Pilsners are light bodied beers, but should never taste skunky. Old generally causes other off flavors, but it's the hops and light that skunk.

Answer 4

Lightstruck, definitely. Iso-amyl acetate from light reacting with hop oils.
Probably comes in a green bottle which doesn't block UV light.
Always buy bottled beer in brown glass.