Corked Beer?

For good reason there is always a lot of discussion about corked wine. I usually drink two or three bottles of Beer a month and have found a VERY high percentage of them are corked. Has anyone had similar problems?



Prost!
Bill

I have never had a corked beer, but have had corked potatoes several times. Not nice.

[Robin Garr]

For good reason there is always a lot of discussion about corked wine. I usually drink two or three bottles of Beer a month and have found a VERY high percentage of them are corked. Has anyone had similar problems?

Bill, true cork taint seems unlikely, since few beers come in contact with natural cork (although in our parents' and grandparents' time, I believe beer caps used to come with cork liners).

Could be another musty anisole, but I wonder ... could you be detecting "skunky" beer, a different albeit similarly unpleasant flaw? Skunking occurs when mercaptans - an organic sulfur compound - are created in the beer under the influence of light on hops. The penchant that many retailers have for displaying beer bottles prettily illuminated by fluorescents in cooler cases exacerbates this, and so does the bad decision to put "upscale" beer in green bottles. Green glass passes the precise light frequencies that are most likely to skunk beer quickly, and the light color of fluorescents is similar. A nice one-two punch.

Bill, check out this article:

http://www.corkfacts.com/publications/2005dec19pge02.htm

For good reason there is always a lot of discussion about corked wine. I usually drink two or three bottles of Beer a month and have found a VERY high percentage of them are corked. Has anyone had similar problems?

Bill, true cork taint seems unlikely, since few beers come in contact with natural cork (although in our parents' and grandparents' time, I believe beer caps used to come with cork liners).

Sorry Robin,

I meant bottle fermented beer from Belgium/France/Switzerland with cork closures. Most of them are composite cork (either alone or under bottle cap). The most recent was Gouden Carolus Triple from Belgium -1pt9.4FL OZ. I've had my share of 'skunky' beer too -often from mass produced european breweries like Heineken and such. I tend to steer clear of them. German bottled beer hasn't given me any problems (But, I won't drink BECKs).

Prost!
Bill

Bill, check out this article:

http://www.corkfacts.com/publications/2005dec19pge02.htm

Randy,

It's a good thing Howard Hughs didn't read that article. TCA IS EVERYWHERE! How long can it be until an anti'cork taint' hand soap is released? The kids must be saved!


-Bill

For good reason there is always a lot of discussion about corked wine. I usually drink two or three bottles of Beer a month and have found a VERY high percentage of them are corked. Has anyone had similar problems?

I tend to drink quite a bit of beers with corks also, but have had much better luck than you. In the last three years I've had only 4 corked beers.

But I admit that I am not very sensitive to cork taint, so I might have missed a few - after all my beer tastes are like my wine tastes: there is no fruit for TCA to kill in the beers I drink!

-O-

I've never had a corked beer, but a few years ago I had a corked bottle of single malt scotch. Not nice. You should have seen the incredulous look on the retailers face (they didn't sell a lot of wine) when I tried to tell him what was wrong. After a small sip from the tainted bottle he understood and a fresh bottle was offered.
Bill

After reading that article all I can say is thank God it isn't poisonous! It's everywhere, it's everywhere!