The problem is at the beer store. The beer sits behind a big plate-glass door, naked to the world for days up to a week or so, or even worse depending on that style’s turnover. I usually buy the cardboard sealed case of 12 for this exact reason.
No doubt. When I was in Puerto Vallarta, I had the opportunity to have a Corona on tap, and it was so drastically different than the bottled ones we get in the US, that at first, I didn’t believe it was the same beer.
It really wasn’t particularly bad for that style of beer- I think it was actually better than the Modelo Especial that they also had on tap, but still not better than the Negra Modelo also on tap.
Or better than Bohemia on tap! 
Good Mexican beer, fresh, is quite delightful. Just the thing to go with…Mexican food. Will wonders never cease. But Corona that has been de-cased and sitting in 6-packs on the shelf or in the front of the cooler are foul.
tonedef - The hop compounds that are responsible for making beer bitter are called isomerized alpha-acids. These chemicals, along with sulfur compounds found in beer, are also culpable in beer skunking. When light hits beer, it provides the energy necessary to drive a reaction that transforms the iso-alpha-acids into 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol. The “thiol” part of that somewhat cumbersome name indicates that there is sulfur present. Sulfur compounds often have strong, offensive aromas. Some musteline animals, like skunks, have evolved the ability to produce this chemical, and use it for self-defense.
…There is a way to skunk-proof beer, and it is used by the Miller Brewing Company. Instead of using hop flowers to bitter their beers, they use a special hop extract called tetra-hop. The isomerized alpha-acids in this product have a slightly different molecular structure than naturally isomerized alpha-acids, and are immune to the effects of light. This extract has the added benefit of greatly increasing the foam retention of a beer.
I think one of the reasons Corona advocates serving their beer with a lime wedge in the mouth of the bottle is so you won’t smell the skunk!
I think stuff tastes better out of glass than plastic. There’s a weird little additional taste you get from the “mouth” of a plastic bottle, ISTM.
Even artificial light? Because every liquor store seems to have artificial lights in its refrigerators.
Me neither, apart from hearing about it on the SDMB. And nobody else I know in the UK has come across the term, or phenomenon, either, and we drink plenty of beer from green (and even clear) bottles.
Maybe it’s something that’s only a problem (or only considered a problem) in the US? 
Seeing that many (not all) of green glassed beer comes from europe, is it possible that you’re getting the fresher stuff while what we get is older due to shipping and thus had more time to get skunky?
I’ve definitely gotten skunked beer in Europe. I don’t think I’ve ever had a skunked ale, just lagers, but I don’t think I can really think of many ales that come in clear or green bottles. (Actually, now that I think of it, doesn’t Samuel Smith come in clear bottles?) I also think that skunking is much more obvious in lagers because they generally don’t have a strong nose to begin with, so any off-scents are obvious.
As for the smell, it is exactly like what one of those scratch-and-sniff skunks smell like, or quite similar to a real skunk.
As for the Heineken issue, I’ve had plenty of Heineken here with varying degrees of skunk. I do not like Heineken, in general, but the one time I had it in the Netherlands, I found it palatable, much to my complete surprise. I can also swear it came in a brown bottle. Looking on the internet, it seems quite possible that I was served a Heineken Dark Lager, but I didn’t pour it out into a glass, so I don’t know. It would make some sense, though.
Many years ago a skunky beer could empty a bar. The smell was horrible and would travel fast.
I have seen nothing like that since. Canned beer is the best. It is lined and filled fresh. It has the best shelf life.
Yes, but you ,like myself, are an ignorant midwesterner. There are portions of this country that think that bitter is the only flavor to beer, and those beers don’t come in cans, they come in brown glass bottles. The fact is that a bitter ale, is the easiest beer that a beginner can brew. Homebrewing a pilsner on the otherhand requires skill. Lambics are even better. I love lambics, and that is what I will ultimately brew.
Nope, brown. BTW, I had Heinekin in Israel and it was actually decent. I, too, was shocked.
Oh sure, pilsners and lambics require skill–which is why a lot of them are awful. I think a lot of people overestimate their brewing skill. Hell, the best and the worst lambic of my life were homebrewed by the same person, who’s no tenderfoot in those matters.
True enough. Also, brewing stuff like Budweiser and Miller (American Adjunct Lager) is exceedingly difficult because any little teeny bit of imperfection is obvious. That said, just because it takes a lot of skill doesn’t mean it’s better. I’d prefer a homebrewed stout (with any minor imperfections masked through layers and layers of flavors) to a Miller Lite anyday.
Only as of recently. Sam Smith has used clear bottles exclusively for years.
Ah. Wouldn’t know–I only just turned 21 and had my first Sam Smith.
Congrats! You’ve got sooo much good beer available to you in your area. Make sure to get yourself over to the Alesmith Brewing Company for a brewery tour and an excellent beer bar called The Liar’s Club on Mission Blvd. You won’t regret it. 
Thanks! I haven’t done any brewery tours yet. I ought to hit up Stone, and now that you mention it I’ll try Alesmith too.
Haven’t been to the Liar’s Club, but it sounds pretty close, so I’ll check it out one of these days. ETA: Sounds like my kind of place too
That’s interesting. Here it’s sold in brown bottles but than again we don’t have this idea that there is anything special about green bottles. Apparently green bottles used to be more common in the past but nowadays only a handful of brands use them, specifically because they are so unusual and recognizable.
Do they still make the Swiss version?
Up until, I don’t know, I’m guessing 2001-2002, somewhere in there, Lowenbrau was made under license In the USA by Miller. It was quite decent, but did not taste like the Lowenbrau they import now.
Anyway, IIRC, when Miller made it you couldn’t get the German version in the U.S. (I never saw it anywhere) but you could get the Swiss version, which was better than the Miller version.
Now that Miller no longer makes it, and the German version is imported, I no longer see the Swiss version.
Do they still make the Swiss version?
Add Karl Strauss to your list as well. Their Woodie Gold is quite a nice lager to sip while watching the girls go by.
There are a few good links to articles on this site describing what actually happens when beer is light struck.
And there may be help on the way. I’ve been hearing about this ‘sunscreen’ for bottles for a couple of years now, but I don’t think it is currently being applied to glass during production. I could be wrong though.