Have you ever noticed that some beers have a lot more of that “skunky” flavor than others? That taste is caused by a chemical reaction in the hops, triggered by the ultraviolet component of sunlight.

No glass bottle is skunk-proof, but green or clear bottles are the worst. Five minutes of direct sunlight can skunk your Rolling Rock. Some brewers, notably Heineken and Grolsch, incorporate skunk into the flavor profile. If you ever find Heineken on draft, compare it to the bottled version. You’ll find that it tastes a lot less like the Heineken you know. In fact, draft Heiney tastes pretty much like nothing.

If you hate skunk, buy cans or beer in brown bottles. Pittsburgh’s Iron City sells beer in an aluminum bottle that has the side benefit of keeping your beer super cold. Lok for it in beer stores around the USA.

-Mark

Takk To Thomas and Lars Hojberg of Copenhagen, Denmark, for sending me five cans of Tuborg Julbryg. Julebryg is Danish for “Christmas Brew,” and it is absolutely the elixir of the gods. I can’t decide whether to drink it or stare at it.

-Mark

Bruce and I were discussing beer advertising the other day, and he mentioned Coors Light’s “Coldest tasting beer” tagline. What a piee of nonsensical garbage.

“Shipped in refrigerated rail cars.” the ad proclaims. Presumably, this helps the beer to taste colder. Never mind the six weeks that it spends parked on pallets in the distributors’ room-temperature warehouses. I guess the cold flavor survives the prolonged thaw.

I can see why they’d want people to drink Coors Light cold. It’s pretty insipid. But when your primary consumer group is underage drinkers, I guess you have to fool them somehow. Luckily for Coors, people believe the hype.

-Mark

I can’t think of a lot to say, so here’s a link to afantastic beer.

“I won’t drink anything I can see through.” You ever run into this self-styled beer expert? Nothing like a quick smug dismissal of nearly the entire gamut of ales and lagers to kick off what will undoubtedly be a fascinating and two-sided conversation.

If you can’t see through it, you’re basically drinking Guinness or Murphy’s. Enjoy. I myself prefer roaming from nation to nation, culture to culture. Perhaps I’ll try the rich Vienna-style lagers that took root in Mexico, or maybe a Biere de Garde, the only style the wine-loving French even come close to brewing well.

Each beer style reflects the geography, agriculture, and mindset of the place where it was brewed. Within these beers, you find an insight into culture, into how people connect with each other and their surroundings in daily life.

I like stout as much as the next guy, but it only takes one trip to the beer store to discover that there’s so much more. Just because the beer is opague doesn’t mean the mindset has to be, as well.

-Mark

Years ago, the primary product of the F.X. Matt Brewery in Utica New York was Utica Club, a beer as bland and sour as the city in which it originates. Larger national brewing conglomerates nearly destroyed the family-owned brewery. In order to survice, the Matts launched a premium beer that became their prime product.

Saranac Pale Ale, the flagship of the Saranac line, isn’t perfect but it’s pretty damn good. The same can be said for just about every other variety of Saranac (except for the cloying Caramel Porter, which is like licking peanut butter out of a dog’s ass).

Saranac comes in variety packs which feature the Pale Ale, Amber, and a surprisingly excellent American lager. t’s amazing how good Utica Club can taste when not served in it’s own can. -Mark

I was in the beer store yesterday and, as usual, three mouthbreathing Dave Matthews heads from Phi Kappa Daterape were at the counter buying a case of Coors Light.

I see this all the time, but I don’t get it. The goal of fraternity drinking is to get wasted. So why do frat boys always buy light beer? Wouldn’t something shitty like Busch, or a couple of 40s, get them even more wasted, more efficiently?

I asked the clerk what she thought. She shrugged. “Maybe they’re watching their figures.” Yeah. They probably rdered a diet pizza to go with the beer.

Rant over.

Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia- the Baltic Nations- derive most foreign influence on their culture from their immediate neighbors (principally Russia, their post-war occupiers untill 1990), but did you know there’s a direct, delicious link between their beer and that of England?

Beginning in the late 18th century, the porter breweries of England began searching for continental export markets. Since the North Sea and the Baltic provided a natural shipping route to the Scandinavian and Baltic countries. English porter soon found devotees in the aforementioned countries, as well as in Sweden, Finland, and Poland.

Around the same time, English breweries started exporting stout and porter to Czarist Russia. Because the voyage was long an cold, the beer was made extra strong. It soon found favor in all levels of Russian society, even in the Imperial court itself.

This “Imperial Stout” became a style in its own right, and countries along the shipping route began to adopt recipes for a mishmash of porter and strong stout. Today’s Baltic porter is a style in its own right. Dark and complex, with caramel coloring and a mild but noticeble roasted flavor, Baltic porters are more interesting than their English cousins. For all their opacity and flavor, however, they’re surprisingly light in body, reminiscent of a German Dunkel. They’re also on the strong side at around 5.5%-7% abv.

I’ve never seen a Baltic porter in a bar. When beer shopping, look for Okocim Porter, (Poland), Aldaris (Latvia), and Saku (Estonia) among others.

Doppelbock: the German antidote to light beer

Monastic life seems kind of a downer; early mornings, chores, silence, no foosball table in the Abbey, pretty boring stuff. Lift a German Doppelbock to your lips, however, and you start to think those medieval monks had a good thing going.

Originally brewed in the Alps to provide Franciscan monks with sustenance when fasting, Doppelbock (double bock) is an offshoot of the traditional spring bock lager, already strong in its own right. In comparison, Doppelbock is a darker more filling beer, very sweet, with a chewy mouthfeel, roasted character and powerful alcoholic kick, making this style better for a nightcap than a ballgame.

You can usually identify a Doppelbock by its name. By tradition, it will end in the suffix –ator (as in Celebrator, Salvator or Kulminator). American breweries have largely carried on this tradition.

Technically, Dopppelbocks are seasonal spring beers, historically consumed in March and April. That’s when you’ll fund the widest variety. Demand is strong all year round, however, and the prominent German Brands are pretty much always available.

Probably the easiest one to find is Spaten Optimator from Munich’s Spaten brewery. This deep caramel colored beer has a modest head, with only a slight discernible aroma. Expect a very pronounced and pleasantly sweet barley malt flavor that lingers after you sip.

Like all Doppelbock lagers, Optimator is no beer for a hophead. The hops are there, but way back in the mix, serving more to keep the sweetness in check than to add to the flavor profile. Believe us; you’d miss them if they weren’t there (although the resulting liquid might be good on pancakes). Optimator is currently featured on tap at The Old Toad, 277 Alexander Street, and at all specialty beer stores.

Ayinger Celebrator, brewed in Aying, Germany, can sometimes be found in pubs that cater to beer geeks. It shares Optimator’s malt sweetness, but it’s darker and, according to some connoisseurs, more rich and complex in flavor. The bottles come with a little plastic goat on a string wrapped around the neck. It looks good hanging from your rear-view mirror.

One of our favorite Doppelbocks, Tucher Bajuvator, is brewed in Nuremburg, well north of Munich and the Alps. The Tucher Brewery is best known for a range of second-rate (by German standards) wheat beers, and Bajuvator is a surprising gem in their product line. It’s darker than Optimator, and much more dry on the palate. Because of the reduction in sweetness, the other complexities of the roasted malt are more appreciable. There’s a subtle rye bread flavor that really sets this beer apart. You won’t find Bajuvator on tap anywhere in town, but it’s available in bottles at Beers of the World.

Doppelbock is less common among American microbreweries. Its long lagering time and intricate decoction mashing technique make it demanding and expensive to brew, and doesn’t sell as well as the IPAs and pale ales that dominate the indie beer scene. If you find one, there’s a good chance it’s straying away from the style.

Some micros, however, create a fine Doppel. The consistently excellent Wagner Valley Brewing Company of Lodi, New York offers Sled Dog Doppelbock, a former gold-medal winner at the Great American Brew Fest in Boulder, Colorado. It shares Optimator’s buckwheat honey color and thick mouthfeel. A slight hop nudge in the aftertaste is the only clue that Sled Dog didn’t come off the boat from Germany. Look for it in bottles at specialty beer stores.

Doppelbocks are quite filling in their own right, but go well with German cuisine. Forget about pairing them with subtle foods or fish. Go for steak and lamb dishes, or save them for dessert. Careful, though. At 7-8.5% alcohol by volume, there’s enough alcohol in these beers to staple a Coors Light drinker’s lips together for hours. Like that’s a bad thing.

In other beers:

• The Rohrbach Brewing Company has released a Vanilla porter, dark with a pleasant cream-soda touch. Find this unique style at Johnny’s Irish Pub, among other places, or try it at the Brewery on Buffalo Road.

• Green King IPA, from England’s Green King Brewery, known for Old Speckled Hen, is popping up around town. A pint of Green King will demonstrate the difference between a British IPA and its more florally aromatic cousins from the Pacific Northwest. Several places are carbonating it with nitrogen, which makes for a creamier, less bubbly beer.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and former commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com