Skunk in the Primary

Sorry to disappoint, but I really don't have a skunk in my primary bucket. If you read my last post, you might recall that I brewed a batch with a Kveik yeast that is accustomed to warm temperatures, but I pitched cooler than I intended to, so I was monitoring the temperature of the beer as it continued into the low 70s F. I even tried warming it up by wrapping it with a mattress pad. Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly for some sharper brewers than myself), the mattress pad did absolutely nothing!

Plan B. I carried the primary outside and kept it at the bottom of the steps outside of our basement, if only for a short while. However, it was actually quite cool as it sits below our deck, enjoying some shade. I then decided to carry it up the stairs and on the walkway next to the house, at the top of the stairs that lead to the basement door. Well, that's where I made a very, very, stupid mistake.

A little context first. I have a Morebeer fermenting bucket, which is awesome because it includes a spigot and on the inside section of the spigot there is a sediment blocker (it's basically a small slit instead of a full circle that the beer passes through when transferring). That said, the bucket (I have two of them) is just barely translucent, which in a normal room allows enough for one to see the hops and wort crud that sticks to the inside of the bucket after active fermentation, as well as the level of the beer. As you can see in the picture below, you can see through to the beer itself in bright enough light. This, naturally, poses a problem when the beer encounters UV rays.

Hops don't like the sun. They react terribly to sunlight and that's why green bottles, which allow more in, are often "skunky." This is also why brands like Pilsner Urquell finally changed from green to brown bottles about 6 years ago. Yuengling apparently thinks it's not a problem or believe people consume Traditional Lager because it's so cool to drink from a green bottle.

So, several hours later, when I was almost done with work, I decided to bring the bucket back inside. It was about 90 degrees F, which again, is within the range of temperature the yeast like. Immediately I smelled burnt rubber. Not good, but it wasn't clear to me what would cause that. At first, I thought maybe the fluctuation in temperature had killed or stressed the yeast. A day later and that aroma changed slightly as the beer had cooled. It was two dimensional: an undertone of rotten eggs, and then I could recall the primary aroma (yes, pun intended); the same aroma I remember from my early 20s when I would hang with friends and drink European lagers...skunk.

Fellow brewers on Homebrewtalk.com suggested I give it a few days and see if the aroma goes away. No one, including myself, believes that skunk aroma is something that will be fermented out in the same way that a compound like diacetyl is eventually cleaned up by the end of the fermentation process. Still, I spent enough on this batch that I might as well treat it like a science experiment, monitor it and see if any changes arise. I'll learn something for sure, and at least I learned something already: don't ever put a translucent bucket in direct sunlight...a sunk will find its way in.