Never Buy A Case Of Beer That's Located In This Area Of The Store

There's a certain art to store window displays, tailoring them to make passersby feel enticed to enter the shop. This is the case with everything from clothing on mannequins to stacked boxes or bottles of beer. With beer in particular, it can look all the more inviting and refreshing, making it an easy impulse buy. But you should think twice before buying unrefrigerated beer sitting in your local store window. That's because the heat and light that a store window allows can really mess up the quality.

The truth is, you really shouldn't store beer in a warm place at all, but leaving it in the sun is one of the very worst spots. If you pop open a can or bottle of window-display beer, you might find that it tastes unpleasantly acidic, sour, sulphur-like, musty, or stale. This is commonly known as beer being lightstruck or "skunked" (due to the skunky aroma and flavor), and that taste, smell, or weird mouthfeel means the quality has gone drastically downhill. If you're expecting a crisp, clean, and refreshing finish, you won't ever get it with window-display beer, because once it's skunked, you're sunk — it can't be fixed!

Although beer doesn't really go bad in the way that meat or fruit does, it can warp in flavor to the point where it's no longer drinkable. This happens occasionally when beer is exposed to bacterial contamination but more often when it's left in the sun for any amount of time. Strong sunlight has ultraviolet rays that can penetrate bottles, causing a chemical reaction inside. The UV-B in sunlight causes the alpha acids in the hops to photooxidize and react with sulfur contained in the malt. This leads to a strong, skunky smell and a weird flavor from a newly formed compound, 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol (MBT). The reaction can happen in just minutes under the right conditions, so even beer left briefly in a window can start to taste off.

While some stores do use UV-resistant glass for their front windows, many don't, and it can be hard to tell without asking. Darker-colored bottles and cans may slow the rays from getting inside to the beer, but they aren't foolproof either. So, display beer is generally not worth the risk if you're seeking quality.

With the UV rays, the sun supplies a lot of heat that accelerates chemical reactions, such as those caused by ultraviolet rays, making skunkiness occur more rapidly. It can also cause faster aging, which means less carbonation and a stale taste. In the summer, even modern double-pane windows can get incredibly hot sometimes. To make absolutely sure you don't accidentally pick up a case of funky, flat drinks, only buy beer away from the windows. Once home, you can make beer storage simple by keeping it in a cool place and away from natural light.