bottle colour

[the_bing]

i understand that the bottle colour prevents light from spoiling beer but is there any different between green and brown (or even blue for that matter...)?

i'm looking to expand my bottle stocks to brew more

 

[graysalchemy]

Yes you really need brown to stop hop skunking. However if you can keep them in the dark or in sealed cardboard boxes you can use clear or green. Many of us have or do use them as a stop gap but it is the keep collecting until you have all that you need in brown.

 

[the_bing]

sweet.

will do :thumb:

 

[cask is best]

I mostly have brown but i like to fill several with plastic coke or lucazade bottles. It gives me an idea if they have carbed up correctly something you can't tell with glass.
As said brown is best because ultra violet light can't pass through brown glass skunking is the blue wavelenghts of ultra violet light reacting with the hops.i think it's the same chemicals that skunks produce hence the name. If you can't get all brown ones just keep them in the dark even away from artificial lighting

 

[the_bing]

thats odd when you can buy beer in the supermarket (old speckled hen, for instance) that come in clear bottles.

I guess there's another process that the mainstream brewers use that allows clear glass to be used...

 

[Aleman]

thats odd when you can buy beer in the supermarket (old speckled hen, for instance) that come in clear bottles.

I guess there's another process that the mainstream brewers use that allows clear glass to be used...

No it's just that drinkers have become used to that flavour / aroma so they don't know what the beer should taste like.





Actually some brewers do use a 'modified' hop product that does not skunk in clear / green bottles.

 

[cask is best]

Its all to do with marketing too.
No special process used.

 

[graysalchemy]

As aleman says they use modified hops. And yes it is all about marketing like all commercial 'beer'.

 

[desmosteve]

Supermarkets also use modified lighting that has the more harmful UV light filtered out just in the wine area, and lower levels of light - assume the beer is similarly protected, although maybe some of the more price-driven operators just CBA and leave it............the typical 99p a bottle 3% bargain ale might not be worth it

 

[graysalchemy]

They do indeed but probably not needed in the beer section as anything in clear bottles will be modified and anything in brown won't need it. :thumb:

 

[rpt]

Even before I started home brewing I was never keen on beers that came in clear bottles. They just tasted different. I assumed it was my imagination but I now know there is a difference. Either the modified hops or the light has made the beer less nice. Doesn't taste anything like how I imagine a skunk might taste though.