Clear glass bottles

[meirion658]

Hi there I have just been offered a shed load of clear 500ml glass bottles and wondering should I store my homebrew in them? I tend brew the Belgian style ales and have always used dark brown bottles in past. They will be used in a fermentation fridge and conditioned in one as well. What your thoughts on clear bottles?

 

[MickDundee]

As long as they are kept away from sunlight they should be fine.

 

[stevey]

Clear bottles don't seem to do any harm to Newcastle brown, or most of shepherd neames and badgers beers, to name just a couple. Bright supermarket lights don't seem to affect them either.
As MickDundee says, just store them out of direct sunlight and your clear bottles will be fine, at least until you get fed up with faffing around with bottles and decide to buy some kegs. :wink:

 

[Sadfield]

Double post, sorry.

 

[Sadfield]

Clear bottles don't seem to do any harm to Newcastle brown, or most of shepherd neames and badgers beers, to name just a couple. Bright supermarket lights don't seem to affect them either.
As MickDundee says, just store them out of direct sunlight and your clear bottles will be fine, at least until you get fed up with faffing around with bottles and decide to buy some kegs. :wink:

Newcy etc are formulated to not suffer from being light struck, by being brewed with isomerised hop products instead of conventional bittering hops.

It's worth stating that brown bottles only provide better protection (approximately four times) and are not "lightstruck" proof. Cans are though.

For the OP though, the general low bitterness of Belgian ales will work in their favour.

"Inspiration is the impact of a fact on a well-prepared mind" Louis Pasteur

 

[Bigcol49]

Newcy etc are formulated to not suffer from being light struck, by being brewed with isomerised hop products instead of conventional bittering hops.

Hi!
I thought isomerised hop products were only recently made available. Did the makers use them in the 1920s when the beer was first sold?

 

[Leon103]

Hi!
I thought isomerised hop products were only recently made available. Did the makers use them in the 1920s when the beer was first sold?

No but we had less greenhouse gases and less issues from uv light

 

[Thumper]

Plus I bet it wasn't always sold in clear bottles.

 

[GerritT]

Big advantage of clear bottles is: you can see whether they're clean after rinsing and washing. And pouring is cleaner because you see the tentacles of trub in advance.
My situation is that there is hardly room for proper longtime storage so my brews are in boxes in back of cupboards anyway already.
It'll be alright :thumb:

 

[chub1]

I use some clear glass bottles,i do keep em out of any bright light,so far never had a problem.

 

[Sadfield]

Hi!
I thought isomerised hop products were only recently made available. Did the makers use them in the 1920s when the beer was first sold?

Interesting point. The mechanism for light struck beer has been known since the 1960s, so either Newcy Brown is brewed with isomerised hop extract or they willingly let their beer potentially become light struck, as they will be aware that clear bottles offer no protection. Perhaps they accept it was historically part of their flavour profile. As I mentioned before, low bittering rate will work to their advantage.

EDIT: This patent application suggests hop extracts have been around for a while. https://www.google.co.uk/patents/US3765903




"Inspiration is the impact of a fact on a well-prepared mind" Louis Pasteur

 

[Sadfield]

Just for clarification. Clear bottles and brown bottles are both fine for beer, if you take reasonable steps to keep them out of light. Brown offer marginally better protection, in the same way that sunglasses do, but I still wouldn't endorse staring at the sun in them. Light strike will happen quite quickly, but the degree to the effect and perceptibility will vary with exposer time, and from beer to beer and drinker to drinker.

"Inspiration is the impact of a fact on a well-prepared mind" Louis Pasteur

 

[Bigcol49]

Plus I bet it wasn't always sold in clear bottles.

Hi!
As far as I know it was packed in clear bottles from day 1.

 

[Bigcol49]

Brown offer marginally better protection . . .

Hi!
I think "marginally" may be understating things.

 

[Sadfield]

That's the rub with people not liking science, 'marginally' is a very subjective thing. :lol:

Having done a deliberate skunking taste off experiment at a homebrew club, its shocking how much difference a few weeks in diffused daylight even with brown bottles can make. I read somewhere brown offers 4 times the protection of green. They say clear bottled beer can become light-struck in less than one minute in bright sun and a few hours in diffuse daylight.

 

[stevey]

Newcy etc are formulated to not suffer from being light struck, by being brewed with isomerised hop products instead of conventional bittering hops.

It's worth stating that brown bottles only provide better protection (approximately four times) and are not "lightstruck" proof. Cans are though.

For the OP though, the general low bitterness of Belgian ales will work in their favour.

"Inspiration is the impact of a fact on a well-prepared mind" Louis Pasteur

Shepherd neame most definitely use conventional hop pellets.

 

[stevey]

That's the rub with people not liking science, 'marginally' is a very subjective thing. :lol:

Having done a deliberate skunking taste off experiment at a homebrew club, its shocking how much difference a few weeks in diffused daylight even with brown bottles can make. I read somewhere brown offers 4 times the protection of green. They say clear bottled beer can become light-struck in less than one minute in bright sun and a few hours in diffuse daylight.

Who's they? So when all those bottles are being loaded onto a truck in summer, to be delivered to shops and pubs; the beer's already knackered before it's even on the lorry?
Also your deliberate skunking results disproved your own statement, your brown bottled beer would have been light struck in 4 minutes if what you say is true.
I love science, just ain't keen on bull****.

 

[Sadfield]

Who's they? So when all those bottles are being loaded onto a truck in summer, to be delivered to shops and pubs; the beer's already knackered before it's even on the lorry?
Also your deliberate skunking results disproved your own statement, your brown bottled beer would have been light struck in 4 minutes if what you say is true.
I love science, just ain't keen on bull****.

Quite possibly. I've quite often seen the assertion that skunking can take minutes.

https://beersensoryscience.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/lightstruck/

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-three-myths-about-skunky-beer-20140411-story.html

https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/beersci-why-you-should-never-drink-beer-clear-glass-bottle#page-3

 

[Bigcol49]

Having done a deliberate skunking taste off experiment

Hi!
Isn't one of the issues with beer tasting the fact that it is subjective? There are some who can detect dicetyl in a beer that others would find acceptable.
There is sufficient anecdotal evidence that beer in the glass in full sun will become light struck very quickly - a matter of minutes, if not seconds.
Some brewers have used green bottles in the past to distinguish their premium beer from their standard brew, and continue to do so even though there is no real advantage over clear glass.
Brown bottles seem to be the norm - I don't store them in full sun but I don't worry about keeping them in total darkness.

 

[stevey]

Best not sit in a beer garden next summer then.