Why do we even bother with brown beer bottles?

[Little Rock Brewing]

I use a mix of brown and green. Brown because Rekordalig labels are a doddle to get off and green Grolsch swingtops because people keep giving me them! I also use a tiny 200ml clear Coke bottle for viewing pleasure.

 

[dave_77]

I can't think of to many quality beers that are packaged in clear bottles. Fine for home brew if your storing carefully. As @Sadfield mentioned I'm sure some of these commercial beers in clear have been treated differently before packaging. I actually don't like to see the sludge at the bottom of the bottle however ever clear it looks on top, think brown bottles look better.

 

[Cwrw666]

I use a mix of brown and green.

Same here. Very dark brown ones go in the recycling as I can't see the level when I'm filling them.
Only an idiot would store their beer on a windowledge so that test is just stupid.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I can't think of to many quality beers that are packaged in clear bottles. Fine for home brew if your storing carefully. As @Sadfield mentioned I'm sure some of these commercial beers in clear have been treated differently before packaging. I actually don't like to see the sludge at the bottom of the bottle however ever clear it looks on top, think brown bottles look better.

Mexican beers are in clear bottles and it’s pretty sunny there.

 

[barry.morgan71]

Both Abbott and Abbott Reserve from Greene King come in clear bottles, both of which I drink from time to time so I have many clear bottles. I also drink a bottle conditioned Bitter from a very small local micro brewery which come in brown bottles so I have a mixture and don't notice a difference.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Brewing myth as said above who puts bottles on the window ledge?

 

[MrRook]

Those bottles of commercial beer: Spitfire, Newky Brown, Brains SA, etc that sit on the supermarket shelf in clear bottles; doesn't seem to do them any harm.

A component of hops will give off a skunky aroma and taste if exposed to very much light. Some brewers use hops that have been treated to minimize this component and their beers don't react to light nearly as much.

 

[Sadfield]

Brewing myth as said above who puts bottles on the window ledge?

How the hell can it be a myth when scientists have researched and detailed the mechanism of this over a hundred years ago, leading to numerous solutions to mitigate the problem being invented?

https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/eIXf22Zwnt/
It's possible that people aren't picking up on this as they haven't tasted their homebrew without it, given how quickly it can occur. As previously stated, its a simple experiment to carry out. You may pick up on a difference, you may not. You may find a simple way to improve your beer, you may not. Worth investigating, isn't it?

http://edsbeer.blogspot.com/2009/04/drunk-as-skunk.html?m=1

 

[Snrub]

Way I see it, we put so much effort (and expense) into brew day, controlling fermentation, then bottling - why would you take the risk of degrading that beer? There's enough research to say light = bad for beer, that it makes sense to avoid it as far as possible right?

I happen to have a shed load of clear bottles in my collection as I picked up 200+ early in my brewing career when bottles were in short supply. I'll happily use them, but I make damn sure they're exposed to light for as short a time as possible

 

[moto748]

Do you believe artificial light can have any significant effect?

 

[Sadfield]

Do you believe artificial light can have any significant effect?

Yes, although old style filament bulbs might be OK. It's the uv and mainly blue portion of visible light that has the greatest impact, and can be instantaneous. For example, there's a tendency in retail to use TL84 fluorescent tubes that have a wavelength of 380nm and upwards, being slightly warmer than artificial daylight. Light strike happens with light of 400-500nm wavelength.

 

[DCBC]

I don't mind a bit of skunking in some styles (I think with Mexican lagers it's even part of the flavour profile) but I do notice significant skunking of hoppy beers with clear bottles compared to brown, which is neither intended nor very nice to drink! So I use brown for most of my batch but include one or two clear bottles so I can see the colour of the batch clearly and so it's easy to see when it drops clear after conditioning.