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Bottle Color And Taste?
I have heard that different bottle colors can cause the beer to taste differently. Has anyone had any experience with this?
The difference in taste and bottle color has to do with the effects of UV light on hop resins. Brown bottles are not subject to this but green and clear bottles should be kept in the dark until ready to consume. The effect is called skunking and if you have ever had green bottled beer you probably have run across this. Miller uses a chemical to offset this in their clear bottles, but then again there isn't much hops in Miller to cause skunking. I've used all three types of bottles with no difference in the taste from bottle to bottle.
Yeah we had a talk about this a while ago. In fact, another member here (I forget who) stated that he felt ANY light caused skunking. That is not true. There is a certainly wavelength of sunlight and UV lights that causes it. In fact, right on John Palmer's web site, he bluntly says the same thing. Regular light bulbs do not skunk beer. I mean no disrespect to that person who disagreed with me, but the thing is, even John Palmer states this right on his web site.
You can leave clear or dark bottles under regular light bulbs without skunking them. How do I know? I have left carboys under my kitchen lights for over 2 hours with no adverse effects.
Brown bottles are the way to go. Dark green should work ok, but they are harder to find, and really, not the best. Clear are fine if you keep them in the dark as dartgod said.
Here is a quick snippet about Miller and their anti-skunking formula:
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There is a way to skunk-proof beer, and it is used by the Miller Brewing Company. Instead of using hop flowers to bitter their beers, they use a special hop extract called tetra-hop. The isomerized alpha-acids in this product have a slightly different molecular structure than naturally isomerized alpha-acids, and are immune to the effects of light. This extract has the added benefit of greatly increasing the foam retention of a beer.
Tetra-hop extract is only used for bittering; it has no aroma. If one brews with any hop constituent other than tetra-hop, the beer will no longer be light-proof, so any beer with hop aroma is subject to skunking. Hop aroma is not desired by Miller’s marketing department, but clear glass bottles are, so tetra-hop works nicely for them.
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I only do brown bottles.
Reason 1: Homebrew looks most attractive in a brown bottle, without a label. I know it is all psychological, just like a cork on a wine bottle.
Reason 2: I have to store my beer on a shelf in the basement because I do not have a second fridge...yet. There is some (though not much) light from some small windows. I also have to wrap my fermenters in a blanket since they are glass carboys.
As far as acquiring the brown bottles, I asked around at work and got several bottles from my co-workers. This was very generous since bottle deposit is 10 cents here in Michigan.
I am preparing to bottle using the cobalt blue 1 liter "Grolsch" type bottles. How would UV light effect that color?
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