velorider11

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Hi, all. Just wonedering if anyone knows the effect that incandescent light will have on fermenting wort. I ferment in a glass car boy that gets no daylight but there are incandescent bulbs lit in the area often. Thanks

devilishprune

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Almost any light can skunk beer. I'm pretty sure that even incandescent puts out some amount of UV light, which is what you don't want. If you're worried about it, throw a t-shirt on that bad boy and call it a day.

krops13

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I just guessing here, I don't think incandescent light [B]often[B] is enough to bother it. But I think a good place to start looking is what wave length of sunlight skunks up hops, then see how similar the wave length of incandescent light has.

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Walker

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incandescent light won't hurt your beer. it's UV light that causes the skunking of hops, so you should avoid sunlight and flourescents, but an incandescent bulb won't harm it.

I use a homemade heater to control my ferm temps in the winter because my ferm fridge is in the garage and drops below ale yeast range. That heater is just a thermostat that turns on a 40W lightbulb. I've been using it for years now, and there has never been any issue.

edit: *if* an incandescent bulb emits UV, it appears to not be enough to cause any problems based on my yearly experiences in the winter with this heater sitting right next to my glass carboys in the fridge in the garage.

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Jawbox0

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Why not just throw a TShirt on it, then you have no worries whatsoever

conpewter

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Incandescent bulbs don't generally put out enough energy below 440 nm to be of concern. I ferment without anything on the fermenters, but most of mine are in the freezer or in a cabinet. If I had it out in a room where the light was on all the time I'd probably throw a shirt over it, but wouldn't really be necessary unless you have fluorescent lights.

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malkore

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This. normal incandescents don't throw enough UV to matter. They're better at producing heat than light anyhow.

Screw-in fluorescents and all standard fluorescents as well as halogen bulbs DO throw enough UV to matter (store lights skunk heiniken bottles...)

LED's do not produce UV light either.

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jmferris

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Even though I keep my carboys in a low-light area (until I can keep them in the darkness in what hopefully will be a winter fermentation chamber build), I find that a large bath towel wraps around a 6.5 gallon carboy nicely. Just tuck the top corner in behind itself where it meets and it allows me to quickly take a peek if I am so inclined.

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dlandryqb

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Hello All - So my apartment here in CT is kept at about 60 degrees. Too cold for ale brewing. So, while my beer is fermenting in the glass carboy, it is wrapped in a dark blue towel and some Christmas lights (better than a tree!). The lights penetrate the towel somewhat, but only very dimly. Would this have the potential to alter the taste of my ale, or would the fact that the lights are a) incandescent and b) very dim prevent any real off flavors? Anyone that has direct experience please let me know what you think...I won't know for sure until 3 weeks from now and want to rest assured that I'm ok. Thanks!

Julohan

Recipes 

A store I work at has fluorescents lights in the beer cooler. The front beers are always skunked. So what I have read is, if the lights were switched to incandescent or LED bulbs, the beer would be perfectly fine.