Bottling and coloured glass

OK, so this has probably been asked since the invention of glass...Is it better to bottle a mead into clear, green, brown, or other coloured glass?

I am ruling out PET plastic bottles because, although they are cheaper, I don't like the idea of having an alcoholic brew in an environment where the vessel could be leaching petrochemical and other residues into the brew for potentially years (decades?).

I know hops can have a tendency to "skunk" if left in bright conditions in clear glass bottles (another nail in the coffin for Corona).

But what about mead? Honey is unique in that as a raw product, providing it is not subject to moisture (it absorbs moisture like a sponge), and the water content is kept below 18%, it will pretty much never go off, and in some cases, especially manuka, its medicinal properties will get more potent as the glucose (or is that sucrose?!?) decomposes to other sugars and gives off H2O2, or hydrogen peroxide, which is an antimicrobial substance. As far as I'm aware, this is not dependent on light or jar colour. Funny things happen if it is subjected to higher temperatures though (like the production of Hydroxymethylfurfuraldehyde, which is toxic to bees).

Unfortunately, many of raw honey's properties are probably blown through the airlock during primary, but like honey, alcoholic bevvies (esp high ABV) can keep for an exceedingly long time if bottled properly. So what is best?

Mead can still get "light struck", like wine. I'd bottle in any type of bottle, if keeping it in the dark (I have a cellar). If exposed to light, try to minimize it and bottle in brown or green glass.

Thanks. Also, can aging get rid of fusels? I have a 5/6 gal batch which tastes 'hot'. I have never known what fusels taste like, but it this what they are, and will a year sort it out?

Ta

NZ-beekeeper said:

Thanks. Also, can aging get rid of fusels? I have a 5/6 gal batch which tastes 'hot'. I have never known what fusels taste like, but it this what they are, and will a year sort it out?

Ta

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The hot flavor generally comes from a high ABV, and not fusels. If that is the case, it will age out nicely.

Good stuff from Yooper as ever.

Personally I only use green glass bottles (easiest/cheapest around here). Though some like to bottle traditionals in clear glass as it will show off the mead colour so much better.

With fruit based batches, it's the pigmentation that often gets the colour damage, hence those I would definitely suggest coloured glass.

As for aging ? the "alcohol hot" taste can come from either, higher ABV or fusels. You have to read up on fusels and judge from your production method the likelihood of whether it's them or just higher strength from the ingredients.

Bulk aging is routinely recommended, as it allows for a product consistency that you don't get from bottle aging, unless you have temp/climate controlled storage facilities (low 50's F temps with low humidity etc). That's not so say that bottle storage is bad, but it's possible to find some variation in the end results........

fatbloke said:

Good stuff from Yooper as ever.
As for aging ? the "alcohol hot" taste can come from either, higher ABV or fusels. You have to read up on fusels and judge from your production method the likelihood of whether it's them or just higher strength from the ingredients.

Bulk aging is routinely recommended, as it allows for a product consistency that you don't get from bottle aging, unless you have temp/climate controlled storage facilities (low 50's F temps with low humidity etc). That's not so say that bottle storage is bad, but it's possible to find some variation in the end results........

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Yusss. When I took an SG reading early last week it was up over 13%. Will read up on fusels...

As for bottle aging, variation is the spice of life! Besides, I need to free up my 1 and only 23L carboy

Yooper said:

Mead can still get "light struck", like wine. I'd bottle in any type of bottle, if keeping it in the dark (I have a cellar). If exposed to light, try to minimize it and bottle in brown or green glass.

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Can you elaborate on this a bit?
At face value, it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me, given that the light struck/skunking phenomenon refers (I thought) specifically to a reaction between UV light and hop alpha acids...

Thinking further through this, I could see how light could change/decrease the color of a mead if it was, say, a bright red berry melomel...would this affect the flavor though?

I definitely do bottle my hop metheglins in brown bottles though!

biochemedic said:

Can you elaborate on this a bit?
At face value, it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me, given that the light struck/skunking phenomenon refers (I thought) specifically to a reaction between UV light and hop alpha acids...

Thinking further through this, I could see how light could change/decrease the color of a mead if it was, say, a bright red berry melomel...would this affect the flavor though?

I definitely do bottle my hop metheglins in brown bottles though!

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I don't know much about meads, but if it is accepted that particular wavelengths affect the mead, then this graph might be illuminating

As you probably already knew, the blue and clear bottles don't block much UV (which is under 400nm), the green does a medium job, and brown is the best.

This graph also shows both tungsten (incandescent) light spectrum and the suns spectrum. You can see that normal bulbs don't put out much in the blue end. Of course, home lighting is moving to fluorescents, which unfortunately wasn't in this graph.

passedpawn said:

I don't know much about meads, but if it is accepted that particular wavelengths affect the mead, then this graph might be illuminating

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I see what you did there!!! That really is a good illustration of light and coloured bottles. Unfortunately my 6 gal carboy is clear, so I wrap it in a feather-down sleeping bag. That way, the yeast can't complain about being uncomfortable