bottle color

Any thoughts on conditioning beer in clear and green bottles and not just the brown bottles? I have a lot of green and clear bottles I can use and would condition them in a completely dark closet in my basement.

As long as there in a dark place I can't see there being a problem.

That's what I wanted to hear because I just spent most of the day washing them. They were nasty so it took a long time of soaking and rinsing!

Beer bottle color is a bit overblown. Yes, brown bottles filter more UV than clear or green, but if you keep them out of the light for the most part, it's fine. The biggest problem is that if you ever send your green or clear bottles to a competition, some bonehead judge is immediately going to write down "light struck" on your score sheet whether it is or not.

Prosit!

All I know is that whenever I drink Heineken or anything else out of green bottles, it always tastes like skunky ass. I pass on green or clear bottles for just about any beer.

I use clear (corona) and green (dos equis) bottles all the time. I just put them in a box and put the box in a closet where no light can get to them. I've had no problems at all. I do have a lot of brown bottles too. I can tell no difference in the taste. So...IMO as long as you keep them away from light, use them!!

cowain said:

All I know is that whenever I drink Heineken or anything else out of green bottles, it always tastes like skunky ass. I pass on green or clear bottles for just about any beer.

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Try Beck's or St. Paulie Girl. That's good German beer, not that skunky ass Heineken beer from Holland. It's not the bottle color. After all, Bud comes in dark amber bottles and it's about as nasty as it gets.

Like Igorstien said...after bottling keep them out tof the light as much as possible and put them in a cardboard box to condition.

If what you have is clear and green bottles why not use them? Goes hand in hand with home brewing if you ask me. I bet your home brew will taste mighty fine from a green bottle. You know to keep them out of direct light so go for it!

Prost! said:

Try Beck's or St. Paulie Girl. That's good German beer, not that skunky ass Heineken beer from Holland. It's not the bottle color. After all, Bud comes in dark amber bottles and it's about as nasty as it gets.

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Maybe you have better beer stores/demand where you are. Every beer I've ever had out of a green bottle was skunked. All beer here will sit in the cooler at the store for at least a few days under the lights before I can buy it, so by the time I get it, it's skunked.

I wish they'd all just put the crap in brown bottles or ceramic (e.g. Delirium Tremens) would be even better.

Since it's actually blue/green visible light that skunks the beer, florescents might be even worse than sun light...

I bottled in corona bottles for several years before I switched to kegs. they worked just fine and were easier to clean since they had no paper lables on them. Just make sure to keep them in a dark place in a box. I left some out for a while once and they skunked really quick.

I use brown bottles for nearly all of my bottling, but I like to use a couple clear bottles (usually newcastle) in each batch, just to monitor the bottle conditioning stage. It works really nicely.

All beer here will sit in the cooler at the store for at least a few days under the lights before I can buy it, so by the time I get it, it's skunked.

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And you wonder why they were skunked? It's not so much the bottle as it is the time exposed to the light, brown bottles just lengthen that time. Keep your beer in the dark and it wont matter. If ya think about it brown bottles are for the lazy or stupid who cant figure this out.

DISCLAIMER
I too use brown bottles so I'm not saying people who do are lazy or stupid. I also use clear bottles. Hell I use what ever I can get from the beer store for $1.20 a case. No matter what I use I keep all my beer in a case, in the dark cornor of the basement

One way to avoid light contamination of commercial beers is to buy by the case rather than by six packs. This way, light is never an issue.