At What Point Do I Need To Avoid Light?

I just made my first bath of all grain yesterday, BierMuncher's Guinness clone. Since my kitchen stove doesn't have the guts for a 7 gallon boil, I bought a propane stove and brewed on my back deck on a beautiful Colorado day.

My question is... Did I make a mistake by brewing in the sun? At what point do I need to avoid the effects of light and what are they? I brewed my first batch at a friends house this past summer and I remember him turning down the lights and closing the window shades but I can't remember when it was important.

Thanks,

Brian

You need to avoid light after you've added yeast basically (Even then you have time until fermentation starts). Beer doesn't skunk without riboflavin which the yeast will create.

I've brewed in the sunlight a lot of times, as have countless others, turns out just fine.

No, most of us brew outside, light at that point is fine. It's once fermentation begins that light can affect the hops and skunk our beer.

Relax, they've been brewing in the light of day for hundreds of years. Just like this;

Thanks for the quick response. I figured that brewing in darkness didn't make much sense. My first all-grain batch went so smoothly that I guess I needed something to worry about.

As a quick pointer, I usually modify the cardboard box that the carboys come in to fit over the fermenting beer. This does two things (my theory at least) first, it provides a barrier from light and second, provides some insulation from temperature fluctuations!