Beer Fermented in Sunlight - Am I screwed?

Well to put it simply, I have just been told that my beer has been fermenting in direct sunlight the past 3 days in my garage. (I work during the day so I never noticed myself)

I'm just curious, how bad is this beer probably going to taste now? It's been fermenting in a clear glass carboy, so it hasn't been shielded from the sun at all. I know I have read that light in general can do some damage, so I'm concerned that I might have ruined it by leaving it sit in direct sunlight for so long.

Any predictions or future advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

unionrdr said:

We always cover our fermenters with at least a dark colored tee shirt to keep sunlight from skunking the beer. In your case,I'd say it depends on how long light coming through the garage window(s) is striking it directly. Indirect wouldn't be quite as bad.

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It was probably hitting it directly for a couple hours a day at least, and indirectly for the remainder of the day. I'm really hoping that it doesn't turn out to be skunked.

Only way you'll really know is to taste it... I would suggest making sure it doesn't happen again.

Personally, I'm fermenting in kegs now. Actually going to pick up a 1/4 barrel keg today to use. Perfect timing since my order of two 25L kegs won't arrive until the end of next week, and I'm brewing on Sunday. Now I won't need to use a blow-off tube, at all, nor worry about head space. :rockin: Just need to adjust my recipe so that I'll be putting closer to 5.25-5.5 gallons into ferment.

Probably damaged
But you wont know how much for atleast 3-4 weeks

greekstallion said:

It was probably hitting it directly for a couple hours a day at least, and indirectly for the remainder of the day. I'm really hoping that it doesn't turn out to be skunked.

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what kind of beer is it? the darker the better as far as skunk avoidance.

All stainless baby... The 1/4 is 7.75 gallons, so I'll have zero issues there. The two (brand new) 25L kegs will be nice to use too. I'll probably end up using the 1/4 keg for my big barley wine that's in the works. That way I can pitch the right amount of yeast and still have enough beer to bottle 5 gallons.

I've been fermenting in 1/6 kegs with great results. Only had one blow into the airlock so far. That was with fresh yeast (the others were with washed yeast)...

I won't be serving from these kegs. I have aged in them before, which works out really great too. It is easy to rack into/from them. Cleaning them isn't an issue either. Just use PBW and the keg cleaner on a drill and you're done. I put in some mixed up StarSan before I head over to my brew buddy's place and swirl it around to coat the inside while I'm brewing. Just before I'm ready to drain into the keg, I dump the StarSan out. It's easy to carry these suckers too. Built in handles are nice... Easier than the old buckets.

I could go on about how bitchin it is to ferment in kegs, but I need to head out to get my new one. Going to ferment my mocha porter in it using Wyeast 1882-PC Thames Valley II yeast, starting tomorrow... :rockin:

discnjh said:

what kind of beer is it? the darker the better as far as skunk avoidance.

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It's a brown ale, so it's pretty dark. It looks like 2 of the past 3 days were pretty cloudy for most of the day too according to weather.com.

it's the hops + sunlight that = SKUNK. depends on how heavily hopped the beer is but chances are good you got the skunk. I'd drink it anyways.

I was watching Beer Wars the other day and the owner of a major microbrewery was being interviewed in his home - at one point they cut to a clear carboy with a batch of beer fermenting in direct sun on the windows sill. Didn't know what to make of that...

gleytch said:

I was watching Beer Wars the other day and the owner of a major microbrewery was being interviewed in his home - at one point they cut to a clear carboy with a batch of beer fermenting in direct sun on the windows sill. Didn't know what to make of that...

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That shot was set up by the photographer/videographer. At least that's what Sam claims.

gleytch said:

I was watching Beer Wars the other day and the owner of a major microbrewery was being interviewed in his home - at one point they cut to a clear carboy with a batch of beer fermenting in direct sun on the windows sill. Didn't know what to make of that...

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That was Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head). I'm guessing the carboy was moved into the window for the video... Sam knows better.

As pointed out before, it is the hop oils that are affected by the short wavelengths of light that cause skunking. A brown ale is a neutral (i.e., ~ 0.5 bitterness ration) beer, but because it is dark I'd guess you won't have a problem. I think this is yet another case of RDWHAHB. Don't do this with a german pilsner... that would probably be bad.

One of my earliest brews was a brown ale that i put in my pantry. My roommate would go in there and leave it open (without me knowing he was doing this) for the first few days.

I bottled it a week and a half later, it had a slightly skunked aroma but tasted fine and after a couple weeks the aroma faded, so not sure if it was just part of the batch that got light struck due to inconsistent direct light or if that effect can fade (honestly didn't bother to research it, I just told the roommate don't leave the frigging door open when you're done in there) but that might be wotrh looking into for a dark ale. If you can forget about it for a month (brew something else in the meantime) it might be unnoticeable.

greekstallion said:

It's a brown ale, so it's pretty dark. It looks like 2 of the past 3 days were pretty cloudy for most of the day too according to weather.com.

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So, it'll taste just like an exposed six of Newcastle that's been on the grocery shelf for 5 months. People pay good money for that.

Golddiggie - do you have pictures of your keg fermenter? I have been thinking about doing the same thing with a pony keg and glass lid w/bubbler.

Having a 12 inch opening sure would make cleaning a whole log easier. Not as pretty as glass but a heck of a lot more durable.

I have some pictures in my gallery here. I'll post them in this thread when I get home tonight. I just can't get there from heyah.

great discussion. I don't have anything to add, but this is a great thread.

ultravista said:

Golddiggie - do you have pictures of your keg fermenter? I have been thinking about doing the same thing with a pony keg and glass lid w/bubbler.

Having a 12 inch opening sure would make cleaning a whole log easier. Not as pretty as glass but a heck of a lot more durable.

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So here's some pictures of my keg fermenters. Keep in mind, I'm not cutting them to make the openings larger (yet), simply installing a bung and airlock where the valve usually goes (on the Sanke kegs)...

Picture of two 1/6 kegs (back), two brand new 25L (left) kegs and a pony keg (right) ready for action...


Corny keg in action...


The three kegs that are slated for use as primaries since they're either 6.6 or 7.75 gallons.


I do plan on getting either another pony keg, or one (or two) more of the 25L kegs soon. I'd prefer to have four primaries on hand, so that I can brew every two weeks/weekends and not have to scramble to locate a primary. I'll probably still do the occasional batch in the 1/6 kegs, but more likely those will be used for aging batches.

Of course, it helps to have good kettles to cook with...


The Blichmann 10 gallon was purchased over this past weekend. The other is the 32qt aluminum pot that I converted into a kettle. Male QD's are on both ball valves, so that I can run water/wort out of them easily. I'll be uploading an image of my new Chillhog 4000 configured and ready for use (popping it's cherry with the next batch)...

Well, I thought I'd update this post with some information. I finally bottled it and let it condition. I still plan on letting it sit for a couple weeks, but I thought I would try one just to see if it was still good. I thought it tasted kind of rough, but I hope that's just due the the lack of aging. My friends both said it tasted fine, with one even saying it kind of tasted like new castle. I'm not sure if he knew New Castle was a brown ale, so......



......Hopefully I don't make so many mistakes for my next batch though.

.

greekstallion said:

Well, I thought I'd update this post with some information. I finally bottled it and let it condition. I still plan on letting it sit for a couple weeks, but I thought I would try one just to see if it was still good. I thought it tasted kind of rough, but I hope that's just due the the lack of aging. My friends both said it tasted fine, with one even saying it kind of tasted like new castle. I'm not sure if he knew New Castle was a brown ale, so......

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New Castle is very often skunked due to the clear bottles (similar taste to fermenting in sunlight )

You should be able to get a scent from the blow-off tube. What does it smell like? That should be a good indicator.

$0.25 bet says its OK.

..any updates?