Does incandescent light have an effect on fermenting wort?

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

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.

I just guessing here, I don't think incandescent light often 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.

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.

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

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.

conpewter said:

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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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.

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.

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!

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.

What about a Blacklight?

Will this LED lights work for 8 12 hours of light a day? The first is neutral white the second warm white.

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8hrs in fluorescent light is equivalent to 1 minute in sunlight.

Considering amber glass only transmits 5% - 30% (~20% on average) of UV light (depending on spectrum), a beer sitting under fluorescent lighting for a week (168hrs / 8hrs) * 0.2 = 4 minutes in the sun.

Necrothread, but I did some digging regarding incandescent bulbs recently.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/temp-control-263434/index2.html#post3191573

Executive summary: incandescents can skunk your beer, in theory.

Those charts were for LED. Will they work at the NM that is measured?

Julohan said:

Those charts were for LED. Will they work at the NM that is measured?

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I wouldn't use them personally. Aquarium heaters or iguana pads work just as well and don't have the potential skunking issue.

Like I said, this is for a beer cooler at a store. Does anyone know the answer?

Oh, for some reason I thought this was for a fermentation chamber. These should be fine for store display, since the bottles will be brown.

Gentlemen, the the light spectrum is divided into several parts and the damaging part for beer is UV light (shortwaves like Violet 380-450 nm, blue 440-490 nm and green 500-570 nm).
If we use light with a higher wavelength, the UV light does will not exist, like red light 620-740 nm( not infrared because isn't visible light, but is perceptible as heat).

Totally sure all were waiting with bated breath for that follow-up...four years later...

Cheers! (And welcome to HomeBrewTalk )

day_trippr said:

Totally sure all were waiting with bated breath for that follow-up...four years later...

Cheers! (And welcome to HomeBrewTalk )

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Thank you, I apologize if there are any errors in English.

Thank you, I apologize if there are any errors in English.

VonSchmitt said:

Thank you, I apologize if there are any errors in English.

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Hardly. You're English is perfect.
My German is appalling, so I won't subject anyone to it

A store display lit up with red lamps would be kinda cool, actually.
For my own needs I'll stick with unlit chambers...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

A store display lit up with red lamps would be kinda cool, actually.

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It would just attract all the prostitutes.