Brown vs Clear

So I recently brewed American pale ale and bottled it all in brown bottles except for six bottles (clear Newcastle bottles). It has been in bottles for 16 days now and I've tried it along the way (3,7,16 days). So tonight I go and open up one of the clear bottles and notice that it is much more carbonated than the brown bottles are. All the bottles are in boxes so no light get to them. Has anyone experienced this before with bottle color? By the way as light beer goes its dead on to the big boys.

I'm curious to know the answer to your question as well. Last Saturday I bottled my Scotch Ale in both brown bottles and a few in clear Newcastle bottles. Haven't tasted any yet though.

Another somewhat related question: should I be seeing any activity in these bottles to know that everything is going well with my brew (such as bubbles forming or anything like that)?

most likely poor mixture of priming sugar and paranoia

Taken from how to brew:

Skunky or cat-musk aromas in beer are caused by photochemical reactions of the isomerized hop compounds. The wavelengths of light that cause the skunky smell are the blue wavelengths and the ultraviolet. Brown glass bottles effectively screen out these wavelengths, but green bottles do not. Skunkiness will result in beers if the beer is left in direct sunlight or stored under fluorescent lights as in supermarkets. In beers which use pre-isomerized hop extract and very little flavoring hop additions, the beer will be fairly immune to damage from ultraviolet light.

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Basically, keep your beer in the dark, and you're fine. If you're planning on aging this beer for an extended period of time, wrap it up well, stuff it in a box, and hide it away somewhere dark. If you're planning on drinking it fairly soon (within 6 months or so) don't worry about it. Keeping the bottled beer in the fridge should be fine.

Edited: re-read the OP's post. No, clear bottles shouldn't cause that.

Its wierd there is a differance, I'll have to test it on the next brew.

Was the clear one opened on day 16? There is probably a big difference between carbonation on day 7 and 16 no matter what color the bottle.

I opened both types of bottle, maybe its just in my head (the bubbles).

I don't see why the clear bottles would be more carbed than the brown bottles, did you make sure your bottling sugar mixed completely?

Ok so I tried a clear and a brown tonight and the clear is clearly more carbonated that the brown. Ok so this has happened on more than one bottle now so something has to be up. I’m by nature a very careful guy when it comes to procedures and methods so I can’t blame it on my priming sugar getting mixed in well, it was. Of the 54 bottles I have the 6 clear ones were filled almost right in the middle of the count. I just don’t get it but when I pour one out (clear) I get a nice 1/2"-3/4" head and maybe 1/8" if I try hard with the brown. I guess its time to call in the BCSI (Beer Crime scene Investigation)