color of bottle important?

Does a person have to use brown bottles? Can you use the clear Corona bottles since the are not a twist top?
New to brewing (not even 1 batch) and new to 4m.
Thanks for the help

Generally speaking, brown bottles are considered the "best". Sunlight will skunk beer and hence Corona usually tastes the way it does. If you use clear or green bottles then be very sure that they are not exposed to sunlight unless you like skunky beer.

I see no reason why not, just as long as you keep them away from the light Which is why most bottles are brown as it stops the beer skunking

I think green or clear bottles would be fine as long as they are kept in the dark. I make sure to keep mine in cardboard 12 pack boxes in the basement.

I've heard of some folks who bottle one or two from every batch in clear bottles so they can see how the beer looks as it progresses. Sounds like a great idea to me.

I have a different technique to see how the beer looks. I pour it into a glass and drink it.

Just to make sure the info is out there in this thread, blue bottles are no better than green or clear in blocking UV light and preventing skunking. I've seen some nice-looking cobalt swingtops, but you've got to treat them like they were clear.

the_bird said:

Just to make sure the info is out there in this thread, blue bottles are no better than green or clear in blocking UV light and preventing skunking. I've seen some nice-looking cobalt swingtops, but you've got to treat them like they were clear.

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Good to know, thanks. I would have expected them to be better than green.

Torchiest said:

I have a different technique to see how the beer looks. I pour it into a glass and drink it.

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Pour it in a glass and drink it?!?! BRILLIANT!!

I have just made my first brew and am due to bottle it up tomorrow. I'm glad I looked at this thread now as I had never heard this before.

I have a couple of questions, if somebody could help me out:

I have a load of old Newcastle Brown Ale bottles I'm gonna sterilise and use for the bottling, which are all clear. From what I have read above, I now realise that these will have to be stored in the dark - is this correct? )My brew is a bitter, just to make sure we're talking about the same thing.)

Do I have to avoid exposure to any kind of light? How long will light take to have effect on my beer if they are in a lighted room?

Cheers for any advice

Yes, you should keep those clear Newcastle bottles out of the light. If they will be in a lighted room then age them in 12 pack boxes, closets, or anywhere that can protect them from that light.
I don't really know how long is too long, so I just keep them all in the basement until it's time for the fridge.

keep in mind that corona lables are printed right onto the bottle, also people like to drink them with a lime wedge in them....
i found out the hard way

Thanks for all the great info. I'll be starting me first batch soon and this helps me prepare.

Baron von BeeGee said:

Generally speaking, brown bottles are considered the "best". Sunlight will skunk beer and hence Corona usually tastes the way it does.

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I agree that Corona is god awful tasting, but it has little to do with the bottle color, and more to do with the ingredients. This may be urban legend, but I have been told that they use Corn sugar, and little to no hops in the beer. Which is why you need to add the lime wedge, for bitterness (think of it as dry hopping with citrus!)

Corona, along with Newcastle, Samuel Smith, Miller high life and many others, use UV scavenging molecules to prevent lightstruck flavor in their beers. These chemicals prevent the radical oxidation of hop oils, in the beer, resulting in no skunk taste.

My senior year O-chem professor did his doctoral thesis on this, and went into much more detail, which I can't remember due to lack of functioning brain cells

I have never sen anything available to the homebrewer for this purpose, but I think one of the chemicals was quinine. It's probably much easier to avoid the sunlight.

Matt

I knew Miller did that, but I didn't realize Newcastle and Sam Smith did it as well. I do know that Sam Smith recently switched over to brown bottles. At my bar we have a mix of the two right now.