Blacklight in refrigerator

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TheBroonery

TheBroonery

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Today I got the idea to replace the light in my beer fridge with an incandescent blacklight. Hooked it up and it looks pretty sweet.

My queston is, Should I or the Clear Carboy of Lager in there be worried about light from a blacklight affecting the beer the way sunlight and fluorescent light do?
:fro:
 
A black light is likely worse for your beer than most other household light sources. "Skunking" is caused by biochemical reactions that are accelerated through exposure to UV light...exactly the kind of radiation emitted by a black light.
 
Hmm.. so mabye not wise when I have a clear glass carboy in there, but would the brown glass in an ordinary beer bottle block the wavelength? Also, considering that the light is only on when the door is open, perhaps a total of 1 or 2 minutes per 24-hour cycle, should I leave it in or take it out?
 
Though it may look nice, I would take it out. Even brown bottles do not block 100% of UV rays.

I'm not sure if the specifics of my numbers are right, but I remember reading somewhere that it only takes minutes in direct sunlight for beer in a clear glass to start to show signs of "skunking".
 
I threw a T-shirt over the carboy - what do you guys think?

DSCN3061.jpg
 
Did some VERY light reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light

If Wikipedia is to be trusted (and it's not...but this info passes the common sense test):
A black light may also be formed by simply using Wood's glass as the envelope for a common incandescent bulb. This was the method that was used to create the very first black light sources. Although it remains a cheaper alternative to fluorescent tubes, it is exceptionally inefficient at producing UV light since most of the light emitted by the filament is visible light which must be blocked. Due to its black body spectrum, an incandescent light radiates less than 0.1% of its energy as UV light. Incandescent UV bulbs, due to the necessary absorption of the visible light, become very hot during use. This heat is, in fact, encouraged in such bulbs, since a hotter filament increases the proportion of UVA in the black-body radiation emitted.
Click to expand...

So, an incandescent black light may actually be LESS harmful to your beer than a regular white lightbulb due to filtering. However, since the fridge is solely for beer, how about removing the interior light altogether? If you like black lights, do something funky to the exterior of the fridge and mount the incandescent black light near it.
 
Believe it or not, the wavelengths of UV radiation are so small that they will go straight through the small cotton weaves in the Tshirt.

Plus radiation penetrates through things anyways/creates scattering. Ok I'm done. Just feeling very informed after actually reading ahead in my medical physics class haha
 
Yuri_Rage said:
Did some VERY light reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light

If Wikipedia is to be trusted (and it's not...but this info passes the common sense test):


So, an incandescent black light may actually be LESS harmful to your beer than a regular white lightbulb due to filtering. However, since the fridge is solely for beer, how about removing the interior light altogether? If you like black lights, do something funky to the exterior of the fridge and mount the incandescent black light near it.
Click to expand...

Ha! I was just looking at that wikipedia page too! The fridge had 4 bulbs in the main compartment to begin with, but since dedicating it to beer, I had unscrewed all but one of the bulbs which gave plenty of light. If I put the blacklight bulb outside the fridge it would expose the other carboy.. plus I don't like how hot the thing gets - I measured over 500 degrees with a laser thermometer after it was on for just a few minutes before I put in the fridge. At least the fridge keeps it cool!
 
Along the same lines, this is an interesting article regarding the science of "skunking."

http://beersensoryscience.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/lightstruck/

Your black light is designed to transmit wavelengths primarily in the UVA range. Both green and brown bottles offer a measure of protection against the damaging effects of light in that part of the spectrum. Visible light is cited in that article to be most damaging. The black light itself is filtering most of that.
 
So if the blacklight (incandescent type with "woods glass" filter) filters most of the visible light, which is the most damaging; then while it may not be good, it's not worse than an ordinary light bulb. Am I correct or incorrect?
 
Is the light you're using really a blacklight, or is it just a purple incandescent light? Those are two different things. Blacklights shouldn't cast much visible light, some item will reflect the UVA light, but you shouldn't be able to "see" the black light. UVA is not in the visible spectrum ... At least that what I remember from physics in college ...
 
TheBroonery said:
So if the blacklight (incandescent type with "woods glass" filter) filters most of the visible light, which is the most damaging; then while it may not be good, it's not worse than an ordinary light bulb. Am I correct or incorrect?
Click to expand...

I think you'd be correct. it looks like it's the incandescent type, and with the t-shirt, I think all if OK. No worse than the regular light that was in there before.
 
Yuri_Rage said:
Did some VERY light reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light

If Wikipedia is to be trusted (and it's not...but this info passes the common sense test):

So, an incandescent black light may actually be LESS harmful to your beer than a regular white lightbulb due to filtering. However, since the fridge is solely for beer, how about removing the interior light altogether? If you like black lights, do something funky to the exterior of the fridge and mount the incandescent black light near it.
Click to expand...

When I read this I took away that an incandescent black light would emit more uv radiation than a regular incandescent. The filter only blocks visible light and the increase in temperature will increase uv wave emission. Since uv wavelengths are the ones we are worried about, an incandescent blacklight would be worse.

-Aaron
 
Huh???? Are you seriously worrying about UV light inside a fridge?? Exactly how long do you plan on keeping the door open???? Or am I missing something?

:confused:
 
Bernie Brewer said:
Huh???? Are you seriously worrying about UV light inside a fridge?? Exactly how long do you plan on keeping the door open???? Or am I missing something?

:confused:
Click to expand...

I've read that it can happen in as little as 10-12 minutes .... Over the course of a month @ 30 sec open per day, you could get to 10-12 minutes easily. Of course, I guess I don't know if skunking is cumulative like that or not ...
 
Flywheel said:
I've read that it can happen in as little as 10-12 minutes .... Over the course of a month @ 30 sec open per day, you could get to 10-12 minutes easily. Of course, I guess I don't know if skunking is cumulative like that or not ...
Click to expand...


I don't know where you read that, but is that referring to bottled beer, as opposed to beer in a carboy? It is my guess that that is the case. But even if not, it is my opinion that worrying about the light source is just being much too paranoid. If you are really that worried about it, you are going to have to take the bulb out of the fridge, put on night vision goggles and only open the fridge in total darkness. Not to mention the dangers encountered when you set the carboy on the countertop for bottling or kegging. That process takes time, too- you'll have to do that in the dark also.


Seriously, whatever happened to RDWHAHB??????
 
brum said:
Believe it or not, the wavelengths of UV radiation are so small that they will go straight through the small cotton weaves in the Tshirt.

Plus radiation penetrates through things anyways/creates scattering. Ok I'm done. Just feeling very informed after actually reading ahead in my medical physics class haha
Click to expand...

I'm not saying you are wrong...but if that's the case, why do you not sunburn through your t-shirt?

Is it the difference between UV-A and UV-B rays and such?

(I'm a science loving geek, your comment intrigued me...feel free to PM if you'd rather not threadjack :) )
 
Bernie Brewer said:
Seriously, whatever happened to RDWHAHB??????
Click to expand...
It's an interesting conversation. Not necessarily the idea of putting a black light in a fridge, but the interaction between light in different parts of the spectrum and the resulting effects on beer.

In the end, if he likes the black light, it's probably a case of RDWHAHB as long as it turns off when the fridge door closes.
 
malkore said:
I'm not saying you are wrong...but if that's the case, why do you not sunburn through your t-shirt?

Is it the difference between UV-A and UV-B rays and such?

(I'm a science loving geek, your comment intrigued me...feel free to PM if you'd rather not threadjack :) )
Click to expand...

I'll give it a shot of explaining it. I'm not sure about uv-alpha/beta waves but the surface of the skin is pretty tough when it comes to radiation protection.

For example, Alpha particles cannot penetrate a piece of paper let alone skin. However when alpha particles are ingested they wreak havoc on the cells that don't have the strong protection of the skin.

When you add a Tshirt on top of the skin, you can see where I'm going with this, the additive protection makes a big difference.

Glass gives little if not any protection from radiation and it would shoot through straight into the beer.

:mug:
 

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