Bottling in clear glass bottles, why?

[GoodTruble]

This thread made me stop to appreciate just how long it's been since I had an actually skunky beer (probably almost 20 years).

Guess that is a benefit of craft brewing and improved beer science and distribution.

But I do remember Heineken being a notable offender. And St.Pauli Girl. I suspect my previous disinterest in German beers was largely influenced by the stale, skunky examples I experienced.

 

[camonick]

This thread made me stop to appreciate just how long it's been since I had an actually skunky beer (probably almost 20 years).

Guess that is a benefit of craft brewing and improved beer distribution.

But I do remember Heineken being a notable offender. And St.Pauli Girl. I suspect my previous disinterest in German beers was largely influenced by the stale, skunky examples I experienced.

A lot of people always say what a great beer Pilsner Urquell is, being the “original” Pilsner and all, but I have yet to have one that isn’t skunked… I need to find it in a can to see what it really tastes like.

 

[Beermeister32]

They (Pilsner Urquell) recently changed from green glass to brown glass. Thankfully…. With the initials PU it’s a good thing they dumped the green glass!

 

[camonick]

They (Pilsner Urquell) recently changed from green glass to brown glass. Thankfully…. With the initials PU it’s a good thing they dumped the green glass!

Interesting, I wasn’t aware of that. I’ll look for the new brown bottles.

 

[Hans O. Lowe]

My go-to beer is Two Hearted. I picked up a 6 pack on the way to my house remodel yesterday. When it was beer time I opened one and took a nice big drink.

I literally said out loud "What the f***?!" Total skunkfest. The beer on one side of the six pack was worse than the other.

This is in a smaller town, far enough from the city, where you start to see diesel trucks and cowboy boots. Maybe the two hearted gets passed over at Wal-Mart for BMC...

I know one thing. The beer was totally transformed. If this had been my first experience with Two Hearted I would never have bought one again.

 

[MaxStout]

I never realized how much beer gets light-struck in green bottles until I had canned Heineken served on a KLM flight several years ago. Tasted fresh, like a completely different beer altogether. Being it was on a flight from Amsterdam, it was also fresher.

 

[camonick]

They (Pilsner Urquell) recently changed from green glass to brown glass. Thankfully…. With the initials PU it’s a good thing they dumped the green glass!

I got a 6 pack of Pilsner Urquell in the new amber bottles and it is a completely different beer… much more enjoyable. I still notice a greenish tint to many of the European “amber” bottles, however.

 

[Bobby_M]

So how is it you buy a case of Corona in a sealed cardboard box and take it home and every single bottle in the case inside the sealed cardboard box is skunk? Are they doing it at the brewery?

I said it in my post. There are handle holes and gaps between the cardboard flaps.

 

[Bobby_M]

A lot of people always say what a great beer Pilsner Urquell is, being the “original” Pilsner and all, but I have yet to have one that isn’t skunked… I need to find it in a can to see what it really tastes like.

It tastes exactly like a Seibel off flavor sensory training exercise. If you didn't know what diacetyl was before, you will.

 

[MrClint]

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but it has a fair amount of useful info. It also has a few info gaps when it comes to avoiding skunkiness. This is starting to feel like a faith-based rabbit hole.

What is the level and duration of daylight exposure that we are talking about here? Direct sunlight for X number of minutes, indirect sunlight in a normal room in the Northern Hemisphere for X number of minutes? I use glass fermenters, am I expected to bottle in a dark room with night vision goggles? Bottle only at night? Not to worry because I use dark bottles?


I don't think I want skunky beer, surely sounds like a negative, but I'm not completely sure. Hops (in some of these whacky beers) don't always taste that great either. Corona is really good beer, that's where the skunk bar is set? Now we've jumped from faith-based and into cork-sniffery.

I'm inclined to not give a dang about any of this as long my beer tastes good (to me and my wife), but it would be good to know the thresholds.

 

[Raptor99]

I think that it is only UV light that causes a problem. So direct sunlight is to be avoided. Even indirect sunlight for a long period of time is not a good idea. Florescent lights emit a small amount of UV, but LED lights do not.

Some people keep their fermenters in a closet, or cover them with something to block the light. Indirect sunlight for a few hours / while you are working on it shouldn't be a problem. For wines that I bulk age for 6 months in the carboy, I try to keep them out of the indirect sunlight.

 

[day_trippr]

The spectrum that causes hop compounds to skunk is from visible Blue (450-500 nm) through UV...

Cheers!

 

[tracer bullet]

I've found it's UV light that does it. Not sure about ambient light in a house. Interesting question to find out. Bottle with a bunch of clear glass and then leave various bottles in different locations for different amounts of time, then try them out. Then tell us!

I do know it's a thing, friend and I long ago set a clear bottle in the sun for a while, stuck it in the frig, then drank some and it was positively awful.

UV light generally is under 400nm so it's not UV specificially.

 

[Skeeter686]

I will tell you that it doesn't take long. Several weeks ago, I was brewing in the garage and was drinking a HB IPA that sat on a table in the sun. I doubt it was more than ten or fifteen minutes and I took a sip to find it was already getting skunky.

I was amazed how fast it happened. Next time, I guess I'll keep it in the shade or substitute a stein for my normal pint glass.

 

[day_trippr]

The 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol compound produced has some insanely low detection threshold, and there are articles on the 'net that say the damage can be noticeable with as little as a minute of exposure to daylight or equivalent energy in the blue + UV spectrum...

Cheers!

 

[Raptor99]

The 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol compound produced has some insanely low detection threshold, and there are articles on the 'net that say the damage can be noticeable with as little as a minute of exposure to daylight or equivalent energy in the blue + UV spectrum...

Cheers!

Wow, that is amazing. Does that only affect hops? Because it seems that the wine and hard cider that I make isn't that sensitive to light.

 

[Skeeter686]

Wow, that is amazing. Does that only affect hops? Because it seems that the wine and hard cider that I make isn't that sensitive to light.

I believe it only affects isomerized hops. If accurate, WCIPA would be affected more than NEIPA, even though the latter may have significantly more hops in it.