fermentation in glass carboy

[Hollywood260]

I am curious. during fermentation...how many of you HBT members cover up your glass carboy to shade it from light. Which we all know, kills beer. Hince, the reason for brown beer bottles?

I am brewing this weekend (STOKED) and would love to watch the process of fermentation. To watch the krausen grow and recede. But I was concerned with visible light killing the beer or any other adverse affects of doing so.

Whats everyone's thoughts on this?

 

[Gavin C]

Light impacts the hops causing a skunked aroma and flavor. It can be nice. I've sampled a fellow HBTers purposely skunked beer. It was excellent. Like Corona only with more flavor.

I keep my glass carboys in the dark in a chest freezer.

Other option is place them in a dark room

Place a wet towel over them if using that method to help keep them cool during ferment.

Lots of options. Keep the light off them. It's OK to take a peak. I do it all the time.
I think it's very useful to be able to see what's going on.

Fermenting beer in glass carboy.

 

[Randomnoob]

When it's an Ale, I put it in a dark closet.

Lagers, I have to leave in my basement garage during the winter so I put a blanket over it. You can remove the blanket once in a while and look at it for a few minutes. No real harm there...

 

[charliethebum]

It's not so much visible light you need to worry about, but uv light. I ferment in a fairly well lit stairwell and never had issues until I tried cold crashing on my deck. Even though it was in the shade there were plenty of uv rays to skunk it out horribly but incandescent light bulbs shouldn't hurt anything.

 

[Gavin C]

Some info on skunking

 

[Auger]

I have a bunch of paper bags with holes cut in the bottom that I throw over my glass carboys during fermentation. Works great for the 5gal, they don't fit over the larger ones though.

 

[sixwinds]

I ferment in a modified cooler with the carboy in a water bath. The cooler has no lid so to protect the wort from light during fermentation I cover them with a large blanket.

Also whenever I'm moving the carboy in or out of the cooler I turn off most of the lights to minimize the chances of light exposure.

It may be a bit overboard, but its not too hard to do...

 

[mrgrimm101]

I use a 6.5 gallon plastic big mouth bubbler. It depends on the season. In the winter, I usually ferment upstairs in a closet so I just close the closet door. In the summer, I ferment in my basement where I typically either cover it with a blanket (to shield from light getting in through windows) or I put a wet t-shirt over my carboy to drop temp slightly, which also helps shield it from light.

One thing to note, even with a clear glass/plastic carboy, if the krausen rises to where you need a blowoff, it will most likely attach itself to the sides of the carboy (above the beer level) so it will block your sight completely. I hate when this happens..I can't see the surface of the beer to make sure no infection has set in.

 

[Opiate42]

I ferment my 1 gallon experiments in a closet, every once in a while pop the door open for a couple minutes to admire.

For larger batches at my brothers place, weather dependent I leave them in the garage with a blanket over them. If it's too warm then in a closet in the basement that they never use.

It's an awfully pretty sight watching the dancing beer ballet in a carboy

 

[MaxStout]

I use a black garbage bag to cover it, with a hole for the neck to stick out.

 

[tschafer]

Alway covered my carboys. I would just peek at them from time-to-time

 

[charliethebum]

Some info on skunking

Interesting. Thanks for the info I always thought visible light was no problem as long as it wasn't exposed to uv. Never has affected me anyhow