Light harming beer?

[Jtd6628]

I pretty much secondary everything because of dry hopping or bulk aging I do this in a glass carboy that is in a coat closest there is no light in the closet if I remember to keep the door closed but a lot of time me or my girlfriend grab our coats and walk out the door forgetting to close the closet door this leads to entire work days with a light bulb shinning on my beer. I have had one bad batch, a lot of good batches and two really good batches. I have noticed from pic that a lot of you out there wrap your carboys in a towel or shirt is this something I should be doing? The temp in the closet stays a consistent 64 so if the reason to do this is to insulate it is not needed cant wait to be "inlighted" on the subject thanks.

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[DMartin]

I know that sunlight reacts with hops to produce nasty flavors, but I do not know if artificial light does the same.

If you want to be on the safe side, an easy fix is to put a t-shirt on your carboy.

 

[drhookmec]

I don't think light could ruin your beer, I would be more concerned abought the heat
from the light bulb.
In a small room such as a closet a 60Watt bulb can easily heat that room up to around
80deg if left on all day.

So maybe the bad batch you had just got to warm in the secondary stage.

tim

 

[mikebowman]

Light can make your beer taste skunky if it's exposed to light. Has something to do with the hops reacting. Whenever I drink Heineken or grolsch in bottles I get that taste. If you've only had one bad batch then it's probably not the light.

Any differences in procedure between the good and bad batches?

 

[bighorn_brew]

What I like to do is get a t-shirt (preferably from hooters or your fave strip club) put that on the carboy, then get gf's or wife's bra, put that on the carboy, not yourself, and some balloons to fill the bra out....

Yeah, the brief opening of door shouldn't hurt it, and IIRC the regular element bulbs don't harm beer, but sunlight or full spectrum fluorescents will skunk your beer...

 

[cimirie]

It's always ben my understanding that its the UV from natural light reacting with hops to skunk a beer. It's always good practice to cover up a carboy, but unless you've got UV lights in your closet, I wouldn't worry.

 

[dukesbb37]

this may be a stupid question but would enough light penetrate a bucket for it to skunk your beer if left in a regular living room?

 

[DMartin]

this may be a stupid question but would enough light penetrate a bucket for it to skunk your beer if left in a regular living room?

Almost certainly not. Go into a dark room, stick a flashlight up against the bottom of your bucket. I bet no light gets through.

 

[Jtd6628]

Thanks for the knowledge guys. Yeah I think I have narrowed that one bad batch down to burnning the liquid extract because it was a nut brown ale kit and it came out pitch black and tasted like metal.

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[unionrdr]

I have my fermenter stand next to my comp hutch,so I always cover my fermenters when in use. I use a dark tee shirt in warm weather,& an old fleece lined CPO on top of that in cold weather to stabilize temps better & keep the light off them.