Mead in Clear or Brown Bottles

[Rudys_brew]

I bottled a huckleberry melomel earlier this year and now have an issue with the result. I bottled 2/3 of the batch in clear flip top (Grolsch Style) bottles and the remainder in brown 12oz bottles with a standard crowns.

The clear bottles seemed to have gone bad, color seemed to coat the interior of the bottles and the taste is not right. The brown bottles are fine and taste wonderful.

I am looking for some help to figure out what I did wrong and help to avoid the issues in the future.

 

[TopherM]

Were there hops in the melomel? Hops skunk. Otherwise, the color of the glass would have no affect on the mead.

 

[MarsColonist]

Id blame the fliptop first before the glass color. Like TopherM said, hops would be suspect. Color drop is something you see in dark wine that hasnt be cold stabilzed in which the tannins (and anthocyanins) are dropping out. Older dark wines that have been cold stabilized will still drop some color in the bottle over time.

 

[Rudys_brew]

No hops in the mead... Might have been the tops and the gaskets...

 

[bernardsmith]

Could the Grolsch style bottles have old gaskets and so act as a poor barrier to the air? Or might you have washed the bottles with something that was not then fully removed by rinsing

 

[Yooper]

I bottled a huckleberry melomel earlier this year and now have an issue with the result. I bottled 2/3 of the batch in clear flip top (Grolsch Style) bottles and the remainder in brown 12oz bottles with a standard crowns.

The clear bottles seemed to have gone bad, color seemed to coat the interior of the bottles and the taste is not right. The brown bottles are fine and taste wonderful.

I am looking for some help to figure out what I did wrong and help to avoid the issues in the future.

If they were stored in the dark, in a cool place, there should be no differences.

If they had some light on them, the clear bottles would suffer greatly.

 

[AnonyBrew]

If they were stored in the dark, in a cool place, there should be no differences.

If they had some light on them, the clear bottles would suffer greatly.

If light affects mead so much why don't more people use brown bottles for bottling it?

 

[Saccharomyces]

Yeah that's a real stumper. My prime suspect would be oxidation, I have never been happy with the seal I get with flip tops. They work great for short term storage -- I use mine as 1L growlers -- but they seem to let too much oxygen in if the seals are not brand new.