Painting Green Bottles Black

[WizardBill]

I use green and clear bottles all the time and haven't had any issues, I keep them stored in a cabinet or in my beer fridge. These days I actually prefer the clear bottles.

I also use green and clear. I have lots of both. My daughter LOVES Mexican coke, and I use those bottles. They are great. Since most of my beer is dark, my daughter made the mistake of thinking it was Coke ONCE. Now she looks at the cap.

 

[Beernik]

Just moved the beer into the fridge to chill. I'll probably drink it in 7 or 8 hours.

I also found this article of different colored beer bottles vs UV. http://www.edenfoods.com/articles/view.php?articles_id=181

The key info is in Table 2 at the bottom. Short wavelength UV is the most damaging. For natural sunlight, brown glass still passes about 3% of the short wavelength UV.

 

[Beernik]

My wife poured two beers into four samplers. Two samples were from the beer that sat in the sun, outside, for an hour in a clear bottle. Two samples were from a beer in a brown bottle that went straight from the cellar to the fridge.

Sample sizes were 4oz.

Results:

In the blind taste test, I could not identify by taste or by smell which of the two samples had sat in the sun for an hour and which two samples were the control. My housemate also could not identify which samples where which. I attempted to identify which two samples I thought were the same beer. I was wrong.

After my wife revealed which samples were which, I went back and smelled each sample as deeply as I possibly could. I mean to the point that I literally got beer up my nose.

Even when knowing which was which, the only discernible difference I could detect is the hop aroma from the beer that sat in the sun for an hour was slightly muted. It did not seem quite as fresh, like it was older. But in no way was it skunked, even slightly skunked.

So much for the "skunking in seconds" theory. My 35 IBU Moteuka Amber was not skunked after 60 minutes outside on a partly cloudy day, 89F temperature, and a UV Index = 10 (extreme).

Btw: try holding a bottle of homebrew up to your nose and inhale deeply, like you are snorting its contents, and see the look your wife gives you. It's priceless.