Such a nooblette

[BrewerJeff]

I've only been brewing a few months, but I've just had one of those DoH! moments..

I keep all my fermenters in the basement (including carboys) and out of direct sunlight. There is some small windows that allow a little ambient light, but nothing much and non direct. I haven't been covering my carboys at all. I forgot that flourescent lights emit UV.... My fermenters have been bathing in flourescent light

Whats interesting is that I haven't noticed any skunkyness from the three batches that have been bottled, but I'll be covering them as soon as I get home from work.

 

[SwampassJ]

I would imagine the UV given off by Fluorescent lighting would be pretty close to nothing, look at all the office workers. They would be as tanned and hot looking as I am.

 

[rmedved]

I imagine it's still enough to skunk a beer over time. That's why any good beer shop has very low lighting.

 

[wildwest450]

I wouldn't sweat the fluorescent lights.

 

[ghpeel]

I make it a point to keep normal incandescent light bulbs in my laundry/beer room. That way, I don't have to worry about florescent bulbs skunking the brew. No idea how fast that would happen with beer stored under those bulbs though.

 

[Skaggz]

As far as covering your fermenters. I just put an old t-shirt over the top of each carboy.

 

[WrongCoastBrewery]

Flourescent lights do indeed emit UV waves but only at a length of around 10-400nm (nanometers). According to an article I saw in BYO, the author claimed that skunking occured mainly in the 350-520nm range of light wavelength. Most flourescent light bulbs are coated with UV filters which minimize the release of UV waves. Thus, if your bulbs have a plastic cover or are newer, which probably have a UV filter coating, that may be why they did affect your beer as much. 50nm is not much to really filter out and with the concerns of UV light rays (same thing that causes sunburns), you may be in luck. However, still cover those carboys.