Beer Bottle Colour Effects Taste Of Beer!

[piraterum]

I propose a controversial theory - You can predict beer flavour by the colour of the glass it's bottled in.
I've tried a couple of hundred beers from around the world and I've noticed...

1. Brown Bottles = Strong flavour, medium/heavy body. Mostly ales or strongly flavoured lagers. Generally good beer e.g. Coopers Pale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Trappist beers
2. Green Bottles = Grassy hop flavour, medium/light body. Mostly premium lagers. Some good, some bad e.g. Heineken, Carlsberg, Grolsch, Hahn Premium, Boags Premium
3. Clear Bottles = Dry, high carbonation, light body. Mostly tasteless lagers & low carb rubbish - Steer clear of clear bottles! e.g. Coopers Clear, Carlton Cold, Amstel, Corona


Cleary there are exceptions e.g. Tooheys New should be a clear bottle :lol:

Maybe they put crap beers in clear bottles because they figure adding sunlight could only improve them

 

[Swinging Beef]

clear bottles are so girls will buy them.
so sayeth the market rsearch

 

[MarkBastard]

There's a few decent pom beers in clear bottles, but otherwise I tend to agree.

 

[Bribie G]

Newcastle Brown in pints has always been in clear bottles. In Newcastle the beer was unlikely to get skunked by sunlight .

 

[pyrobrewer]

Another factor - Not all beermakers who bottle in green or clear glass use Tetra or Rho-isoalpha acid extract (to prevent light strike)

Why are beer bottles brown?


The easy answer is to protect beer from light. Only recently (in 2001) did we figure out how light causes the fault called light struck or skunked beer. Chemists at the University of North Carolina and Ghent University in Belgium found that when a beer has been exposed to light for a period of time, Hop-derived molecules, called isohumulones, are degraded, forming a thiol called 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol or just MBT for short. The amazing thing about this compound is that we can detect it at concentrations as low as 7 parts per trillion. This is equal to 7 seconds in 30,000 years! The perhaps not-so-amazing thing is that this compound gives beer a skunky or cat urine aroma and taste. Obviously one would want to avoid this, and thats why beer is best in dark brown glass bottles that act as the beers own sunglasses. Kegged beer of course will not go skunky at least not until its poured into a glass and served outside in bright sunlight - that will turn any beer skunky within minutes.
Brown bottles aid in protecting beer from being light-struck, Green or clear bottles provide little to no protection. The slice of lime served with a popular Mexican beer is nothing but clever marketing since it helps camouflage the smelly MBT formed because it is in clear glass! And it's been said that bottled beer can become light-struck in less than one minute in bright sun, after a few hours in diffuse daylight, and in a few days under normal fluorescent lighting.
English drinkers who had been huddled in the pub all winter found that their favourite beer developed a flavour they called a touch of spring, due (we now know) to the fact that they were now drinking in the beer garden in full sun!
How can I avoid skunked beers?
Simple, dont leave your beer exposed to light, and bottle in brown bottles which effectively screen the light. If you are drinking in full sun use smaller glasses more frequently or get a German style stein with a lid!



One of the simplest of tests is the effect of light on beer. Select a beer that you know well, (say VB :lol: ) be sure that the carton is unopened (to protect from light) and open two bottles. Using a funnel with a tube on, decant one bottle back into a chilled brown glass bottle the other into a chilled green glass or clear glass beer bottle. Recap as soon as possible. Make sure the beer is as cold as you can get it - it will lose less gas that way. The reason for the brown bottle to brown bottle transfer is so the both samples have the same carbonation level. Now take both recapped bottles and place them in the sun for just 8 - 10 minutes then put them back in the fridge to chill.



Next day pour a sample from each bottle and do a side by side comparison. The brown bottle sample should be very similar to the others in the carton - just a little less carbonated. The green bottle however can develop a papery or cardboard like flavour, become less bitter, and loses sprightliness and becomes dull. This beer is said to be light struck. The culprit is hop constituents being degraded by near UV light. Brown glass adsorbs near 100% of light at this wavelength green glass about 40% and clear glass around 10%.

You can sometimes notice this if you are drinking in the sun the beer in your glass will change flavour if you take too long about it! If you have to drink in the sun try smaller glasses or get an old style German Stein with a lid!

 

[murrayr]

bishops finger is in a clear bottle, another exception

 

[piraterum]

Interesting article pyrobrewer!

Which questions why do manufacturers even bother using clear or green bottles? Marketing gone mad?

 

[pyrobrewer]

Interesting article pyrobrewer!

Which questions why do manufacturers even bother using clear or green bottles? Marketing gone mad?

Actually the strategy is to promote what they call "premiumisation" that is switching drinkers from the low profit mega brands to a precieved premium product. Oh and at a higher price. The brewers themselves are against it but the marketers have the last say. Some do use tetra and rho, so not all are a problem as far as MBT goes

 

[pyrobrewer]

bishops finger is in a clear bottle, another exception

Im afraid the OP my find more exceptions than would be comfortable for validation
of his theory

 

[drsmurto]

Another factor - Not all beermakers who bottle in green or clear glass use Tetra or Rho-isoalpha acid extract (to prevent light strike)

Why are beer bottles brown?


The easy answer is to protect beer from light. Only recently (in 2001) did we figure out how light causes the fault called light struck or skunked beer. Chemists at the University of North Carolina and Ghent University in Belgium found that when a beer has been exposed to light for a period of time, Hop-derived molecules, called isohumulones, are degraded, forming a thiol called 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol or just MBT for short. The amazing thing about this compound is that we can detect it at concentrations as low as 7 parts per trillion. This is equal to 7 seconds in 30,000 years! The perhaps not-so-amazing thing is that this compound gives beer a skunky or cat urine aroma and taste. Obviously one would want to avoid this, and thats why beer is best in dark brown glass bottles that act as the beers own sunglasses. Kegged beer of course will not go skunky at least not until its poured into a glass and served outside in bright sunlight - that will turn any beer skunky within minutes.
Brown bottles aid in protecting beer from being light-struck, Green or clear bottles provide little to no protection. The slice of lime served with a popular Mexican beer is nothing but clever marketing since it helps camouflage the smelly MBT formed because it is in clear glass! And it's been said that bottled beer can become light-struck in less than one minute in bright sun, after a few hours in diffuse daylight, and in a few days under normal fluorescent lighting.
English drinkers who had been huddled in the pub all winter found that their favourite beer developed a flavour they called a touch of spring, due (we now know) to the fact that they were now drinking in the beer garden in full sun!
How can I avoid skunked beers?
Simple, dont leave your beer exposed to light, and bottle in brown bottles which effectively screen the light. If you are drinking in full sun use smaller glasses more frequently or get a German style stein with a lid!



One of the simplest of tests is the effect of light on beer. Select a beer that you know well, (say VB :lol: ) be sure that the carton is unopened (to protect from light) and open two bottles. Using a funnel with a tube on, decant one bottle back into a chilled brown glass bottle the other into a chilled green glass or clear glass beer bottle. Recap as soon as possible. Make sure the beer is as cold as you can get it - it will lose less gas that way. The reason for the brown bottle to brown bottle transfer is so the both samples have the same carbonation level. Now take both recapped bottles and place them in the sun for just 8 - 10 minutes then put them back in the fridge to chill.



Next day pour a sample from each bottle and do a side by side comparison. The brown bottle sample should be very similar to the others in the carton - just a little less carbonated. The green bottle however can develop a papery or cardboard like flavour, become less bitter, and loses sprightliness and becomes dull. This beer is said to be light struck. The culprit is hop constituents being degraded by near UV light. Brown glass adsorbs near 100% of light at this wavelength green glass about 40% and clear glass around 10%.

You can sometimes notice this if you are drinking in the sun the beer in your glass will change flavour if you take too long about it! If you have to drink in the sun try smaller glasses or get an old style German Stein with a lid!

Nanotechnology is on the way to making this a moot point......

 

[pyrobrewer]

Nanotechnology is on the way to making this a moot point......

How so?

And anyway its a problem that alrady has a solution, its called a brown bottle - no nano anything required!

 

[drsmurto]

How so?

Coating bottles to make them UV resistant.

The coating is 'invisible' to the naked eye as is made from nanoparticles capable of absorbing UV light. Similar theory to sunscreen.

Still in its infancy but my understanding is CSIRO has built a pilot plant to take this further.

 

[Pollux]

mmmm, cause and correlation...

Yes, any beer in a clear glass bottle that has hops within it will be skunk, hence why isohop exists.

But, the question is, are the beers that are in the clear bottles there because they really upon this in order to sell them as they are rubbish beers and simply wouldn't sell in brown??


I personally never consider the colour of the bottle if I am purchasing commercial beer, if it has been stored correctly it is a moot point.

 

[pyrobrewer]

Coating bottles to make them UV resistant.

The coating is 'invisible' to the naked eye as is made from nanoparticles capable of absorbing UV light. Similar theory to sunscreen.

Still in its infancy but my understanding is CSIRO has built a pilot plant to take this further.

I believe you may be talking about Titanium Di-oxide nanoparticles
One thing we may see more of sooner is the Aluminium Bottle with a crown seal, I've had them on flights also a PET bottle with a crown seal or heaven forbid http://www.ppitechnologies.com/carbopouch.html

 

[drsmurto]

I believe you may be talking about Titanium Di-oxide nanoparticles
One thing we may see more of sooner is the Aluminium Bottle with a crown seal, I've had them on flights also a PET bottle with a crown seal or heaven forbid http://www.ppitechnologies.com/carbopouch.html

I've no idea what is being used to coat the bottles but yes, TiO2 and to a lesser extent ZnO are used in nanoparticulate form in sunscreens.

 

[piraterum]

I believe you may be talking about Titanium Di-oxide nanoparticles
One thing we may see more of sooner is the Aluminium Bottle with a crown seal, I've had them on flights also a PET bottle with a crown seal or heaven forbid http://www.ppitechnologies.com/carbopouch.html

That's just not kosher!

It should be written into the German Beer Purity Law that beer should be packaged and served in glass only :lol: