What makes bottles green

So brewers turned the bottles brown and the darker colour blocked out the damaging rays and kept the beer fresh for longer. During the Second World War there was a shortage of brown glass so green became the colour of choice.

These days brewers can apply UV protected coats to glass to preserve the taste — hence the few beer bottles that are actually clear. Last year, we discovered the incredible secret behind the position of the '57' on a Heinz ketchup bottle. I'm pretty sure the UV-vis spectrometer wasn't really designed with beer glass in mind. There might be some scattering or reflections going on inside the machine that make the readings not completely valid.

However, it seems clear that the green and clear glasses let more UV through than brown glass. I was confused. Most of these green-bottle beers have a similar taste. But what about clear glass beer? Newcastle doesn't taste like this? What about Bud Select 55?

I am not ashamed to say that I also drink that beer. It is perfect for tailgating at a football game or sitting by the pool. But it doesn't have that same taste of a green-bottle beer.

Here is my brother's reply to this question Eric Allain :. MBT has an extremely low flavor threshold and is very similar to the compound produced by skunks for defense. Corona IS skunky Also, the 'skunkiness' has become accepted in Corona as just part of the flavor. Some of the macrobrew companies Miller-Coors etc use a hop extract that has been stabilized so that light will not lead to MBT production. Therefore they can use clear bottles without worry.

Since the MBT is derived from hop components, different beers with different amounts or types of hops may lead to varying levels of light induced MBT. OK, some people also claim that the problem is transport and storage.

Green-bottle beer doesn't taste bad when it is first bottled. It is just that it has been exposed to UV light for too long. Maybe it wasn't meant to be stored for as long as it is. But what do I know? I'm a drinker, not a brewer. I guess they are serious about UV protection for their beer.

Not only do they use brown glass, the make the cardboard container with high sides. Beer bottles of different colors. Preferably at least one of green, brown and clear.

Oh, you will have to remove the beer from the bottles. Maybe you could figure out a way to accomplish this task. Ultraviolet light. If you don't have one, you could use the Sun.

Ultraviolet sensitive beads. These are little plastic beads that change color when exposed to UV light. Post World War II, there was a shortage of green glass so beer adopted the brown bottles we know today. Wine later housed itself in green glass. So there you have it - the historical and scientific reason for something we likely see every day and only open on the weekend, of course.

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