Got 4 1/2 cases of champagne bottles that will take a standard crown for $12 yesterday (total).
The only problem is, they are green. I am thinking that if I keep the bottles in the cases, they will be protected from light/skunkage for long-term cellaring. Anyone have any success (or horror) stories of long term aging in green bottles? I typically will not even buy them or save them, but this was such a good price, and I needed bottles badly…
If they’re stored in a dark place, I don’t see why it’d be a problem.
I do not have any experience with long term aging in green bottles. For that price though, you could always paint the bottles. A little bit of time and a few cans of spray paint and you could have some pretty cool looking bottles. Try it out on just 1 or 2 and if you like it do it to the rest. If you don’t like it you are out like $0.50 worth of bottles.
Great call! I think I have some black spraypaint lying around too. That will be an extremely handsome way to package my bourbon-oak RIS!
Go for it. I’m not so sure the skunking thing due to non-brown bottles isn’t internet myth.
Anyone have first hand experience getting skunks? When I was bottling, I always had green, brown, and clear bottles mixed in most batches and never got “skunky” beer.
Cheers
I store my beer in dark cabinets. I often use a clear or a green bottle in my batches to visually inspect things.
I like to think green bottles help skunk my saisons in a nice funky Belgian kind of way. They still probably don’t get enough light for this to be the case.
Skunking is real, but I don;t think an RIS would get skunked just because theres so much pigment in the beer. Kind of like a 64SPF sunblock for the -iso-alpha acids.
I bottle my sours in these, they are fun to break out at a party. I cork them first then cap, or I’ll use the plastic champagne corks and wire cages.
[quote=“StormyBrew”]Go for it. I’m not so sure the skunking thing due to non-brown bottles isn’t internet myth.
Anyone have first hand experience getting skunks? When I was bottling, I always had green, brown, and clear bottles mixed in most batches and never got “skunky” beer.
Cheers[/quote]
I’ve experienced skunking from Yuengling, Heineken, and even Stella. Just depends on how they are stored.
[quote=“Loopie Beer”][quote=“StormyBrew”]Go for it. I’m not so sure the skunking thing due to non-brown bottles isn’t internet myth.
Anyone have first hand experience getting skunks? When I was bottling, I always had green, brown, and clear bottles mixed in most batches and never got “skunky” beer.
Cheers[/quote]
I’ve experienced skunking from Yuengling, Heineken, and even Stella. Just depends on how they are stored.[/quote]
Spending my youth drinking stolen-from-parents-garages Molson Golden, Molson Ice, Becks, and other green beer bottles, skunking is, and always will be real. The light reacts with the dissolved isohumulones from the hops and creates a weird molecule that contains sulfur and other aromatic compounds found in, you guessed it, among other animal bodily fluids, skunk spray.
[quote=“Loopie Beer”][quote=“StormyBrew”]Go for it. I’m not so sure the skunking thing due to non-brown bottles isn’t internet myth.
Anyone have first hand experience getting skunks? When I was bottling, I always had green, brown, and clear bottles mixed in most batches and never got “skunky” beer.
Cheers[/quote]
I’ve experienced skunking from Yuengling, Heineken, and even Stella. Just depends on how they are stored.[/quote]
Maybe it’s my palate…I’ve never had a skunked commercial beer either as the turnover in supermarkets is pretty quick. Storage conditions and hop content are the key to skunked beer. I’m not saying skunking doesn’t exist, but I do question the boogie-man stories regarding the generic-use of non-brown bottles resulting in skunked beer.
Certainly UV light (sunlight/fluorescent lights) will interact with the hops in our beers and result in skunked beer. But, it usually only related to longer-term storage in UV light and to the more-hoppy beers. Lightly hopped beers, in clear or green bottles, with exposure to UV light will not skunk…not enough hops for the light to react too. Heavily hopped beers, in clear or green bottles, not exposed to UV light will not skunk…no exposure to UV light.
b.
Stormy, you indicated it was a myth but skunking is real. That was why I shared my experiences.
Also, skunking is actually caused by the isohumulone reacting with the riboflavin. Riboflavin is produced by both the yeast and malt.
Some breweries have been using hop extracts to limit/avoid possible skunking. By doing this there are no isohumulones to react with the riboflavin.
[quote=“Loopie Beer”]Stormy, you indicated it was a myth but skunking is real. That was why I shared my experiences.
Also, skunking is actually caused by the isohumulone reacting with the riboflavin. Riboflavin is produced by both the yeast and malt.
Some breweries have been using hop extracts to limit/avoid possible skunking. By doing this there are no isohumulones to react with the riboflavin.[/quote]
My bad…what I implied was not what I intended.
Many suggest that by definition, you should not use green or white because skunking will occur when exposed to the light. That is what I was trying to debunk. To be clear, skunking will only occur when beer is exposed to UV light and when hops are at a sufficient level in the beer so the UV light can interact. both have to be present. UV light alone will not do it and high-hops in green/clear will not do it. You must have both present…that is what I was trying to say.
:cheers:
If you have never tasted a skunky beer, I guess you have never had Heiniken in a bottle. I’m pretty sure every one I have ever had (and I’ve had a lot) has been skunked to some extent.
The difference with home brew is that in all likelihood it’s not sitting in a brightly lit store getting bombarded by UV for the most part, if not the entirety, of the day.
Green and ever clear glass does filter out some uv, just not as much as brown. Keep it out of the light as much as possible and you’ll be fine.
[quote=“Belpaire”]If you have never tasted a skunky beer, I guess you have never had Heiniken in a bottle. I’m pretty sure every one I have ever had (and I’ve had a lot) has been skunked to some extent.
The difference with home brew is that in all likelihood it’s not sitting in a brightly lit store getting bombarded by UV for the most part, if not the entirety, of the day.
Green and ever clear glass does filter out some uv, just not as much as brown. Keep it out of the light as much as possible and you’ll be fine.[/quote]
Right there. I used champagne and Martinelli bottles for years. I have a stash of Grolsh bottles that I used a lot.
I would bottle bigger beers in them because they’re a good sharing size. Early on I even used glass Coke bottles.
[quote=“StormyBrew”]Go for it. I’m not so sure the skunking thing due to non-brown bottles isn’t internet myth.
Anyone have first hand experience getting skunks? When I was bottling, I always had green, brown, and clear bottles mixed in most batches and never got “skunky” beer.
Cheers[/quote]
Ever had a Heinekin? Now that’s skunky.
[quote=“StormyBrew”]Go for it. I’m not so sure the skunking thing due to non-brown bottles isn’t internet myth.
Anyone have first hand experience getting skunks? When I was bottling, I always had green, brown, and clear bottles mixed in most batches and never got “skunky” beer.
Cheers[/quote]
Definitely not a myth. To teach homebrew club about lights truck/skunky about once a year I fill up a clear growler of beer and put it out in the sun for an hour, then I’ll take an unskunked growler to compare.
i have a few green and clear bottles that I have used over the years, and as long as you’re aware that they need to be kept in a box or other place protected from light, you’ll be fine.
