Cliff Clavin's Theories on Beer
Beer bottles were green in color until the 1930s when it was discovered that brown bottles filtered out some light that prevented the beer from going “skunky.” It’s not called “skunky” because it smells bad, it’s called that because if you expose beer to light for long enough, it will actually smell like a skunk. Chemists at the University of North Carolina and Ghent University in Belgium found that sunlight breaks down alpha acids in hops that react with sulfur to make a chemical that is nearly identical to the smelly chemical that skunks spray.
Brown bottles filter out visible and ultraviolet light that causes this reaction. Clear and green bottles don’t do much for filtering out the harmful light, clear and green bottles are often a marketing decision more than a practical one.
Clear bottles look great, showing off the color and texture of the beer while green bottles were once a status symbol for beer. After World War II, there was a shortage of brown glass, so European brewers exported their beer in green bottles. Because many of those beers were extremely high quality and others were just priced to seem that way, the green bottle became a status symbol for great beer.
Beers with little or no hops aren’t as susceptible to damage from light, so clear and green bottles are widely accepted for those beers.
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