Light

Lets talk a bit about light and what it does to your beer... I know that it can alter the taste of the beer in the finished product, but what I am getting at is does the type of light matter?!?! Natural vs. artificial (eg. light bulbs). Reason I am asking, bottling in clear bottles vs. bottling in browned bottles. My finished stash I always keep in the closet, but I also use 1 gallon glass jugs for experimentation, and I don't store those in the closet during the brewing process, they sit in the bathroom which is dark 90% of the time. I have always used a mixture of clear and dark plastic bottles (slowly saving up my funds for glass re-corking bottles).

-Todd

Reply to
Maskim Xul
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Yes.

The main effect of "skunking" (light-struck) is caused by some wavelenths of light causing reactions with the hop compounds that are present in the beer. These wavelengths occur naturally in sunlight (strongest) and also are present in florescent lights (to a lesser degree than sunlight). Most feel that there isn't enough of those wavelengths in incandescent light to bother the beer much. There's lots of details available on this subject if you google for it

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Also, light colored beers get skunked easier and quicker than darker beers, probably because the light can penetrate further into it and strike more hop compounds.

So... sitting your light colored beer in the sunlight is a very bad idea. Don't keep it under florescent light for LONG periods either. Many/most folks do their brewing WORK under florescent lights and that doesn't seem to harm it noticably. But storage under florescent light will skunk it - like in stores who use coolers with built-in florescent bulbs.

So.... your dark bathroom is fine - and especially fine if it has a incandescent bulbs. Or, hey, throw a black trash bag over it! RDWHAHB

Reply to
Derric

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