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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator

Contents:
  Bottle color (Tom Hotchkiss)
  bottling in plastic 2 liter bottles (Michael Bergman)
  Re: UV effect on beers? (a.e.mossberg)
  Homebrew Digest #59 (January 26, 1989) (John F Stoffel)
  Re: bottles and breakage (Jeremy Cook)
  UV and Skunky (florianb)

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Date: Fri, 27 Jan 89 8:23:04 MST
From: Tom Hotchkiss <trh at hpestrh>
Subject: Bottle color

> Since we're talking about bottles, I thought I might bring
> up a few questions about bottle color.  I've been using only
> brown bottles...

I have heard that light can harm your beer and I don't dispute this
point.  However, I use mostly clear bottles since I find it's much
eaisier to verify their cleanliness.  My beer spends most of it's life
in a carboard case in a closet where there's no light.  Once a bottle
gets into the refrigerator, it usually doesn't last long.  Plus, if
you think about it, the beer really won't be exposed to much light
in the frige, unless you have kids who leave the door open all day.

So, I say: relax, don't worry, use any color glass that makes you
happy...

T. Hotchkiss

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Date: Fri, 27 Jan 89 10:51:23 est
From: Michael Bergman <bergman%odin.m2c.org at RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: bottling in plastic 2 liter bottles

I don't know about beer, but for Mead, those bottles are right
out--apparently the alcohol can leach some flavor from them even
though acidic soft drinks apparently don't (or maybe we've been
trained to expect that flavor in our soft drinks).  It is not a strong
flavor, and I suppose you could bottle something you weren't planning
on aging and were going to feed to people who have no
discrimination--but from reading these digests, I have strongly gotten
the opinion that Beer is much harder to make than Mead, and far too
much trouble to give to anyone who is incapable of spotting the taste
of plastic. 

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Date: Fri, 27 Jan 89 12:09:47 EST
From: a.e.mossberg <aem at ibiza>
Subject: Re: UV effect on beers?

|From: hplabs!uiucdcs!iwtsf!korz (Algis R Korzonas +1 312 979 8583)
|Subject: bottle color

|I believe that it's UV that causes anything to oxidize
|faster.  I felt more safe using brown bottles because
|brown seems to be further away from the violet end of
|the spectrum than green and because the brown bottles
|are darker.  On the other hand, doesn't UV have a hard
|time getting through regular glass and UV lights are
|made of quartz (or something like that)?

I think it's not UV, because as you said even clear glass
doesn't really pass UV.  I'm not sure what the wavelength actually
is that causes the effect (photoreactive?), but it intuitively
must be in the yellow or yellow-green range.

|Am I fostering a valid concern or is the difference
|so small as to be negligible?

Concern about "light-struck" beers is quite valid, unless you
like skunky beers ala Heineken.

aem
--
a.e.mossberg aem at mthvax.miami.edu MIAVAX::AEM (Span) aem at umiami.BITNET (soon)
Masturbation is fun...it makes a cloudy day sunny.	- Debbie Harry

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Date: Fri, 27 Jan 89 12:30:33 est
From: John F Stoffel <john%wpi.wpi.edu at RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: Homebrew Digest #59 (January 26, 1989)

Hello, my name is John and I'm very new to the fine art of Brewing.
Some friends and I made our first batch over Xmas and it came out
pretty good, at least as far as we can tell.  We'd like to get a
little more ambitious with our next batch, mostly by actually making
the wort ourselfs.  The kit we got came with the wort all made for us
and we'd like to more back a step in the process.  We have some basic
questions I'd like to ask:

1) What is a good recipe for a dark beer?  Not Guiness types, but
something lighter in taste.

2) What is a good place to order/get hops and associated beer making
paraphanelia?  New York area is best, but any mail order place is good
too.

3) Does using green bottles make THAT much of a difference?  Or is it
pretty much up to us which to use?

4) How long should we age our beer?  We let the first batch age three
weeks after bottling before we opened the first ones. The next bunch
from the batch get opened tonght, fours weeks after bottling.

Thanks for your help with these naive and VERY beginner questions.
Happy brewing!  ;-)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
	Boy... what we have here is a failure to communicate!
					- Warden of "Cool Hand Luke"
John Stoffel
BITNET   John at wpi.bitnet
INTERNET john at wpi.wpi.edu
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Date: Fri, 27 Jan 89 09:31:25 +0100
From: Jeremy Cook <jeremy at kheops.cmi.no>
Subject: Re: bottles and breakage

Mike Meyer asks:

>My bottle question is:  has anyone ever used 2-liter plastic twistoff
>bottles (or one-liter)  with any luck?  

Yes and yes. I made a batch of cider which is VERY lively and was
bottled  in  2 and 1.5 litre plastic bottles. This stuff has kept
for over a year now, no explosions or anything like that. Its al-
most  impossible  to  remove the caps though without a hacksaw or
some other cap removing gadget (I use one of those high  friction
mats  for  standing  telephones on!). I don't think glass bottles
would have survived the amount of pressure that has built up  in-
side these plastic bottles.

-- Jeremy Cook

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Date: 27 Jan 89 16:36:46 PST (Fri)
From: florianb%tekred.cna.tek.com at RELAY.CS.NET
Subject: UV and Skunky

In Homebrew Digest #59, Al Korzonas inquired:

[ I believe that it's UV that causes anything to oxidize
faster.  I felt more safe using brown bottles because
brown seems to be further away from the violet end of
the spectrum than green and because the brown bottles
are darker.  On the other hand, doesn't UV have a hard
time getting through regular glass and UV lights are
made of quartz (or something like that)?

Am I fostering a valid concern or is the difference
so small as to be negligible?]

The absorption coefficient of bottle glass in the UV is infinity for
all practical purposes.  However, it is my understanding that the more
energetic visible colors can interact with hops extract to produce the
skunky flavor.  These colors can penetrate clear and green bottles.
This is particularly noticeable in beers bottled in green bottles that
have been sitting in grocery store coolers that have fluorescent
lighting.

I bottle in long-necks of all colors and store the bottles in their
original boxes in rooms that are usually dark.  The bottles are
plentiful here in Oregon where we have a bottle deposit law.  I have
never had a skunky tasting batch.

On the subject of clear plastic bottles, a friend has bottled ale in
these, and apparently he hasn't had any casualties.  However, I would
discourage the use of plastic in bottling, due to the possible leaching
properties of beer.  Also, plastic bottles are not very attractive, and
this is not in keeping with the spirit of home brewing as I envision
it.

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