# Green beer bottles? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 19, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357 "2006-04-19T20:47:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_in_second_hand_clothing)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/1 "2006-04-19T20:47:41Z")
Is there some inherent quality of green beer bottles that makes the beer taste like ass? I have heard that it does play some role, but I can’t seem to remember the source. I think it may have something to do with the light? All I know is that I would gladly take a PBR over a Rolling Rock anyday. Also, my mom just got back from the west coast with some sake in a green bottle. Admittedly, I have only had sake on one other occassion, and it was good. However, it was in a brown, much more opaque bottle. Should I expect a difference? ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/2 "2006-04-19T20:51:01Z")
> [@wolf in second hand clothing](#): > > All I know is that I would gladly take a PBR over a Rolling Rock anyday. I would take a PBR over most beers any day, because the only thing PBR reeks of is awesomeness. ---
**Author:** ![Spidey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Spidey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spidey)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/3 "2006-04-19T20:57:21Z")
From what I’ve heard, theres something about light (maybe UV rays in particular) that can negatively affect the taste of beer (read: cause it to taste like ass). Usually, companies that decide to market their beer in green bottles take special precautions to ensure that their beer is exposed to the smallest amount of light possible. I have no idea if this is true, or if it pertains to other alcoholic, non-beer beverages. All i know is that my \*\* stella \*\* is in a green bottle and it tastes FAN-tastic. Surely some other dopers can expand on this. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/4 "2006-04-19T21:02:44Z")
We’ve had this discussion before, with some rancor. The basics are: UV degrades and skunks beer and the hops therein. Brown bottle filter out more of these rays than do green bottles, which in turn are better than clear bottles. The reason Miller doesn’t skunk is because they treat their hops to remove the necessary skunkiness chemicals. Freshness counts as well. But if you put the same beer in clear, green, and brown bottles and let it set in sunlight for a period of time, the clear glass beer will skunk the worse, followed by the green. This has been proven time and time again. Hell, I’ve done the demo myself for novices in our brewclub. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/5 "2006-04-19T21:04:07Z")
UV rays can cause the hop compounds in beer to oxidize. Brown tinted glass is best at blocking the skunking UV rays. However a green bottle of beer stored in a dark cool place shouldn’t skunk to any great extent. Lugging a case across country in the trunk of a car at 90 might. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/6 "2006-04-19T21:05:12Z")
90 degrees that is. Or what **silenus** said. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/7 "2006-04-19T22:40:15Z")
Beer snob here. The only green-bottled beer I drink with any regularity is Heineken (incidentally, also the only beer I drink with any regularity that anyone outside of Texas has even heard of 🆒). I’ve never noticed any additional skunkiness or other problems with the green bottles. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/8 "2006-04-19T23:43:58Z")
Ick, clear bottles. Look up “skunky beer” in the dictionary and there should be a picture of that foul, noxious stuff they push on spring break wankers who don’t know any better- Corona. Of course, packaging isn’t going to improve shite like that. It’s notorious. ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/9 "2006-04-20T00:18:38Z")
if it’s true that green bottles inherently cause problems, why would brewers continue to use them? ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/10 "2006-04-20T00:28:02Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > Beer snob here. > The only green-bottled beer I drink with any regularity is Heineken (incidentally, also the only beer I drink with any regularity that anyone outside of Texas has even heard of 🆒). I’ve never noticed any additional skunkiness or other problems with the green bottles. Your lucky. I like Heineken…a lot. But I can’t remember how many times I’ve opened a bottle of it only to get smacked with the grungy aroma of wood pussy.:mad: I’ve had the same experience with Lowenbrau, also in green bottles. With that said, I’ve noticed that I’ve only gotten skunky beer when it was beer I’ve bought at the store, never from one in a bar/restaurant. So age counts for much. I’m thinking the lights inside the coolers at the store are to blame. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/11 "2006-04-20T03:46:55Z")
> [@Spidey](#): > > All i know is that my \*\* stella \*\* is in a green bottle and it tastes FAN-tastic. Surely some other dopers can expand on this. I saw one (extremely lame) Food Network special where Gordon Elliott interviewed someone at a Stella shipping plant. He said that their bottles had some sort of special coating to keep out UV light. I found this claim extremely dubious at the time, and I haven’t come across a single bit of corroboration for it since then. Has anyone else heard of this? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/12 "2006-04-20T04:12:19Z")
Over in Copenhagen I had Tuborg Grøn in a not just green, but green _plastic_ bottle. With a kind of pull-tab cap. The brew itself is basically lawnmower beer, but it was provided gratis in my furnished apartment and it was unusually hot in Copenhagen at the time, so the memory is a pleasant one. ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/13 "2006-04-20T06:43:27Z")
> [@Number](#): > > I saw one (extremely lame) Food Network special where Gordon Elliott interviewed someone at a Stella shipping plant. He said that their bottles had some sort of special coating to keep out UV light. I found this claim extremely dubious at the time, and I haven’t come across a single bit of corroboration for it since then. Has anyone else heard of this? Yes. An organization called [CSIRO](http://www.csiro.au/csiro/channel/_ca_dch2t,,.html) based in Australia is marketing it under the name “Bottle Magic.” You can read a little more about it [here.](http://www.csiro.au/csiro/content/standard/psaf,,.html#1) Whether it actually works or not I haven’t a clue, but I don’t see why it couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/14 "2006-04-20T12:30:05Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > Ick, clear bottles. Look up “skunky beer” in the dictionary and there should be a picture of that foul, noxious stuff they push on spring break wankers who don’t know any better- Corona. > > Of course, packaging isn’t going to improve shite like that. It’s notorious. I like Corona OK. I prefer beer, though. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/15 "2006-04-20T12:36:57Z")
> [@psycat90](#): > > Yes. > > An organization called [CSIRO](http://www.csiro.au/csiro/channel/_ca_dch2t,,.html) based in Australia is marketing it under the name “Bottle Magic.” You can read a little more about it [here.](http://www.csiro.au/csiro/content/standard/psaf,,.html#1) Cool, thanks for the information. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/16 "2006-04-20T14:14:07Z")
> [@Cagey Drifter](#): > > if it’s true that green bottles inherently cause problems, why would brewers continue to use them? That is an excellent question that vexes me every time I have to dump the last 3 bottles from a 6 pack of DAB or Pilsner Urquell because they were exposed to 4 minutes of light. Brown bottles are not perfect either. In tests I’ve done here I’ve noticed detectable levels of “skunkiness” in brown-bottled beer from as little as 22 hours of exposure to ambient fluorescent light. Much better than beer in clear or green bottles, or in a clear glass sitting on the picnic table, which can go skunky in 5 minutes of exposure to sunlight. The lesson is, if you are at the tavern and the beer cooler is one of those glass fronted ones with fluorescent lights, have a draft beer. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/17 "2006-04-20T18:19:30Z")
Budweiser Budvar (the Czech beer, not the Anheuser-Busch product) is in green bottles, and it is significantly better than, well, every beer mentioned so far in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/18 "2006-04-20T18:31:35Z")
Assuming, of course, that you get it fresh. Throw it on a freighter churning across the Atlantic and then trucked across 2000 km to a badly built freezer unit and we’ll see how that goes. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/19 "2006-04-20T18:45:31Z")
One can only assume that some manufacturers (I hesitate to use the term ‘brewer’ for any concoction named in this thread) _want_ their product to be skunky. ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357/20 "2006-04-20T18:57:22Z")
I know you guys are going to hate this… But I don’t tend to get this problem. I drinks me beers from a can. You know what they say… from the can, into the man. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-beer-bottles/353357.md?page=2)