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- Sep 17, 2007
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I don't know if you've seen the Sam Adams commercial recently where they lambast non-brown bottles. It's a very condescending commercial, suggesting that a simple piece of knowledge (dark stuff blocks light) has apparently escaped a large number of major brewers, and you should drink nasty Sam Adamses instead.
I came across a thread on another forum that sheds some light on this. The first point of fact is that the only light sensitive chemicals in beer are from hops -- (for the uninitiated), hops being the non-functional part of beer that gives it a bitter, complex flavor. Sam Adams has advertised in the past that they use a relatively huge amount of hops in their beer. That's the primary reason why I can't stand Sam Adams, it's too bitter. Consequently, they need to use brown bottles, because their beer is disproportionately light sensitive.
Green apparently came about after the war when european brewers had a hard time getting their hands on brown glass -- consequently, green bottles were equated with fine european beers by stateside beer snobs. The convention has stuck ever since, as evident by the fact that heineken uses brown bottles in europe and green bottles here. I suspect that 70 years later, this new ad is still an attempt to combat that antiquated non-sensical association.
Anyway, beers with normal amounts of hops can easily get away with green or clear bottles, especially given the fact that beers are hardly ever exposed to light anyway. Miller goes a step further and apparently has a treatment process to neutralize the light sensitive chemical in their hops, which is why MGD comes in a clear bottle. Corona, that's heavy on the hops and short on light prevention, is one of the few beers that's really prone to skunking, and even most Corona drinkers will tell you that it's not a huge issue.
So don't believe the hype, drink whatever you like, bottle color be damned. That is all.
I came across a thread on another forum that sheds some light on this. The first point of fact is that the only light sensitive chemicals in beer are from hops -- (for the uninitiated), hops being the non-functional part of beer that gives it a bitter, complex flavor. Sam Adams has advertised in the past that they use a relatively huge amount of hops in their beer. That's the primary reason why I can't stand Sam Adams, it's too bitter. Consequently, they need to use brown bottles, because their beer is disproportionately light sensitive.
Green apparently came about after the war when european brewers had a hard time getting their hands on brown glass -- consequently, green bottles were equated with fine european beers by stateside beer snobs. The convention has stuck ever since, as evident by the fact that heineken uses brown bottles in europe and green bottles here. I suspect that 70 years later, this new ad is still an attempt to combat that antiquated non-sensical association.
Anyway, beers with normal amounts of hops can easily get away with green or clear bottles, especially given the fact that beers are hardly ever exposed to light anyway. Miller goes a step further and apparently has a treatment process to neutralize the light sensitive chemical in their hops, which is why MGD comes in a clear bottle. Corona, that's heavy on the hops and short on light prevention, is one of the few beers that's really prone to skunking, and even most Corona drinkers will tell you that it's not a huge issue.
So don't believe the hype, drink whatever you like, bottle color be damned. That is all.
