Whether you drink beer or not, you’ve probably seen a beer bottle at some point. Beer comes in cans and glass bottles. But do you know why beer doesn’t come in transparent bottles like wine?
There are various brands of beer available in the market. As you may have noticed, beer bottles are either green in color or brown in color. There is a big reason for this colors of the beer bottles.
Beer companies were started thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt. At that time beer was packed in transparent bottles. Later, it was discovered that since the beer was in a white bottle, the ultraviolet rays (UV Rays) emitted from the sun’s rays were degrading the acid in the beer and it started to smell bad and people could not drink it. The beer brewing community has dubbed this process as “skunking”.
When hops in beer are exposed to strong light, a photooxidation reaction takes place, creating the compound 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol. To prevent the process of skunking from occurring, beer brewers have opted for darkly tinted glass.
Hence the popular choice among brewers: brown. But that’s not the only color seen in beer bottles; some come in green glass, too. What’s behind that choice? Given that green is not as protective from light, the reason for its use is mainly marketing, according to Skypeck.
Besides, cans are also a popular choice for packaging and don’t let in light; but skunking is still possible due to a process known as thermal aging. More studies are needed in this area, according to Skypeck, to determine which packaging is optimal to prevent skunking.