OT. Craft Beer issue

[Glug]

When I was in high school I drank mostly Miller beer - the original "champagne of beers" in the clear bottle. The someone told me, Miller had to add formaldehyde to the beer to keep it from going bad in the clear glass. Probably nonsense, but I stopped drinking that stuff and moved on to the good stuff.

Bitter chugging through chemistry! Literally.

That Miller is brewed with a hop extract that is not susceptible to light-struck skunking. Tetrahydro Isomerized hop extract.

http://www.professorbeer.com/articles/skunked_beer.html

[Jim Stewart]

Let's just settle this once and for all and say that the best beers in the world come from Belgium in a bottle with a cork and cage, and if a bottle is good enough for a trappist brewery it's more than good enough for me.

We have lots of excellent craft breweries here in Northern California and up in Oregon (where we have relatives), but I must say the best beers I've ever had were two bottles of Belgian beer given to me by a friend. The bottles (dark brown) were painted to look like crockery and they had corks and wire bails on the top. Yummy.

-js

[no704]

There are places where no glass is allowed, pools, lakes, beaches.

[RMinMN]

I expect you are correct. I have not done winemaking for many years and was not recalling the nature of the "vinegar bug" correctly. In any case, it can "go off" if precautions are not taken.

Makes you wonder how they ever got good wine or beer centuries ago before the nature of the problem was understood. Just another of the closely held "secrets of the trade", presumably..



Must be, or we'd be hearing about the skin cancer risk of fluorescent lights.... I have not heard anything about that, which does not mean there is no risk. But people do spend all day in the office under fluorescents, and at the end of the winter, they do not have a tan..... in fact if they did in the fall, they probably lost it by spring.

The lights DO work by making UV, and having that energy excite the phosphors coating the glass, which then "fluoresce" providing the light. So one might expect that there would not be 100% blockage of the original UV, some would get through.

I assume the coolers referenced must be of the type where "you close the door and the light STAYS ON!".

Right, the light stays on so customers can see what beer is available and the lights are close to the bottles. While this doesn't really fit the "inverse square law" of physics since the light is not a point source, it still follows that the closer one is to the source, the more exposure one would get, the one being the bottle of beer.

[RMinMN]

Part ( a big part) of the enjoyment of drinking craft beer is the flavor/aroma. Drunk direct from the can or bottle, little of this is evident. Pour it into a glass (plastic tumbler if you are around the pool or at the beach) and the nice head developed releases the aroma straight to your nose when you take a sip. It won't do the same with the big brewers, their beer doesn't have the right components to get you the nice aroma anyway.

[J Tiers]

Right, the light stays on so customers can see what beer is available and the lights are close to the bottles. While this doesn't really fit the "inverse square law" of physics since the light is not a point source, it still follows that the closer one is to the source, the more exposure one would get, the one being the bottle of beer.

Most are LED now, and those do not have broad spectrum light. May not include ANY significant UV component. They usually have a few narrow peaks that sorta-kinda mimic the range of regular lights.

Plants "know" the difference, for instance

[rustdreamer]

Promote world peace -- DRINK MORE BEER!

[old mart]

Many of the good beers in Blighty come in bottles and cans, and I cannot tell the difference. I always use a glass. Can you get San Miguel Spanish lager in the States?
You can buy the Duff beer as immortalised by Homer Simpson in the UK, Duff by name, duff by nature.

[JRouche]

Bitter chugging through chemistry! Literally.

That Miller is brewed with a hop extract that is not susceptible to light-struck skunking. Tetrahydro Isomerized hop extract.

http://www.professorbeer.com/articles/skunked_beer.html

Thats discussting I didn't know. Thanks. JR

I think all of my hop came out of around the Willamette Valley. Washington State? It has been some time that I have brewed. I always did two hop-ings A boil and a steep. I boiled with green pellets from the same place I got the fresh green hops for steeping before fermentation!! LOL

I do love making beer. JR

Edit: Yeast next? I want to learn how to make wine from JT
I dont know how to make wine but I can make a world class Kimchi?

[thaiguzzi]

Many of the good beers in Blighty come in bottles and cans, and I cannot tell the difference. I always use a glass. Can you get San Miguel Spanish lager in the States?
You can buy the Duff beer as immortalised by Homer Simpson in the UK, Duff by name, duff by nature.

Beer should only be drunk from a glass.
I have never come across a beer that tastes good straight from the bottle, or even worse, a can.
The Australians drink a lot of beer straight from the bottle, a "stubby" i believe. Certain brands in the US too. Bud? Gross.

[old mart]

That Thai beer Singha is one of my favourites. As is the Chinese Tsing Tao which originated from the original German enclave there from before the first world war.
As for Aussies drinking direct, don't forget the temperatures there are so high that all beer is kept just above freezing, so flavour is not the most important feature.

[bborr01]

I used to drink Miller Lite that came in a brown bottle. Most times and places where I ordered one it would be fine but at our local Moose lodge it was always skunky. The bartender finally told me that she thought it was because the lights stayed on in the coolers 24/7. I think she was probably correct. Nowadays my taste runs more along the lines of Bells Two Hearted Ale.

[Forestgnome]

Many craft beers are so over-hopped that few people could taste a difference.

There is the concern about the alcohol leeching stuff out of the plastic. You'll still get some of that with a bottle, due to the cap.

It's a matter of taste. I like beers with a lot of hop. Makes a great beer for Easter!

[Mr Fixit]

Beer should only be drunk from a glass.
I have never come across a beer that tastes good straight from the bottle, or even worse, a can.
The Australians drink a lot of beer straight from the bottle, a "stubby" i believe. Certain brands in the US too. Bud? Gross.

Thaiguzzi, I couldn't agree more on the glass only philosophy. That's what started this post was my frustration with my craft beer in a can.

TX
Mr fixit for the family
Chris

[J Tiers]

The advantage of straight from the bottle, if the bottle is amber/brown, would be the fact that it should significantly delay Pepe le Pew on his way to your beer.

If the bottle is clear, like some A-B products, you were screwed when you bought 'em, the light won't make them worse than they started out.