Why Aren’t All Beer Bottles Clear Glass

We have all had beer from different coloured glass bottles. These seem to fall into three categories, brown beer bottles, green beer bottles and clear beer bottles. But why aren’t all beer bottles clear glass.

Clear glass shows off the beer, we can see the exact colour and how clear it is. So clear glass makes the most sense. However, there must be a reason why green and brown glass bottles are used for beer.

So why then do some beers still come in clear glass bottles?

Which Colour Beer Bottle Is The Best?

It is hard to understand that if light is the enemy of beer, why clear glass bottles are used at all for bottling beer.

Surely all beers packaged in clear bottles are going to suffer from skunking, or lightstruck as it is known in the industry.

Lagers like Corona and Sol come in clear bottles. As do New Castle Brown ale and Spitfire Amber ale. These are just a few that use clear glass.

So do these beers all get affected by the dreaded light and if so, why are they not in green or brown bottles?

Clear Beer Bottles

Clear beer bottles will expose the beer to light. However brewers may have a few things up their sleeves to prevent maximum spoil.

New hop technology has brought alternatives for brewing beer and packaging it in clear bottles. Brewers can use specially formulated hop extracts to avoid the beer spoiling.

Also it is said that clear glass can be treated with a UV protectant to stop the light spoiling the beer.

These two techniques means that beer is safe in clear glass bottles and has less chance of being lightstruck.

Having said that some may be put off that the beer is brewed using hop extracts, rather than the raw ingredient. And unless the brewer states, how do we know whether the bottle our beer is in is UV protected.

Green Beer Bottles

It is said that green bottles are not much better than clear bottles at protecting the beer. So why use them as an alternative to clear?

The story goes that during WWII brown glass was in high demand and its use for beer packaging was not a priority. So breweries had to find an alternative, and green being a little better than clear was used instead.

Green also became a bit of a status symbol, denoting that beer in green bottles is of the highest quality.

Many breweries went back to brown bottles once brown glass was more readily available.

However some stuck with the green glass, maybe for marketing or the quality thing that had associated itself with green glass.

Brown Beer Bottles

Brown bottles are the daddy of glass packaging for beer. The brown glass is the best glass for stopping UV light from spoiling beer.

It seems that craft breweries that do not want any additives or extracts in their beer, will opt for brown bottles.

This gives them the maximum protection they can get for their beer. That is apart from cans of course. Cans will block out all light. So they are the best vessel for packaging beer and keeping it at its freshest.

But brown glass remains the best protection for beer when it comes to using glass bottles as packaging. And lets be honest many beer lovers prefer glass bottles to cans.

Final Thoughts

Now we know why not all beer is packaged in clear glass bottles. Although it shows the beer off at its best, it also comes with its problems.

The same goes for green glass bottles. They may look good, but they suffer the same problems, albeit not to the same extent as clear glass bottles.

This makes brown bottles the winning glass packaging for our scrummy beer. But its not the best packaging for the fight against light, that goes to the simple can.

So if you are bottling your homebrew, then brown bottles are the best colour to go for to protect your beer. Having said that, it is okay to go for clear or green bottles for your homebrew.

Just keep them out of the light, a cave will be ideal, failing that a cupboard will suffice.

Let me know what you think, share your thoughts on the colours of beer bottles.