You would have found that beer bottles are usually coloured green or brown and now experts have said there is a good reason for this.
According to scientists, beer was initially sold in clear bottles and they stored well under cool and dark conditions.
But it was later found that in sunlight things were different. The beer stored in clear glass bottles does not store well for long when exposed to sunlight.
The scientists found that beer in clear bottles began to smell “skunky” after long exposure in sunlight.
The foul odour, it was later found, was as a result of the clear glass allowing ultra-violet rays of the sun to penetrate the bottle and affect the drink.
These UV rays alter the flavour of the beer by breaking down the acid in hops, the plant material used in brewing beer.
The breakdown reacts with the sulphur present in beer to form a bad-smelling chemical that ultimately taints the beer.
Brewers soon found this situation can be remedied by using dark-coloured bottles to store beer instead of clear-coloured ones. Unlike clear bottles, dark-coloured bottles block out the sun’s UV rays instead of allowing them to penetrate the bottle.
Initially, brown bottles were used. But green later became the colour of choice when there was a shortage of brown glass during the Second World War.
