Ever Wondered Why Beer Bottles Are Usually Green Or Brown And ...

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EVER wondered why beer bottles are almost always green or brown?

Clear bottles for booze are a rarity – and there’s a really good reason for that.

Beer bottles were found to be better if they were coloured

While we’ve been supping ale in the UK for hundreds of years, it was only in the 19th century that it began to be bottled and sold commercially.

Initially beer was sold in clear glass and it kept reasonably well in cool, dark conditions.

But, according to Business Insider, brewers soon noticed that when the bottles were exposed to sunlight the beer began to smell “skunky”.

The foul odour came about because the clear glass allowed UV rays to penetrate the drink and alter the flavour by breaking down the acid in hops which reacted with the sulphur present in beer to form a chemical almost the same as that used by skunks to spray predators.

Green was used during World War II due to a shortage of brown glass

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So brewers turned the bottles brown and the darker colour blocked out the damaging rays and kept the beer fresh for longer.

During the Second World War there was a shortage of brown glass so green became the colour of choice.

These days brewers can apply UV protected coats to glass to preserve the taste – hence the few beer bottles that are actually clear.

Last year, we discovered the incredible secret behind the position of the ’57’ on a Heinz ketchup bottle.

And we recently revealed the real reason pods in Kinder eggs are yellow.

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