I was just wanting to know if its better to use clear or colored bottles to bottle my mead. I just started making mead and I have five batches going witch will be ready to bottle soon and want to know witch is better to use to age mead for a long period of time. Neely138
clear or colored bottles
- Thread starter Neely138
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Hello Neely138,
Welcome to GotMead?
Exposure to UV light can hurt the mead. :glasses9:
Dark bottles are perferred for long term storage unless you are keeping them in a dark place where sunlight can't reach them.
Welcome to GotMead?
Exposure to UV light can hurt the mead. :glasses9:
Dark bottles are perferred for long term storage unless you are keeping them in a dark place where sunlight can't reach them.
Welcome to GotMead!
mmclean is completely correct.
That being said, there is nothing like a clear bottle with a nicely designed lable to showcase your "work", or "labor of love", as the case may be. So if you have a cool, dark place to store your mead, definately go with the clear.
Dark or clear bottles
I would use clear ones if bottling in 750 ml. wine bottles as it shows off your work better. You need to keep those out of the light though, but that isn't very difficult. If bottling in beer bottles, I would use a brown beer bottle. It's just a matter of personal preference IMHO.
I would use clear ones if bottling in 750 ml. wine bottles as it shows off your work better. You need to keep those out of the light though, but that isn't very difficult. If bottling in beer bottles, I would use a brown beer bottle. It's just a matter of personal preference IMHO.
There is one style that might be particularly vulnerable to UV damage, and that would be a braggot. UV damage causes that skunky, off-flavor in beer that has been in direct light for too long, and so you run a similar risk when using malt/grain in a mead. If you make a braggot, you might consider putting it in some colored glass. Otherwise, feel free to showcase your work as others have pointed out. 
Just to make sure that we're completely correct - it is the changes that occur to a chemical found in hops, not grain, that causes the skunky odor in light-struck beer. Still, any beverage exposed to UV light will suffer damage, so it is best to keep everything you make in as dark an environment as possible. Dark bottles help, but storage in a dark room (cave, cellar, closet, etc.) is really best.
Also, if you just started and think those are ready to bottle soon, please do some research into stabilizing to prevent bottle bombs. Mead is usually aged for quite a while before bottling, and if you want to bottle early it's important to make sure they are 100% certainly stopped fermenting permanently, or you could end up injured.
On topic though, I've often wondered if dark brown bottles offer better protection than dark green?
On topic though, I've often wondered if dark brown bottles offer better protection than dark green?
I believe brown glass absorbs more UV than green. In either case, thicker and darker color is better than thinner or lighter color.
Well I just picked up 6 cases of bordeaux style green bottles from my LHBS for $7.50/case...apparently they aren't that popular with the general public so they're trying to get rid of an overabundance of them.....so it's green bottles for me!!
Erm, isn't it just easier to use any damn bottle you want and then store them in those magical devices that absorb 100% of UV (and other light frequencies for that matter).......
Universally known as......
Cardboard boxes.......;D
regards
fatbloke
p.s. then it's just keeping it somewhere with a decent level of temperature..... or that's what I understand anyway.
Universally known as......
Cardboard boxes.......;D
regards
fatbloke
p.s. then it's just keeping it somewhere with a decent level of temperature..... or that's what I understand anyway.
Yeah, that works, unless you really don't have the space for boxes (I keep most of mine in open wine racks... I could drap cloth over ut might be ugly).
Ha ha! Yup, there's that technique as well, though if you got rid of the racks, you'd find that consistently sized boxes would contain more (think of stacking on a pallet for shipping.....)
;D
Ha ha! Yup, there's that technique as well, though if you got rid of the racks, you'd find that consistently sized boxes would contain more (think of stacking on a pallet for shipping.....)
True, but boy would they look ugly in my kitchen!
;Dof course, if your rack was in your wine cellar.... (Like mine)
I tend to bottle meads in clear and my red wines in green/brown.
I tend to bottle meads in clear and my red wines in green/brown.
I try to bottle dark wines in dark glass, I save the lighter greens and clear glass for white wines and light meads, I've got steel shelving in the basement that holds a combination of homemade and storebought wine racks and cardboard boxes on their sides because the racks don't fill the shelves completely... The homemade wine racks are solid 1/4" plywood so the only light getting at things is through the top of the bottle, but I am considering making a fabric curtain for the more open storebought wine racks.
