Many people love beer, but only a few consumers actually know why their favorite drink is bottled in brown or green bottles. The color of the bottle serves a very important purpose. To better understand why brewers use brown or green bottles, we need to tell a little about the history of brewing.

Beer production began thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. However, due to the lack of pasteurization and cooling, the beer did not last long, so it had to be consumed relatively soon. This changed in the 17th century, when brewers began experimenting with glass bottles to keep their beverage longer and to be able to use it commercially.

Glass bottles keep beer fresher for longer, but have one major problem, if left in the sun for too long, the beer starts to smell like a skunk. This is because clear glass allows UV rays to penetrate the drink and change the taste. By the way, we use the comparison with skunk absolutely consciously, because scientists from the University of North Carolina and the University of Ghent in Belgium found that the reaction forms a chemical similar to that produced by skunks. The decision to use dark brown bottles is right to protect drinks from UV rays that spoil beer. Quite similar to the technology of sunglasses.

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Green bottles appeared in the 40s. After World War II, there was a shortage of brown glass, which forced many European brewers to choose alternative options. Since no one wanted to use clear glass, they turned to green glass mainly because it was available at the time (many pharmaceuticals at the time came in green glass bottles). The green bottle became something of a "trademark" for European beers, so many breweries began to use them, and therefore many European beers now come in green bottles.

Of course, nowadays protected coatings can be applied to any type of glass (which is why many beers have transparent bottles) and we do not need dark glass to protect our beer from the sun, but brewers keep brown and green bottles such to keep their product recognizable.

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