Green Glass???

[primo95]

Hi. I haven't had any income since July 2020 which was okay until now as I have been making 1 gallon batches. My eldest (adult) daughter wants me to make two 5 gallon batches of wine followed by two 5 gallon batches of Viking Blood (cherry) Mead. I can afford one 5 gallon glass carboy and refuse to use plastic as a matter of principal (bacteria in any scratches). Anyway, she has a "green" 5 gallon carboy and is spending all of her money on ingredients. Green is verboten in making ale unless you like "skunky" tasting beer, i.e Heineken. So my question is whether or not the color of the glass will affect wine and mead like it does ale. Thank you for considering my question.

 

[StFrancis]

IMHO, the issue with beer is the alpha acids in hops is what causes the skunky aromas, brown bottles prevent beer from "light strike". I don't see an issue with green glass for wine or mead. In fact many of my reclaimed wine bottles are shades of green.

 

[primo95]

Thank You, I remembered about the alpha acids from the hops with beer, but wanted to be sure for my new branching off..

 

[winemaker81]

@primo95, welcome to WMT!

Ignore most of what you know from beer making. While both are fermentation, most of the details are different. Many of us on this forum make both, so we are directly aware of the differences.

Take a look at the MoreWine! manuals -- while I don't expect they'll cover topics such as glass color, there is a wealth of information in the manuals.

https://morewinemaking.com/content/winemanuals

 

[Jim Welch]

... Green is verboten in making ale unless you like "skunky" tasting beer, i.e Heineken. So my question is whether or not the color of the glass will affect wine and mead like it does ale....

I agree with you that Heineken is skunky, here in the states at least, but I do not think it is the green bottle that does that to it. I've had it in Amsterdam and let me tell you I could detect ZERO hint of skunkiness there, it was a delicious beer there. I'm guessing it is something about the importation process that does that to Heineken.
Not sure if you want to use the carboy in question for a fermentation vessel or an aging vessel but it should be fine as long as it is completely clean and sanitized.

 

[balatonwine]

Green in glass was originally made by adding Uranium to the glass. Old antique glass such as heirloom demijohns, thus, probably should not be used for any beverage preparation today due to the radioactive issues. It will not make your wine radioactive (well, except if it releases Radon... maybe ), but high energy particles may damage the wine over long time periods.

Modern green glass is made from adding iron or chromium. Neither "leech" from the glass so there is no concern to use them in wine making containers or in wine bottles.

However, many larger "green glass" containers today are often screw top containers. Those should not normally be used as they are not really designed for bungs and airlocks. They tend to have thin necks and sometimes it takes some downward pressure to seat a bung, and a thinner neck may break.

Hope this helps.