Temperature & Light, Treat Your Beer Right!

Skunked beer is wasted beer, don't be a fool and break the #1 Rule: do not waste beer. It is not hard to avoid skunking your beer if you take a few easy precautions, learn the facts and be mindful of your beer's surroundings. Learn how after you say hello to Abbey the program skunk.

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Do Not leave beer or wort, once yeast has been added to it, come in direct contact with sunlight or UV light of any kind. Most fermentation buckets are opaque white, this is not light safe! Use a dark room or closet and make sure cover the container with a towel or cardboard box, especially if you use clear carboys.

Do make sure to follow your yeast and style's guidelines of temperature. Fermenting a stout at 75 F will give you a fruity and possibly even banana smelling concoction that may be to some people's liking but do not try to enter it in a competition, off- (or out of place) flavors like that are not always welcome. If you want to brew a lager, you better have a cold basement or a fridge you can adjust to 52 - 58 F, lager yeast is amazing if it is treated right.

Do Not let your beer ever get above 80 F, if you can manage it and for that matter, do not let it freeze, duh.

Do use brown bottles, clean and green glass will not help keep your final product safe from light. Also, make sure to store those bottles, even the brown ones, in a cool and completely dark place to preserve its life.

Skunk, by the way, refers to the occasional odor that converted hop oils can produce after being exposed to direct UV light, even for as little as 15 minutes. I love Abbey, the smell of skunk and beer but I do not want to taste her defensive weapon in my glass.

Be nice to your beer