Jars of beer (with hops!)

I've begun to wonder if differences in the UV index is responsible for differing prevalences of light struck beer. Or rather, that areas which have a lower UV index score results in beer being light struck at a slower pace, slow enough to where most times it wont be noticed (the beer will have been consumed before it happens). I have had plenty of beers in bright sunlight this summer and summers of the past and never once experienced a beer taking a turn for the worse. Going by UV index maps it seems the UV index is markedly higher for the US compared with northern Europe which instead has a similar index to that of Greenland and northern parts of Canada. So that to me seems to indicate that we might experience this phenomenon differently in Sweden vs much of the US. It also looks like parts of Russia are similar to Sweden in this regard, which might help protect the beer from being light struck unless a person is careless with it.

In other words, perhaps beer in clear glass jars with hops will by necessity have to remain a Russian phenomenon.

 

It would certainly be interesting to see if any studies have been made in this area, not comparing countries per se (which is of little general interest so unlikely to be carried out) but the lenght of time until light struck beer at varying UV levels which could perhaps be used to infer potential differences across countries .

 

Time sure flies. The comments from UK posters are similar to mine, of it being a non issue for them. I've never heard anyone mention it in my years drinking beer, the concept of it is simply not known among non-industry people. The green bottle question doesn't exist here to take as another example (though it has been a concern of the brewing industry as I noted in the thread). It remains a theory of course, but I wouldn't be surprised if they found out that skunking a beer in Sweden, and countries with similar UV exposure, takes too long for it to be a concern for regular consumers (while at an industry level there might be a concern with prolonged exposure of packages to light before reaching the consumer).

The point with all of this is that when I see a beer being packaged like that in a clear glass jar I don't see the problem of skunking, the reaction is different since the expectations and experiences are different.

 

To me with strongly hopped beers the addition of additional hops in the package just seems superfluous. It's "cake upon cake" as we say. The beers in the OP I take to be lager beers, low to moderately hopped, and there I could see the hops adding a different flavor and aroma compared with the brewery's other lager beers, a touch or more of dry hop flavor which in my mind makes it more interesting of a concept.