Beer is a common product in our daily lives. It often appears on dining tables or in bars. We often see that beer packaging is almost always in green glass bottles. Why do breweries choose green bottles instead of white or other colored ones? Here’s why beer uses green bottles:
In fact, green-bottled beer began appearing as early as the mid-19th century, not recently. At that time, glassmaking technology was not very advanced and couldn’t remove impurities like ferrous ions from the raw materials, resulting in glass that was more or less green. Not only were beer bottles this color then, but glass windows, ink bottles, and other glass products were also green.
As glassmaking technology advanced, we discovered that removing ferrous ions during the process could make glass white and transparent. At this point, breweries began using white, transparent glass bottles for beer packaging. However, because beer has a low alcohol content, it’s not suitable for long-term storage. Exposure to sunlight accelerates oxidation and easily produces unpleasant-smelling compounds. Beer that had already spoiled naturally was undrinkable, while dark glass bottles could filter out some light, preventing spoilage and allowing the beer to be stored for a longer time.
Therefore, brewers began to abandon white transparent bottles and start using dark brown glass bottles. These absorb more light, allowing the beer to better retain its original flavor and be stored for a longer period. However, brown bottles are more expensive to produce than green bottles. During World War II, brown bottles were in short supply, and economies around the world were struggling.
Beer companies reused green bottles to reduce costs. Essentially, most well-known beer brands on the market used green bottles. Furthermore, refrigerators became increasingly common, beer sealing technology advanced rapidly, and lighting became less critical. Driven by major brands, green bottles gradually became the market mainstream.
Now, besides green-bottled beer, we can also see brown-bottled wines, mainly to distinguish them. Brown-bottled wines have a richer flavor and are more expensive than typical green-bottled beers. However, as green bottles have become an important symbol of beer, many well-known brands still use green glass bottles to attract consumers.
Post time: Nov-17-2025