Brown demijohns

[kerosine]

This might be stupid question but bear with me.

I just picked up some brown demijohns from my elderly neighbour. When should I use brown vs clear?

[jcnoren]

Color of glass. Bottles that house reds tend to be colored to reduce the amount of sunlight that might enter and thus alter the color and flavor of the red wine. Whites tend to be in clear bottles as the sunlight although it can effect white wines flavor the it can't as easily effect the "color". Having said that I keep my bottles and demijohns well out of the sunlight so the "color" of the glass reallly doesn't matter as no sunlight gets through and to my wine.

To answer your question I guess if you are inclined to have your demijohns in sunlight (which I would not advise) If its contents are RED WINE use the brown as the brown will reduce some of the sunlight from penitrating....clear if the contents are WHITE.
JC

[jake47]

A brown demi jon will let less light into the wine preventing it from loosing its colour , especially if its a red wine. But keep in the dark as much as possible to do this.

[Mamgiowl]

In short use brown whenever possible.

[kerosine]

Thanks chaps