Formaldehyde in Beer?

I like the idea that the dose makes the poison. Then again when I consume mass quantity I appreciate a pure product. It may be phycological but I believe it helps avoid hangovers.

 

I've brewed at brewery's and at home there is no formaldehyde in micro beer

 

I got a little sloppy one time in Anshun, Guizhou. It was late in the evening, coming back from a day of independent touring. Didn't feel like making the long trek to the night market from the hotel. Instead, went to the one restaurant that was open nearby. It immediately felt dodgy when I walked in, but I really needed a beer. When I opened it, I smelled it right away. Skunked! I examined the bottle and saw that it was three years old!!! I argued with the restaurant owner to no avail. However, when my friend looked underneath the cap, he found a prize. We manged to winkle all of about five cents out of that shark.

Depending on where you are, there's even a problem with fresh beer. The Chinese industrial breweries like to package their beer in clear or green bombers. In many places I saw flats of them wrapped in translucent plastic with cardboard bottoms. Mom & pop shop owners would often proudly display them in front of their businesses, being a big part of their revenue. Naturally, this was an effective way to skunk their beer. I expect locals were used to the taste.

 

I'll vouch for that. Tainted food and drink in China is certainly something you need to look out for. The melamine baby formula scandal is just one prominent example. Premium imported spirits are high in demand and widely faked. That said, I wouldn't condemn the entire country, you just need to be a lot more vigilant. In the major cities, I stick with craft beer. Food-wise, eating local in villages has yielded some very enjoyable meals.

 

Certain large breweries in Central America would never admit to it, but I smell like a mortuary after a night anywhere in Costa Rica.

 

I think this is a problem with a lot of industrial beer. Otherwise, why are they aggressively opposed to stating product ingredients on labels whenever a push is made to do so?

 

• formaldehyde can be used as a clarifying addition and also aids in the lightening of the colour
  
• the China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association (CADIA) in 2005 is quoted as saying: that 95% of the domestic beer in China has formaldehyde.
• Chinese brewery giant Tsingtao has confirmed the safety of its product, saying the per-liter formaldehyde content of its product is much lower than the standard set by the World Heath Organization (WHO)
• Formaldehyde was measured in 29 beers [out of 84 tested] (including 7 imported brands) using solid-phase micro-extraction with on-fiber derivatization

• Formaldehyde levels were between 0.082–0.356 mg/L. None of the beer samples exceede WHO drinking water criteria for benzene, trihalomethanes or formaldehyde.
• The practice of using formaldehyde in beers is dying off with fewer and fewer breweries using this practice ( typically the cheapest of the cheap)

• Outside of China there is no evidence of formaldehyde usage but may be detected in beers thus be "naturally occurring"
• The human body metabolizes formaldehyde rather quickly and turns it into formic acid ( yet another preservative). The formic acid is metabolized as well and eliminated by the body.
• Again while not something to take lightly you are exposed to just as much formaldehyde from second hand smoke as there were formaldehyde found in any of the beers tested.

 

Industry data/testing or independent?

 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2050-0416.2006.tb00733.x/pdf
little science-y but here is the paper.

 

Thanks for the source reference. So, we have a paper written by five authors from Qingdao, four of whom are employees of
the Technology Center of Tsingtao Brewery. Sample size was 84 beers collected from retail markets and breweries in China between March and April 2006. I'm not a scientist, but that seems rather narrow to be statistically significant to be able to draw meaningful conclusions. I will investigate a little further...

 

This guy used to post on Ba.
http://www.lewbryson.com/formaldehyde.htm

 

but if you get sick, when you return, you get free salad.

 

Ah yes, Hite and OB. I still get chills thinking about it.......(1998)

 

Big Rock and Mission Springs have been available in Seoul for a while as craft alternatives to Hite and OB. Last year, however, the South Korean government changed the beer taxation structure which had set too high a bar for opening a craft brewery. That's already begun to effect some change. Plantinum Brewery, for example, which is a Korean brewery that relocated to Yantai, Shandong, plans to return.

 

@hopfenunmaltz Great piece! Thanks for sharing.

 

Yep. Local to us here in SE PA. No longer a freelancer though as he's now managing editor of Whiskey Advocate magazine (at least last time I looked).

 

It's sad to even have to talk about stuff like this...the problem is that there are even worse food/beverage realities...

 

Don't forget to take account of whether or not that journal is refereed. If it is then other experts in the field would have been asked to review it and decide if it was worth publication. So an industry connection isn't necessarily a sign of "dishonesty" or cooking of results.

 

Same rumor I was told about local beer going to Guantanamo, Cuba in the 80's.