contaminated beer kills 75 people

[cooperplace]

http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/beer-that-killed-75-in-mozambique-brewed-with-toxic-flour-1240072

This happened in Mozambique. Don't brew beer from flour.

 

[kunfaced]

would this mean the bacteria and flour would have to be introduced after a boil? Otherwise we could assume there was no boil? I've read around some places of people throwing out advice to add flours into hefe's and similarly clouded beer. Not something I would care for personally, but does anyone around here practice along the same lines?

 

[TimT]

The boil will kill most but not all bacteria. The bacteria in question here is burkholderia gladioli - not sure what its temperature range is.

It's not a flour-specific bacteria.

 

[TimT]

It's possible the beer wasn't boiled anyway. Some beers aren't. Finnish Sahti is a traditional beer that isn't boiled. You just do the mash and that's it, for that reason it's supposed to be drunk quite fresh, a few days after adding the yeast.

 

[klangers]

There are types of traditional African beers that are made from sorghum and simply are a fermented mash which is then strained. If you watch on youtube "Uganda's Moonshine Epidemic" you might get an idea of the preparation conditions of some traditional drinks in parts of Africa (yes this isn't moonshine we're talking about but similar enough).

 

[cooperplace]

Whether the bacteria survives the boil is not the point: no thermophilic bacteria is going to kill you. And there won't be any thermophiles in a mash, so the boil will kill all the bacteria present. The issue is that bacteria make toxins, and these might survive a boil. But the posts above stating that it probably wasn't boiled are correct: in a place like Mozambique, boiling would be a big extra expense. As Mash Maestro says, it would be a strained fermented mash.
A terrible tragedy. And be careful what you drink in Africa.

 

[real_beer]

They might call it beer but it isn't.

 

[Killer Brew]

Despite my username I have no association with this product!

 

[super_simian]

They might call it beer but it isn't.

Fermented grain drink = beer. Which includes pombe, kaffir, malwa, chicha and also saké.