Coolest 'sciencey' Thing About Beer

[mfeighan]

how beer gets skunked in sun light

 

[MVZOOM]

What about the bastardisation of beer by commercial breweries to aid stabilisation, cost minimisation, clarity etc etc....?

 

[seravitae]

not really beer, but it seems pretty general for the topic.

Xin An Zeng, Shu Juan Yu, Lu Zhang, Xiao Dong Chen, The effects of AC electric field on wine maturation, Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, Volume 9, Issue 4, October 2008, Pages 463-468

It has been demonstrated in the above paper that magnetic fields (such as those found in mains power lines) actually decrease ethanol content and increase ester content of wines, suggesting that the proximity of an alcoholic beverage to stray electric fields will induce esterification and/or transesterification, modifying the chemical composition (and taste) of the wine.

Same thing applies with beer i'd imagine.

 

[hefevice]

not really beer, but it seems pretty general for the topic.

Xin An Zeng, Shu Juan Yu, Lu Zhang, Xiao Dong Chen, The effects of AC electric field on wine maturation, Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, Volume 9, Issue 4, October 2008, Pages 463-468

It has been demonstrated in the above paper that magnetic fields (such as those found in mains power lines) actually decrease ethanol content and increase ester content of wines, suggesting that the proximity of an alcoholic beverage to stray electric fields will induce esterification and/or transesterification, modifying the chemical composition (and taste) of the wine.

Same thing applies with beer i'd imagine.

Very skeptical (checked the date to see if it was April 1), and trying very hard not to make a gag about the effects of EM on Chinese hops.

 

[seravitae]

Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies is accessible through sciencedirect and elsevier, it is a reputible journal. That's not to say that people don't lie about results in science, though.

Plus lots of other studies have been done with ac and pulsed fields from a variety of peer-reviewed journals on foods/beverages:



Inactivation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae suspended in orange juice using high-intensity pulsed electric fields
2004 Journal of Food Protection 67 (11), pp. 2596-2602

Zs. Cserhalmi, A. Sass-Kiss, M. Toth-Markus, N. Lechner, Study of pulsed electric field treated citrus juices, Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, Volume 7, Issues 1-2, June 2006, Pages 49-54

Flavor, color, and vitamin C retention of pulsed electric field processed orange juice in different packaging materials
Show Abstract Ayhan, Z., Yeom, H.W., Howard Zhang, Q., Min, D.B.
2001 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 49 (2), pp. 669-674

 

[jonocarroll]

Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies is accessible through sciencedirect and elsevier, it is a reputible journal.

Heh...

http://www.badscience.net/2009/05/elsevier...-into-fanzines/

But this time Elsevier Australia went the whole hog: they gave Merck an entire publication to themselves, which looked like an academic journal, but in fact only contained reprinted articles, or summaries of other articles. In issue 2, for example, 9 of the 29 articles were about Vioxx, and 12 of the remaining were about another Merck drug, Fosamax. All of these articles presented positive conclusions, and some were bizarre: like a review article containing just 2 references.

...

Since then things have deteriorated. It turns out that Elsevier actually put out six such journals, sponsored by industry, and Elsevier Chief Executive Michael Hansen has now issued a statement admitting that they were made to look like journals, and lacked proper disclosure. "This was an unacceptable practice and we regret that it took place."

Food for thought is all.

I was going to add in something on skunking but it didn't end up in there - I think I've got what I need now. Cheers to all contributors. I'll post a link to the article once it's published (couple o' months away I reckon).

 

[jonocarroll]

People who have access to the Adelaide Advertiser may wish to wander through the first 2010 installment of the EducationNOW section tomorrow (Tues 2nd March) - I'm told it's an interesting read.

The column is 'Can You Believe It?' and I have no idea what heading they went with (with any luck, my witty use of alliteration, with apologies to Captain Skellett). Don't rush to blame me if anything's blatantly incorrect, I didn't see a proof and I haven't seen the edit in print yet -- It may not be my fault.

Cheers again to everyone who provided suggestions. I'll let you know if they want a follow-up sometime. I may even be able to link to an online version after tomorrow.

 

[seravitae]

Interesting scandal(s), I suppose i should boycott elsevier then?

 

[jonocarroll]

EducationNOW article from the Adelaide Advertiser (2nd March 2010).

I think the person who usually uploads these is away, and someone else is responsible for the copypasta, hence the odd paragraph structure.

Anyone still interested is welcome to tune in to ABC Radio 891 AM on Thursday at about 2pm (alternatively, I think it's streamed online) to hear me either waffle on about beer science or freeze up under the pressure of live radio. Fun times!

 

[hefevice]

EducationNOW article from the Adelaide Advertiser (2nd March 2010).

I think the person who usually uploads these is away, and someone else is responsible for the copypasta, hence the odd paragraph structure.

Anyone still interested is welcome to tune in to ABC Radio 891 AM on Thursday at about 2pm (alternatively, I think it's streamed online) to hear me either waffle on about beer science or freeze up under the pressure of live radio. Fun times!

Nice, well done!

Good luck with the interview. Would be good if those of us unable to hear it live could get access to an archive.