December 01, 2005

Beerious George: Formaldehyde? *hic* I've been told by 3 separate bartenders that draught beer has formaldehyde in it, that's why they only drink from bottles. A Google search shows at best that there may be two reasons for formaldehyde being in beer. (1) Can manufacturing and (2) ethanol breakdown. Are either harmful enough to avoid draught beer?

One article, here about can manufacturing says that in "the old days" formaldehyde was used, but today other washes take it's place. Another article here (about 1/3 down the page) suggests formaldehyde is a common byproduct of ethanol, which whould then be in all beer. Are these the same chemical things, or enough to change my habits? Should I only drink bottles to oxymoronically "drink healthy"?

posted by petebest 18 years ago
  • I was always under the impression that draught beer was fresher, whereas canned/bottled beer was full of preservatives.
  • My understanding is that alcohol is changed to aldehydes (including formaldehyde) by the liver during the natural detoxification process, and that this process creates the dessicating effect that causes hangovers...? In which case you couldn't really avoid it. I have also heard that some breweries, primarily Asian ones, add formaldehyde as a flavoring agent (!) because they have done so since time immemorial and don't want to change the taste of their beer now by omitting it. For most beers, bottled or draft, the addition of hops is a natural preservative - this is why they were first added to beer in the first place, esp. lager beers which had to be stored for months to achieve proper fermentation. I don't know that additional chemical preservatives are added beyond that, as they would alter the taste and are not really needed.
  • I'm just informed by a homebrewer friend that that second link may or may not be credible, but that the USFDA limitations on the amount of formaldehyde in imported Chinese beer does come from that preservative process some of their breweries use. Big US breweries use filters & pasteruization to get rid of unstable yeasties and things instead.
  • Ha ha ha ha. Avoid beer.. ha ha ha ha ha..
  • Your second article actually says that formaldehyde is a common byproduct of methanol, not ethanol. Ethanol breaks down to acetaldehyde.
  • /faints
  • Beer... ewww.
  • This sounds like an urban legend. slightly related
  • So that explains the millions of people dying every year from formaldehyde poisoning. Oh wait... This reminds me of back in the day when in America pop still came in returnable glass bottles. I was in line with my mom and the woman in front of us asked for Coke or something and wanted bottles not cans because, "rats piss on cans." Who knew that rats didn't like to piss on bottles?
  • Formaldehyde in beer, opium in Jager -- when will you people get it? Your scare tactics will not work on me. Besides, Formaldehyde would preserve my liver, right?
  • Well as near as I can tell there are several fronts that would lend some credence to the theory that there's formaldehyde in beer. 1) as in the link glip posted, there are a few Chinese breweries who use it as a clarifying agent. Bleah. 2) It was used early on in the manufacture of aluminum and steel cans, but they don't do that anymore. 3) Even if they did, draught kegs are recycled, so you'd only have the first or maybe second keg with any trace amount. 4) naturally occuring "useful urea formaldehyde nitrogen compounds" show up in the liver and are probably delivered by delicious, life-affirming (and destroying) beer. 5) Draught beer has formaldehyde = 0 Partying Like Zorro = 1!
  • Well, if this is true, then I will be one of those incorruptible drunken saint bodies in 10,000 years, by my calculation.
  • They do use that isinglass shit out of fish swimbladders, though, so bad luck, vegans.
  • (slight lie, there)
  • There is a danger in drinking draught beer--but this caution extends only to my knowledge of American bar tactics. The danger is not from additives, but from poor cleaning and maintenance on taps/kegs in high volume, low price (American Macro Brews) draughts. My source is anecdotal, sorry; my friends who own(ed) bars relate that they have had complaints of stomach disturbances isolated to the taps that have a high keg switchover and low line cleaning frequency. Seems that the mold can and will contaminate the lines. Doesn't happen--so I'm told--at places where the lines are well maintained and no one has heard of it happening with hand-pulled varieties.
  • OK, so beer doesn't contain formaldehyde. The following products do: Cigarettes and other tobacco products, gas cookers and open fireplaces, manufactured wood products, fibreglass, carpets, foam in cushions, permanent press fabrics, paper products, household cleaners, shampoos, bubble bath, medicines and disinfectants. Feel better now?
  • You eat carpet? Oh, wait, maybe I should put that another way..
  • Was that For Mel To Hide? Nyuk Nyuk. Woo Woo Woo!
  • wouldn't alcohol kill mold? I know most pop fountains are full of yucky stuff, but I would think that the alcohol in alcoholic beverages would take care of most nasty living stuff.
  • Nope. When I worked in a bar, we had to flush out everything with this noxious chemical crap that I can't remember the name of. Anyway, leave a half empty beer bottle lying around for a week, you'll see mold. Or me.
  • It would seem the lesser-used taps would grow nasties first, wouldn't it?
  • I don't know whether or not there is formaldehyde, but I can say that everytime I drink beer my motor skills decrease and my thinking becomes befuddled. Seems to be worse the more I drink. My guess is that whatever is in beer can also be found in wine and bourbon.
  • It would seem the lesser-used taps would grow nasties first, wouldn't it? Good argument for using one's tap as much as possible, I'd say.
  • wouldn't alcohol kill mold? Only in sufficiently high concentration. If we were talking about a Bacardi 151 tap that got regular use, then probably. Draught beer almost never cracks 10%, and the vast majority of beers (Stateside, anyway) don't come near to that. Though I do have a friend who brews a mead that I have dubbed "Don't Make Any Plans."
  • It would seem the lesser-used taps would grow nasties first, wouldn't it? The lesser-used taps had less exposure to the nasty things in bar air. The more that the high-volume taps were changed, the more opportunity for contamination. IANAScientist (or Scientologist for that matter) so I really don't know. But the bar-owning buddies learned the hard way that they had to keep on top of cleaning the delivery tubes more frequently than they were. And it's not that they were total slobs, they cleaned all the lines regularly, but found out that the high volume taps had to be changed more often. So, beware the $.25 cent beer nights or the $2.50 pitchers of Miller/Bud Lite/Light. Not that that should be a problem.
  • jccalhoun: remember that time I barfed on your shoes (how could you *not*?) I still swear it was from dirty taps at that restaurant we went to. I went there again about a month later and got almost equally ill on one beer. Blech.
  • People have drunk far worse things in history than modern brews, and yet somehow we are here. I say the same thing about acrylamide in french fries. If it was so dangerous, and our ancestors have been eating it throughout history, then how did we ever get born.
  • In other words, "Eat right, exercise, get a good nights sleep, avoid bungie-jumping... and die anyway.
  • If this thread bothers you, you haven't had enough beer!
  • There's no such thing as having consumed 'enough beer'. There is only 'not enough', and 'too much'.
  • *raises glass to Rocket88*
  • *hic*