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No More Foamy Beer, Thanks To Magnets
sciencehabit writes Few sights at a bar are more deflating than a bottle of beer overflowing with foam. This overfoaming, called gushing, arises when fungi infect the barley grains in beer's malt base. The microorganisms latch onto barley with surface proteins called hydrophobins. During the brewing process, these hydrophobins can attract carbon dioxide molecules produced by the mashed barley as it ferments, making the beer far too bubbly. Brewers try to tamp down the gushing by adding hops extract, an antifoaming agent that binds to the proteins first. Now, food scientists in Belgium have hit upon a technological solution: magnets. When the team applied a magnetic field to a malt infused with hops extract, the magnets dispersed the antifoaming agent into tinier particles. Those smaller particles were much more effective at binding to more hydrophobins, blocking carbon dioxide and decreasing gushing. During tests in a real brewery, the magnets decreased excess foaming so effectively that brewers needed much lower amounts of hops extract—a potential cost-saving measure. Future studies could explore whether magnetic fields alone could reduce foaming on an industrial scale, the team says.
Magnets... how do they work?
I like it!
This is needed at the bar when pouring into a glass or pitcher. Electromagnet pouring systems?
From the abstract of the original article: "When hydrophobins and hop extract together were submitted to magnetic fieldmore gushing was obtained than in the absence of magnet. This is due to the extensive dispersion of the combination by the magnet and can be limited by using less amount of hop extract."
However I'm not a big fan of Belgian-style beers.
#DeleteChrome
Beer should have a natural head formed by CO2 from fermentation. In the UK live Cask ale is killing off pasteurised keg beer with added gas because it tastes better.
Beer overflow seems to occur more frequently in the smaller refrigerator I have in the basement. When I open a beer bottle or can (usually a craft beer) it will often overflow, something that almost never happens in the upstairs kitchen. It runs a little cooler than our main refrigerator and the bottles are often horizontal. Are these two factors contributing to the overflow? Is the downstairs beer more excited to get in my belly? Whats the science behind it?
If you get too much foam, maybe you should clean tour glass and improve your skills in pouring a beer.
Beer is rotten barley water.
Beer was invented to create a use for grain that had sat too long and gone off.
It's been a successful marketing ploy for hundreds of years.
Brewmaster, step away from the tun and put your hands where I can see 'em. You are hereby charged with knowingly violating the Bavarian Purity Act of 1516.
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
Beers... how do they work?
Brewers try to tamp down the gushing by adding hops extract, an antifoaming agent that binds to the proteins first.
Yes, there are hop-based antifoaming agents. However, there are other kinds of hop extract, like the kinds used to add bitterness in lieu of adding hops directly.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I thought they were going to say, tape two cow magnets along your neck before drinking beer
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I don't drink beer as it doesn't agree with me.....
But won't this adversely affect the flavour?
- http://www.milkme.co.uk
I seem to recall someone using magnets in the carburetor in some sort of fuel economy scam, is this based on the same thing?
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Few sights at a bar are more deflating than a bottle of beer overflowing with foam.
Few sights are more deflating?
You and I have clearly been going to very different bars.
This assumes the keg has been perfectly carbonated. If you've spent any time in a bar, you'll know this is not always the case.
Yahoo Serious taught us how men for centuries have sought to put foam into beer and now that Young Einstein solved this while inventing surfing, men want to take it away? This must be Preston Preston's doing.
I call BS
I suspect the author prefers rootbeer...
I also don't think he likes lagers or other bottled beers that tend to a certain amount of carbonation and the hops makes the beer foam like that. It's a preservative. Ales tend to be a bit less foamy but they really are an acquired taste and I and most Americans (and some homebrewers like me) prefer a good, solid lager beer. The Germans get it right since this is their thing as a sort of national drink. Germans brought a taste for this to the new country in the 19th century and it hasn't left.
If you want the same effect without the foam then drink hard cider.
I wonder if the hops used as anti-foaming agent has magnetic properties.
Gushers are typically cause by over-carbonated beer. The hops aren't there to stop foaming, they're there for the dual purpose of being a flavoring agent, and a preservative. I would really not be terribly impressed by a beer with no foam that lacked hops. For one, the hops help to offset the sweetness from the barley malt.
Pasteurisation denatures the proteins in the keg Beer which why the head on keg beer don't last and that allows the C02 escape in the glass and that is why Keg beer has the metallic smell. The gas added to keg is also a mix of nitrogen and C02 to try and minimise that metallic smell.
The naturally produced C02 of cask is retained by the head and also includes aromas from the Beer particularly the hops.
No thanks, Dicedupe
How about just preventing the fungal infection in the first place? That's always worked for me, but it's probably too expensive for AB InBev to actually use quality product.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
I can't see major manufacturers changing their recipes overnight but this is sure to bring an evolution in beercraft. The industry has already been shaken severely through vigorous competition. Major manufacturers will need to put out hundreds of candidate low-hops beers if they don't want to lose ground.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Did any one else read this and think they were making stuff up? Using magnets in beer, microorganisms making hydrophobins, antifoaming agent binding to proteins, anti-gushing. Speak English! It's hard enough to compile my object-oriented code using re-entrant methods with my two pass compiler, linking into a MySql relational database without having to wade through a bunch of jargon.
Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
Iron Maiden Beer
I can hear thier brewmaster now: "Can I Play With Magnets?"
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
I have never seen a bottle of beer overfoam at a bar before unless it was spilled.
Try not drinking shitty beer.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
i prefer foam: all the aroma & taste, less filling;-) as close to a beer slurpee as u can get...
"Few sights at a bar are more deflating than a bottle of beer overflowing with foam."
Fat chicks
Unfortunately most Guinness is pasteurised, the unpasteurised Guinness is said to not 'travel well' however if you can get it is vastly superior.
This is a pity because with modern logistics it should be possible to distribute it to most of the UK while it is still fresh.
Beer is supposed to have foam! Of course, the donkey pee-pee you guys and the dutch call beer doesn't have any foam, but in Germany a Beer is only well-tapped if it's "Foamcrown" (that's what it's called) can carry a 2-Euro coin.
Ok, so much for the education. Here comes a beer-joke, somewhat on the subject:
A guy from Collogne, a guy from Duesseldorf and a guy from Muenster walk into a bar. Mr. Collogne order a "Koelsch", Mr. Duesseldorf an "Alt" and the guy from Muenster a Coke. Both Mr. Collogne and Mr. Duesseldorf turn to him and ask: "Why do you order a coke?" - "Well, if you guys don't drink any beer, I won't either."
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
The Mash is boiled to produce Wort which is fermented to produce Beer. It is at that stage that pasteurised beer is boiled to kill the yeast and kegged. Whilst live ale is casked and undergoes a secondary fermentation.
Despite outwardly similar appearances a keg and a cask are not the same thing. A Keg has a single opening on top into a throat or spear (a tube from top to bottom). While a Cast has two openings and no throat.
Cheers!
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
it is perfect already.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
This is not the first time that Slashdotters were upset that technology got in the way of getting more head.
antifoaming agent is the trick ... and I wouldn't want to have that in my beer. Also nothing worse than getting a flat-looking beer. A good stiff foam crown is very important.
We knew they were cool, but we didn't know how cool!
... hops extracts gives beer much of its flavour. At least the beer I like.
So... nope.