ScienceDaily reports: Forever chemicals known as PFAS have turned up in an unexpected place: beer. Researchers tested 23 different beers from across the U.S. and found that 95% contained PFAS, with the highest concentrations showing up in regions with known water contamination. The findings reveal how pollution in municipal water supplies can infiltrate popular products, raising concerns for both consumers and brewers... [PFAS] have been found in surface water, groundwater and municipal water supplies across the U.S. and the world. Although breweries typically have water filtration and treatment systems, they are not designed to remove PFAS... [T]he researchers call for greater awareness among brewers, consumers and regulators to limit overall PFAS exposure. These results also highlight the possible need for water treatment upgrades at brewing facilities as PFAS regulations in drinking water change or updates to municipal water system treatment are implemented. "I hope these findings inspire water treatment strategies and policies that help reduce the likelihood of PFAS in future pours," research lead Jennifer Hoponick Redmon said in a May announcement about their research.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Some people are simply mosquito magnets while others emerge relatively unscathed. But why is this so? One explanation, according to scientists from the Netherlands, is beer. To find out why the blood-sucking critters prefer some people over others, a research team led by Felix Hol of Radboud University Nijmegen took thousands of female Anopheles mosquitoes to Lowlands, an annual music festival held in the Netherlands. Researchers set up a pop-up lab in connected shipping containers in 2023, and around 500 volunteers took part. First, they filled out a questionnaire about their hygiene, diet and behavior at the festival. Then, to see how attractive they are to mosquitoes, they placed their arm into a custom-designed cage filled with the pesky insects. The cage had tiny holes so the mosquitoes could smell the person's arm but couldn't bite them. A video camera recorded how many insects landed on a volunteer's arm compared to a sugar feeder on the other side of the cage. By comparing the video footage and questionnaire answers, researchers saw some clear results emerge. Participants who drank beer were 1.35 times more attractive to mosquitoes than those who didn't. The tiny vampires were also more likely to target people who had slept with someone the previous night. The study also revealed that recent showering and sunscreen make people less attractive to the buzzing menace. "We found that mosquitoes are drawn to those who avoid sunscreen, drink beer, and share their bed," the researchers wrote in a paper uploaded to the bioRxiv preprint server. "They simply have a taste for the hedonists among us."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Swiss researchers have determined that fermentation degree controls beer foam stability after seven years of study published in Physics of Fluids. Triple-fermented Belgian beers maintained the longest-lasting foam while single-fermented lagers produced the shortest duration. The team tested six commercial beers including Westmalle Tripel, Tripel Karmeliet, and Swiss lagers Feldschlosschen and Chopfab. Surface viscosity dominated foam stability in single-fermented beers. Marangoni stresses from surface tension differences stabilized double- and triple-fermented beer foams. Lipid transfer protein 1 underwent progressive denaturation through successive fermentations. Single fermentation produced small round protein particles. Double fermentation created net-like protein structures. Triple fermentation broke proteins into hydrophobic and hydrophilic fragments that function as surfactants. ETH Zurich's Jan Vermant said breweries can now improve foam using these specific mechanisms rather than adjusting multiple factors simultaneously.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.