Is there formaldehyde in beer?

i should friekin hope not, I'm smashing one right now!

And beside if it killed me, I wouldn't be able to buy more... if there was anything in my beer it would br crack cocaine to keep me coming back for more!

Lord help me guys

Tax me to death - I'll scrounge

Monitor my movements - I'll hide

but F with my beer and IT'S WAR!!!!

WARNING: ingest no tapper beer unless its the high grade stuff!!!!!!!!

nasty hangovers guaranteed!!!!!!

I never would have thought formaldyahyde was in beer..what purpose does it serve in beer? i wonder if samuel adams natural beer is lying
as far as i do know..formaldyahide is in armor all(stuff you clean yur car interior with) and in car window adhesive.

Most light beers, or beer with lower alcohol levels have formeldahyde in them. The formeldahyde stops the fermentation process. I know Coors uses formeldahyde to stop the fermentation and alcohol level in Coors Light. I have heard this is why certain light beers give you worse headaches than higher alcohol beers.

Formaldehyde is a chemical used in enbalming. Or however you spell it. It is a major ingredient in any pickle jar containing brains and organs.

Originally posted by ziggy1706
I never would have thought formaldyahyde was in beer..what purpose does it serve in beer?

As per what's quoted from original post:

The reason being that since these brews are top-fermented, they needed a reactive to consume the yeast sediments before filtration.

I certainly hope they aren't adding formaldehyde to our beers, because I would have enough in me to be legally dead (and embalmed) lol.

As a former home brewer who has studied the chemistry in detail I can say with certainty that top or bottom fermentation has nothing to do with hangovers.

Its nutrient depletion and dehydration that cause hangovers.

As for formaldehyde in beer. I have never read anything about that in any brewing literature. Yeast precipitates out at the end of the fermentation cycle and to clear the beer fining's like egg whites or Irish moss are used for clarity.

Generally speaking big brewers brew their beers to a higher gravity to make say a 10% alcohol beer then cut it with water to their specific gravity...usually around 5%.

The big additions monster brewers use are rice, corn and sugar in place of the more expensive malts.

If you are concerned about it drink German beers instead...they have a strictly enforced beer purity law dating back to the 1500's that restrict beer to water...malt...hops and yeast.

[edit on 3/4/2010 by iMacFanatic]

Solution?

Brew your own Mead

Fermenting beer yeast produces a spectrum of byproducts other than just ethanol. You get a variety of aldehydes and higher-order alcohols, and some methanol. It's dependent on the yeast strain and what they fermented it with.

On top of that, your liver will convert any methanol traces in the beer to formaldehyde on the first pass, so it's got that going for it.

But in most cases, it's no more than a trace, especially in beer. If you're making blockade, you need to discard the lighter and heavier fractions to get rid of the methanol and fusel oils, because the yeast used to make whiskey (and the sugars available to it from corn mash) can generate enough aldehydes and methanol to be a problem.

Obviously nobody has seen Good Morning Vietnam

The formaldehyde in beer issue was discussed over beers at Jimmy Wah's Bar.

Wah: Bamiah Ba beer, best beer in Vietnam.
Garlick: Bamiah Ba beer, only beer in Vietnam
Cronauer: Why is it burning my throat?
Garlick: They put formaldehyde in the beer to improve the taste.
Cronauer: *Spews his beer all over the table*
Garlick: You'll get used to it.

In Thailand there is a famous beer called Klosters beer which has huge amounts of formaldehyde in it. You can taste it and can definitely smell it. My friends and I have drank gallons of the stuff and are okay. Last time I was there (2007) I didn't see it being sold so perhaps they have been put out of business.

The funny thing about Kloster beer is that there is no quality assurance in its production, so one beer can be very weak and the next can give you a wicked buzz.