Another reason beer is better than water . . .!

[Newfermenter1]

Found this story
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080309/ap_on_re_us/pharmawater_i
Another reason drinking beer is safer than drinking water! lol

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Cept when you brew using tap.........:cross:

 

[Aclay]

nope...even then because your boiling the water. That at least kills all the creepy crawlies that will be in it.

 

[KENTUCKYBREWER]

pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones

can be boiled out of water?

 

[KENTUCKYBREWER]

So you're saying

pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones

can be boiled out of water?

 

[homebrewer_99]

It still doesn't matter...in most places bottled water is plain old tap or RO.

...and beer has always been better than water...that's why they drank it for centuries in Europe, because the water's bad.

 

[david_42]

So you're saying can be boiled out of water?

Yes, most pharmaceuticals are complex proteins and will not survive boiling. Something like Lithium won't be, but that's a minor problem.

Puget Sound ain't de-caf!

 

[ddroukas]

Most pharmaceuticals are not protein based (amino acid based, rather). Most are composed of aromatic carbon rings (cyclohexanes, benzenes, cyclopentanes, etc.).

Acetaminophen (Tylenol)
Aspirin
Estrogen
Zocor (cholesterol med)
Nexium (reflux)

EDIT: oh, and Aspirin, for instance, decomposes at 284 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't think we can boil that out.
And for the other chem kids out there: I'm not saying cyclo(whatevers) are aromatic, just listing the common themes in medicines.

 

[david_42]

I sit corrected. I was a Physics major.

The breakdown in the boil is still good.

 

[blacklab]

Most pharmaceuticals are not protein based (amino acid based, rather). Most are composed of aromatic carbon rings (cyclohexanes, benzenes, cyclopentanes, etc.).

Acetaminophen (Tylenol)
Aspirin
Estrogen
Zocor (cholesterol med)
Nexium (reflux)

EDIT: oh, and Aspirin, for instance, decomposes at 284 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't think we can boil that out.
And for the other chem kids out there: I'm not saying cyclo(whatevers) are aromatic, just listing the common themes in medicines.

So, since they are not being boiled out, are we just concentrating these compounds, as we do the wort when we boil it?

 

[ddroukas]

The story said the concentrations were on the order of parts per billion or trillion. Boiling down approximately 15% of the volume of your wort (from 5.75 to 5 gallons in a one hour boil) is utterly inconsequential to the concentrations of the pharmaceuticals. For all intensive purposes, it's basically the same concentration pre- and post-boil.

 

[ddroukas]

Just for fun: I found the minimum effective dose of aspirin to be 30mg/day (on the web somewhere). If you dissolved one 30mg tablet into a 5 gallon batch of beer, it translates to approximately 1557 ppm (factoring in a final gravity of 1.018). Compare this to the 0.001 ppm or 0.000001 ppm the story suggests it was found in.

You would also have to consume all 5 gallons of that beer in a timely fashion to get back that effective dose. However, you should note I used a medically useful dose--there are other effects due to long-term, low-concentration exposure.

 

[zoebisch01]

Ahh didn't see this here. I'll go remove my double post...