Nitrosamines

Mashing
1

Has anyone seen any info on the levels of nitrosamines in home brew?

2

I found these two interesting articles; in the first, some numbers:

https://beerinfood.wordpress.com/2007/0 ... s-in-beer/

And in the second, a discussion:

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/f-w00/nitrosamine.html

I like this quote from the discussion: “Beer now contains only 2% of the amount of [nitrosamine] that was present 20 years ago.”

In the discussion, it also suggests that direct-fired drying of the grains (malted barley) is the primary culprit of nitrosamines. FYI, direct-fired drying (vs indirect-fired) means the products of combustion come into contact with the material that is dried; indirect means no contact. (i.e., dried via heat exchanger or similar). Personally, I greatly prefer indirect-fired drying of the materials I consume, for obvious reasons.

I also found this patent to have some good info on the background:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4513013.html
3

Thanks for the links, good stuff.

4

Look at the bright side, the cirrhosis from the alcohol or the heart attack from the extra calories will probably get you well before the cancer will.

5

Don’t you have a fence to paint Tom!!!