In a perfect world, no beer should be left unconsumed so that it gets stale. If you have had one too many stale beers in your lifetime, then a new app is here to lend a helping hand, courtesy of scientists at the Complutense University of Madrid.
The chemists have created a polymer disk that senses for furfural — a chemical present in most beers that changes its chemical compound as beer ages and results in stale beer taste.
"We have incorporated an aniline derivative into the sensor material which reacts with the furfural and produces a pink cyanine derivative that allows us to identify the presence of the marker in the sample,” says Elena Benito-Peña, who led the research with Maria Cruz Moreno-Bond, in a statement. “The intensity of the colour increases as the concentration of furfural in the beer rises and, thus, as more time passes since the beer was produced.”
The team has also created an accompanying (and yet to be named) Android app that alerts the consumer of when beer has high levels of furfural. What makes this process unique is that it is cheaper and less time-consuming than traditional methods of testing for furfural. That said, the process of using the sensor and the app is far from seamless, as it requires using the sensor and taking a picture for a reading on the app.
“The measurements have been taken using samples sent directly from the brewing company with different production dates and distinct degrees of aging,” says Benito-Peña. “These same samples were also sent to a laboratory where they were analysed using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The results we obtained were completely comparable.”
The app, which will be available for iOS devices in the future, is open source so programmers can both use it and modify it.
