Beer Head Additives

[John Cooper <jcooper@BUCKNELL.EDU>]

> On Sun, 27 Jun 1999, Fredrick Rea O'Keefe wrote:
>
> > Rumor has it that New York's Ballentine Beer used to add "soap" to their
> > brew to make a longer lasting head - their claim to fame. (Or was it
> > Rheingold?)
  According to an old source at Dow Chemical, a favorite, common additive
to American beers to stabilize the head, is methoxy cellulose .. a polymer
surfactant that alters the surface tension and stabilizes the foam.

 John N. Cooper, Chemistry
 Bucknell University
 Lewisburg PA 17837-2005
 jcooper@bucknell.edu
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