Here is some good news for connoisseurs of beer. Chemists at the Complutense University in Madrid have developed an app and some sensors that will tell you whether or not your beer is fresh.
In fact, beer is a very common alcoholic beverage across the world, and like any other beverage, its flavor is of utmost importance. Often the chemical composition of the drink can be altered owing to poor storage, thereby deteriorating its flavor. So how can customers say if the beer they are drinking is fresh or stale?
The latest method invented by the chemists at the Complutense University makes use of a polymer sensor that changes color when it senses furfural, a chemical compound that emerges when beer ages and makes its flavor stale. It is possible to control this sensor through a smartphone application developed by these chemists, PC World reported.
The team of chemists, headed by Elena Benito-Peña and María Cruz Moreno-Bondi, developed a simple and inexpensive method that gauges whether a beer has become stale by employing a sensor and a smartphone application. Until recently, brewers measured furfural as well as other freshness indicators using techniques that employ chromatography systems.
On the other hand, the new system employs sensor discs, made from a polymer akin to the one found in contact lenses, to spot the presence of furfural in beer. When the sensors are exposed to furfural in beer, their color changes from yellow to pink.
According to Benito-Peña, they have integrated an aniline derivative into the sensor material, which reacts with furfural and turns into a pink cyanine derivative that enables one to identify the presence of the marker in the sample. "The intensity of the color increases as the concentration of furfural in the beer rises and, thus, as more time passes since the beer was produced," Electronics 360 quoted Benito-Peña as saying.
The team has also developed a mobile application for Android smartphones, which will take a picture of the sensor disc to identify the amount of furfural present in the beer. This resultant data suggests the degree of freshness.
Watch the "Bad beer blind taste test -- Can you taste the difference?" below:
