Astronomers Unravel Marathon Mystery, Sounds Like Clearer Beer

The July 10 issue of New Scientist reports that Dutch filtration specialist Fluxxion is using a failed recording technology from the early 1990s to brighten and clarify beer. Fluxxion makes beer clearer by using a 15-cm-wide silicon wafer perforated with 0.45-mm holes to filter cloudy yeast residues out of the fresh brew. The company pokes the tiny holes into the silicon using a plasma beam--a method that Fluxxion's parent company, Royal Philips Electronics, developed in the early 1990s.

Back then, Philips used hot fluorocarbon plasma to punch 70-mm holes into metal film. The holey film could store data magnetically, and Philips developed the technology for its digital compact cassette (DCC) format. DCCs produced CD-quality sound, but DCC players were designed to also be compatible with analog cassettes. Forgetting the facile manner in which consumers tossed aside vinyl records and eight tracks, the electronics giant figured consumers would be eager to adopt a digital audio format that didn't make their music collections obsolete.

Of course, consumers were happy to abandon their cassettes for CDs, so DCCs never caught on. Nevertheless, Fluxxion's filters have caused quite a stir with brewers. Far less pressure is required to push brew through the Fluxxion filters because they are shorter and more regular than conventional beer filters, usually made from densely packed fibers or from diatomaceous earth called kieselguhr. The technology also appeals to brewers looking to phase out kieselguhr because of health hazards associated with handling and disposing of the dusty material.

Fluxxion tested the filters with freshly brewed beer from the Bavaria Brewery of Brabant. The brewery was so pleased with the results that it set up a pilot plant using the filters. Fluxxion is currently working on filters with even smaller pores in the hopes of removing viruses from blood plasma and bacteria from milk, thereby eliminating the need for pasteurization. Perhaps next they can think of something useful to do with abandoned Betamax videocassettes.

Ken is away. This week's items were contributed by Steve Ritter and Bethany Halford.