People love beer: we can cross more than 187.9 million kilometers (49.6 billion gallons) in just one year.
But new research adds this favorite drink to the long list of products that are found to contain PFAS (Polyfluoroalkil substances), also known as “Forever Chemicals”.
PFAS won this nickname because they do not break down easily in the environment. It is estimated that there are about 12,000 different types of chemical forever, and although the effects of health are the most unknown, two more special – PFOA (perfluoroctane acid) and PFOS (PerfluorooCTANESULFONIC ACID) – are associated with adverse health results, including increased defects.
A team of scientists at the non -profit triangular triangles used methods used by the Environmental Protection Agency to unfold how PFAS enters beer and at what levels.
“As a random beer drinker, I wondered if PFA in the water supply penetrate our pints,” says toxicologist Jennifer Hoponik Redmond.
It turns out a lot. The team measures PFAS at levels above the maximum limit determined by EPA, which some claim is not yet high enough to protect people from these chemicals.
While brewery usually has their own filtration and water purification systems, they are not necessarily designed to remove PFAS. Up to seven liters of water can be used to make only one liter of beer, and whatever PFAS contaminants are in this water, it will probably still be there when you burst, open your cold.
The team bought 23 different types of beer, each of which is represented by at least five boxes, from a North Carolina alcohol store in 2021.
At least one PFAS was found in almost every can tested. Most contain some level of PFOS. Three beers tested in this study – two of the pool of the upper Cape Fair River in North Carolina, and one of the Michigan – exceeds the maximum EPA limit for PFOA concentration, and one beer from the lower Cape Fear pool exceeds the borders of PFOS.
Average replica concentrations (average 5 beer samples; PPT) for PFAS identified in anonymous beers. (Hoponick Redmon et al.. Medium. Sci. Technol.2025)
These restrictions were developed by EPA in 2023 for six different PFAS species and are intended for drinking water, not beer. But since there is no existing frame for how much pfas it Acceptable in beer – and, like drinking water, beers are designed for direct consumption – the Hoponick Redmon team believes these drinking water standards can be re -established.
“By adapting the EPA method 533 for PFAS analysis in beers sold in retail stores in the United States, we have found that PFAS in beer correlates with the species and concentration of PFA present in the municipal drinking water used in brewery,” the team said.
“Beer in North Carolina, especially those in the Cape Fair River pool, usually had discoveries of more PFAS species in Michigan or California, which reflects the variety of PFAS sources in North Carolina.”
The detection and concentrations of PFAS were particularly elevated in beers prepared in North Carolina, California and Michigan.
International beers (one of the Netherlands and two from Mexico) are less likely to have detectable PFAS, which can suggest that the countries of origin are not facing the same degree of pollution observed in the United States.
“Our discoveries show a strong connection between PFAS in drinking water and beer, with beers boiled in areas with higher PFAS in local drinking water, transferring at higher pfas levels in beer, showing that drinking water is a major pollution path in beer,” the team concludes.
They hope that the discoveries will offer brewer’s chance to try to remove the PFA from the water that enters their beers and to emphasize the importance of PFAS limiting policy as a whole.
This study has been published in Science and technology in the environment.