Gross fission products may one day be cheap and plentiful enough to allow them to be used for large-scale industrial pasteurization. Some of the effects of gamma rays from a 60-curie cobalt60 source on beer and associated materials are described. The dosage necessary to pasteurize pulp-filtered beer was found to be about 55,000 roentgens, but such an exposure was accompanied by undesirable changes in flavour and odour. At the same time, there was a loss of colour and a reduction in the Indicator Time Test value. The origin of the off odour has been investigated, and the results of irradiation have been compared with those of the melanoidin reaction and the phenomenon of sun-struck beer.
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Compton et al. (1954) studied this question.