Long Island breweries navigate PFAS contamination from water used to make beer

Scientists have found harmful "forever chemicals" across much of the world in water, air, fish, soil — and now beer, though experts said the significance for Long Island’s dozens of small breweries was probably limited.

Researchers from the nonprofit institute RTI International tested 23 beers, including 15 brewed in areas of the United States with known elevated levels of PFAS, a class of thousands of industrial- and commercial-use chemicals found in products from firefighting foam to nonstick pans, that break down very slowly over time. They also tested popular national and international brands.

The first phase of testing found at least one PFAS compound in 80% of beers sampled. The second phase, using multiple cans of each kind of beer, found one or more PFAS in 95% of the samples.

Researchers did not test any beers from Long Island. Past testing has detected PFAS in some wells here, but managers for water districts where those wells were located said they had since installed filters to capture the compounds.

The Environmental Protection Agency said in 2024 "there is no level of exposure to these contaminants without risk of health impacts." PFAS compounds accumulate in the body over time and studies have linked prolonged exposure to reduced immunity, thyroid disorders, developmental delays in children, kidney and liver disease and cancer.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that beer drinkers should give up the beverage or even give up beers they love that happen to be brewed in a high-PFAS area, said Jennifer Hoponick Redmon, RTI’s senior director for environmental health and water quality and the study’s lead author. "The consumer can still drink a beer when you want a beer," she said. But, Redmon added, "everybody has to consider their own personal risk calculation." Reducing risk could mean moderating one’s intake of beer from breweries located in high-PFAS areas or taking other steps, like installing a home water filter (for water, not beer). "Think of a few things you feel good about doing — you can’t do everything," she said.

'At peace' with PFAS in beer

Stony Brook University ecologist Christopher Gobler, an occasional beer drinker, said he was "at peace" with the possibility that there might be PFAS in his brew. "I might have a couple [beers] in a week," he said. "I don’t need to worry, I don’t think."

The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal "Environmental Science & Technology," highlight the ubiquity of PFAS, found in the blood of almost every American, and draw a strong correlation between high levels of PFAS in an area’s drinking water and in its locally brewed beer. Researchers noted other possible PFAS contamination sources — for example, beer ingredients like malt or hops — but water is critical, composing more than 90% of the beverage by volume. Brewing uses 7 liters of water to produce 1 liter of beer. Because breweries often use local tap water, beers brewed close to areas with known high PFAS levels were 15 times as likely to contain one or more PFAS as one of the large-scale domestic or international beers, the study found.

This spring, seven of Long Island’s 36 water districts reported annual averages of PFAS compounds that exceeded federal limits set to go into effect in 2031, though managers from those districts said they had added treatment systems after those samples were taken. Fifteen water districts reported individual readings above the federal limit of four parts per trillion but below the state standard of 10. Managers of some of those districts also told Newsday they had installed or planned to install treatment systems on wells that had high readings.

New York standard

New York State adopted a 10 ppt standard for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water in 2020. The maximum allowable level under the incoming federal regulations for two of the most common PFAS compounds, PFOA and PFOS is four parts per trillion. The Environmental Protection Agency in May announced it would rescind regulations for some other PFAS compounds.  

RTI researchers found concentrations of PFOA as high as 8.4 ppt in a beer from Kalamazoo County, Michigan, and total PFAS concentrations as high as 40.1 ppt in a beer from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Five samples from a Chatham County, North Carolina, beer had total PFAS concentrations greater than 30 ppt.

"Local companies are in a better position here because New York has been more aggressive in drinking water regulations," said Hofstra University associate engineering professor Margaret Hunter, who studies contaminants in water and soil.

Jeff Szabo, CEO of Suffolk County Water Authority, which serves about 1.2 million people and is one of the largest groundwater suppliers in the country, said in an emailed statement that the utility’s water was "meeting or surpassing all federal and state drinking water standards" and was tested regularly for PFAS.

Breweries sometimes treat even utility water to adjust for hardness and pH levels, but basic treatment does not necessarily remove PFAS, RTI researchers found. Some of Long Island’s roughly 50 breweries use methods like reverse osmosis or activated carbon, which can be effective in removing the compound, but there are drawbacks.

Manny Coelho, co-founder and brewmaster at Lithology Brewing in Farmingdale, which uses reverse osmosis, said a filter for a relatively small operation like his costs $3,000 to $8,000, with costs rising for bigger breweries.

Kevin Ryan, director of operations at Barrier Brewing in Oceanside, one of the oldest craft brewers in Nassau County, which uses activated carbon, said that reverse osmosis filters were effective at "stripping out the bad stuff but also taking out the good stuff," such as mineral content, that gives beer its terroir.

Confidence in LI water

Paul Dlugoken, owner, brewer and cook at Centerport’s Blind Bat Brewery, which uses SCWA water, said he was confident in the utility’s product, which he uses not just for his beer but also for pierogi and pretzels, but he was concerned by the study’s findings. "It’s definitely something to keep an eye on," he said. "I’m drinking the beer too."

Many breweries, he said, can ill afford to install on-site filters to augment the filtering already done by Long Island water providers. "We’ve reversed momentum since the middle of the last decade, when craft breweries were popping up everywhere. Now more are closing every year than opening up. It’s a highly competitive environment and all the costs are going up."

Bernie Kilkelly, publisher of LIBeerGuide, a website devoted to Long Island craft beers, said he would continue to drink them. "Long Island beer is good quality," he said. While the RTI study found that major brewers’ beer was less likely to have PFAS than beer from small-scale brewers, he said there were other health concerns with beer from the giants: "It’s not as much of a natural product. Part of the appeal for me is going to the brewery, picking up cans where you know it’s fresh ... and drinking it soon, preferably."

Earlier studies have found PFAS in drinking water, soda and juice but the RTI study was apparently the first to use a sophisticated EPA testing method to analyze beer.

Researchers primarily selected plain lagers and ales for consistency and because "lighter beers were less onerous to prepare, clean, and analyze with laboratory equipment," they wrote.

Researchers tested samples from 94 cans of beer, opening them to de-gas overnight, then shooting them with high-frequency sound waves to prepare them for analysis.

"I brought a minivan full of beers to our lab one Friday afternoon," Redmon said. "It looked like we were having a party, but instead we were testing them for PFAS."