A glass of caustic cleaner poured from a beer tap does not always look like a hazard. Line cleaners are usually brightly colored, but a Brewers Association expert has said that when the chemical pulls residue from a line that carried dark beer, it can take on the beer's color. That may help explain how drinkers swallow it before realizing something is wrong.
The problem is back in focus after a case series published in February in Case Reports in Gastroenterology described three people who drank beer line cleaner at separate taverns in the same U.S. county. The cleaner, a strongly alkaline solution that typically has a pH of 13 to 14, left all three with lasting esophageal injuries, according to authors from the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
