Nutrition

Hoppy days! Healthy Beer Could Soon Be Here

29th June 2017

By Harriet Mallinson | Published on June 29, 2017


Love beer but hate the way it wreaks havoc on your digestive system? Well, rise and rejoice because you may soon have a gut-friendly beer to raise a toast to.

That’s right – a beer that actually good for you. Does life get any better? (Well, free beer would also be nice…).

The novel probiotic sour beer has been created by a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS). It incorporates the probiotic strain Lactobacillus paracasei L26, which was first isolated from human intestines and has the ability to neutralize toxins and viruses, as well as regulate the immune system.

The concept of creating a probiotic beer came from fourth-year student, Chan Mei Zhi Alcine. She said: “The health benefits of probiotics are well known. While good bacteria are often present in foods that have been fermented, there are currently no beers in the market that contain probiotics.”

The benefits of live counts of probiotics include boosting the immune system, improving digestive function and fighting food-borne illnesses.

Currently, the recommendation by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics is to have a minimum of one billion probiotics per serving in order to attain the maximum health benefits.

Chan took about nine months to come up with an ideal recipe that achieves the optimal count of live probiotics in the beer.

Associate Professor Liu Shao Quan and Miss Chan Mei Zhi Alcine from the NUS Food Science and Technology Programme

 

She said: “Developing sufficient counts of live probiotics in beer is a challenging feat as beers contain hop acids that prevent the growth and survival of probiotics.”

By propagating the probiotic and yeast in pure cultures, and modifying conventional brewing and fermentation processes, Chan managed to increase and maintain the live counts of the strain of probiotic.

“For this beer, we used a lactic acid bacterium as a probiotic micro-organism,’ Chan explained. “It will utilise sugars present in the wort (the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer) to produce sour-tasting lactic acid, resulting in a beer with sharp and tart flavours.”

 

– RELATED: 5 Gut-friendly Foods To Help You Lose Weight –

 

“The final product, which takes around a month to brew, has an alcohol content of about 3.5%,” the Honors student added

The NUS research team has now filed a patent to protect the recipe for brewing the probiotic sour beer and are keen to collaborate with industry partners to introduce the beer to consumers.

Associate Professor Liu Shao Quan said: “The general health benefits associated with consuming food and beverages with probiotic strains have driven demand dramatically. In recent years, consumption of craft or specialty beers has gained popularity too. Chan’s invention is placed in a unique position that caters to these two trends.

“I am confident that the probiotic gut-friendly beer will be well-received by beer drinkers, as they can now enjoy their beers and be healthy.”

Form an orderly queue, guys.