What’s brewing? Oh, just some probiotic beer.
Although tempted to make a couple of brew-tally awful puns, am gonna move on to better stuff that (will in near future make) makes up our world.
The world of microbes is beautifully mysterious. Scientists have now created a gut-friendly alcoholic beverage incorporated with live strains of Lactobacillus paracasei L26.
The idea of probiotic beverages isn’t new, with Greek yogurt, kombucha, kefir etc commercially available. There is even this fancy probiotic water available that simply adds probiotic strains to the mix.
But while probiotics are often present in other kinds of fermented food, beer is different. That’s because its hop acids prevent the growth and survival of the healthy bugs.
But this is not the case with a new beer formulated by an undergrad student, Chan Mei Zhi Alcine at the National University of Singapore.
The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics recommends a minimum of 1 billion probiotics per serving for the maximum health benefits. Hops prevent the growth of probiotics, though. The strain Lactobacillus paracasei L 26, is known to neutralize toxins and viruses and regulate the immune system, the press release states
After nine months of experimentation growing probiotic and
yeast in cultures and modifying the brewing process, the scientists, Alcine along Liu Shao Quan, an Associate Professor at NUS, finally came up with what they call “an ideal recipe that achieves the optimal count of live probiotics in the beer.” That’s thanks to a lactic acid bacterium that functions as the probiotic. It feeds off the sugars in the unfermented beer to produce a sour-tasting lactic acid, which makes the beer taste sharp and tart. It’ll clock in at about 3.5 percent alcohol, they say.“For this beer, we used a lactic acid bacterium as a probiotic micro-organism,” Alcine said. “It will utilize sugars present in the wort to produce sour-tasting lactic acid, resulting in a beer with sharp and tart flavors. The final product, which takes around a month to brew, has an alcohol content of about 3.5 per cent.”
Another important note: While the scientists have developed the probiotic beer, they haven’t carried out any test to see what kind of health benefits might actually exist yet.
But judging by the current love for both sours and probiotics, this beer is sure going to be a hot commodity!
