Student makes alcoholic drink beer-riffic for your gut health

Students tend to be (copious) consumers of beer, which as we all know, is to their detriment if taken in high volumes.

But one National University of Singapore (NUS) student is on the other end of the spectrum. The 22-year-old Alcine Chan not only produces beer, but has come up with one that comes with health benefits.

According to Coconuts Singapore, the fourth-year science student has come up with a sour beer with a probiotic strain that can neutralise toxins and viruses.

The alcohol content is around 3.5 percent and contains one billion probiotics in every 100ml, the recommended intake per serving suggested by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics.

If that wasn’t enough, it helps regulates the immune system as well.

The beer came about when Chan, a heavy drinker of probiotic drinks, wanted to find an alternative to the mostly dairy-based probiotic drinks so that even those lactose intolerant could consume them.

“While good bacteria are often present in food that has been fermented, there are currently no beers in the market that contain probiotics,” Chan said, as quoted by The Straits Times.

“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.”

NUS is not the only Asian university brewing beers. In the new Moutai University in China, students can now earn a degree in a university dedicated to the making of Moutai baijiu, China’s “national liquor”.

Beer with the ‘Lactobacillus paracasei’ may be coming to a store near you soon. Pic: Reuters/Eric Vidal.

After experimenting for nine months with the help of Associate Professor Liu Shao Quan from NUS’ Food Science and Technology Programme, the gut-friendly beer was born.

Chan and her professor chugged a pint each to toast the success of her final-year project (this sentence may be a slight embellishment).

A Japanese company has expressed interest, and the days of binge drinking to the benefit of our guts may not be too far away.

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