Great Moments In Brewing – Singapore Student Crafts ‘Probiotic’ Beer

Finally a beer that’s good for the gut!

Welcome to another “Great Moment in Brewing.”

In 2017 brewing’s possibilities changed profoundly.  A fourth year student from the National University of Singapore created what many called at the time “the world’s first probiotic beer,” which according to the Straits Times “contains a probiotic strain that can neutralize toxins and viruses, as well as regulate the immune system.”

A ‘pro’ herself when it comes to these kind of things, the 22-year-old science student Alcine Chan, (who was in the final year at the university at the time),  explained that she drinks probiotic drinks regularly but had noticed that many of those drinks use dairy products which doesn’t work for people who are lactose intolerant.

Thus began her final year project that may took brewing into a “brave new world.’

Following the thesis that fermented foods (and more importantly drinks), can contain a lot of good bacteria, she challenged herself to develop a beer that might contain helpful counts of live probiotics.

According to Chan, “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.”

It took her nine months to perfect the beer (and we expect no small amount of investigative drinking).

But the final result was an uber-trendy 3.5% ABV Sour Ale that she and a fellow researcher have patented according to the Drinks Business.

In June of 2022 researchers at the NOVA University in Lisbon, Portugal confirmed the value of “the world’s first probiotic beer,” which had been developed in Singapore six years earlier.

In their study, which was published in the Journal Of Agricultural And Food Chemistry, test subjects drank just over a can of beer every day for four weeks, with no adverse effects on their heart health or weight. Meanwhile, their gut microbiome’s bacterial diversity, which has been linked to strong immunity, as well as the regulation of both muscle mass and function, significantly improved.

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