Great Moments In Brewing – World’s First ‘Probiotic’ Beer

It changed everything. Finally a beer that was actually good for the gut and we have a Singapore student to thank for this “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.”

“Probiotics are live bacteria, and yeasts added to food like yogurt and food supplements,” according to News Medical Life Sciences. “They are dubbed as friendly or good bacteria since they help restore the gut bacteria’s normal balance.”

A ‘pro’ herself when it comes to these kind of things, the 22-year-old science student Alcine Chan, (who was in her fourth and 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 patented and according to the Drinks Business went on to garner international interest.

In June of 2022 researchers at the NOVA University in Lisbon, Portugal confirmed the inportance of “the world’s first probiotic beer, taht was developed by the undergraduate student 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 and speedier weight loss, as well as the regulation of both muscle mass and function, significantly improved.

And looking back, this was truely a “Great Moment in Brewing.”

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