Associate Professor Liu Shao Quan and Chan Mei Zhi Alcine from the Food Science and Technology Program at the National University of Singapore created a novel probiotic beer that boosts immunity and improves gut health. Photo courtesy of the National University of Singapore

June 28 (UPI) -- Researchers at the National University of Singapore, or NUS, have created a probiotic sour beer that may boost immunity and improve gut health.

The beer incorporates the probiotic Lactobacillus paracasei L26, which is capable of neutralizing toxins and viruses and regulating the immune system.


"The health benefits of probiotics are well known," Chan Mei Zhi Alcine, of the Food Science and Technology Program at NUS, said in a press release. "While good bacteria are often present in food that have been fermented, there are currently no beers in the market that contain probiotics. 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. As a believer of achieving a healthy diet through consuming probiotics, this is a natural choice for me when I picked a topic for my final-year project."

Researchers propagated the probiotic and yeast in pure cultures and modified conventional brewing and fermentation processes to increase and maintain live counts of the strain of probiotic.

"For this beer, we used a lactic acid bacterium as a probiotic micro-organism," Chan 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 percent."

The research team has filed a patent on the recipe for brewing the probiotic sour beer.