Have you tried this and did it work for you?
Nope, but now I want to…
That’s a first. Gotta try it.
I gotta say, I’m skeptical. But I’ll try it.
Me too! The wife has plenty of bread yeast around at all times.
I wonder if there are any side effects from this…I mean beer festivals, especially the ones indoors, can be a bit overwhelming as it is. :-[
I too am skeptical. I think the more logical explanation is he is plastered all the time.
If I’m understanding the concept correctly you could accomplish the same thing by downing a shot of yeast from the fermenter. It can’t be yeast metabolism at work otherwise beer would get less alcoholic as it ages so the enzyme must be present in quantity in that tsp of yeast. also should means really yeasty beers should get less alcoholic over time.
“One teaspoon per beer, right before you start drinking.”
There is no way in hell I am going to eat a half a cup of dried yeast.
I assume the theory is based on the urban legend that vitamin B-6 helps with hangover recovery. Yeast is loaded with it. It’s the basis of the myth that you won’t get a hangover drinking homebrew because of the yeast. I think we all know how much truth there is in that.
The article claims it is based on Alcohol dehydrogenase present in the yeast. essentially it would turn your stomach into a pre-liver and reduce the alcohol to non-intoxicating substances before it absorbed into your blood.
I have a beer fest I have to pour at this weekend I will probably try it then. Even though my consumption will be minimal.
It could work for some, but not for others to the point of being harmful. Alcohol dehydrogenase produces acetaldehyde which is more toxic than ethanol and which is part of the normal pathway for metabolizing alcohol. So called Asian flush is often caused by having an inefficient enzyme for breaking down the acetaldehyde. If the yeast also provides the enzyme for breaking down the acetaldehyde, which it could do, than eating yeast might be more generally useful.
But doesn’t the ADH just do the same thing in your liver anyways? So for a given amount of beer it would be the same level of acetaldehyde in your body correct? Of course I suppose this assumes you don’t drink MORE because you’re not getting drunk…
If there is more ADH (in your GI and in your liver) and the same amount of the enzyme that breaks down the acetaldehyde, you could end up with more acetaldehyde especially if you normally get flushed when drinking.
If you don’t normally get flushed, go ahead and try the yeast. I get a little flushed so I’m not going to try it unless I find out the yeast also provides the other enzyme too.
If this really were valid, then I ought to be able to drink yeasty hefe or wit 'round the clock, right ? The hangover cause and cure in every glass.
S. cerevisiae does have aldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes as well. This is why we leave beer on the yeast to “clean up” acetaldehyde after fermentation.
Maybe I’ll run a booth selling packets of US-05 at the next beer festival in my area…
I would like to know if this would effect my gut flora before trying it out. I have a “gut feeling” that it could hurt the population of beneficial microbes down there and that’s hugely important. But maybe breaking down some of the alcohol might actually help those microbes. Just don’t know.
This seems counterintuitive to that article on how the old man who had yeast in his gut was a walking fermentor and drunk all the time…
Call me old fashioned but it just seems that moderation is the only way.
That’s the same thing I was thinking. +1 to moderation instead of potentially messing your gut up.