Author: Marshall Schott
I was intrigued, as I imagine many were, by the advice Jim Koch of Samuel Adams/Boston Beer Company gave in a recent Esquire article when asked how he can drink so much beer without getting drunk. He claimed that by consuming “1 teaspoon per beer” of active dry yeast mixed into yogurt, the effects of the alcohol are essentially mitigated. This is apparently due to the presence of alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) in the dry yeast, which metabolizes the alcohol from the beer in one’s gut.
Okay.
I’m skeptical, especially when it comes to weird claims like this. My hunch is that it is more likely Mr. Koch lives in a constant state of at least moderate drunkeness, thus he rarely comes across as “drunk.” Who am I to judge?
I’m also curious. Could this odd and likely disgusting concoction actually reduce the impact of alcohol on the body? I wanted to see for myself. I got home from work last Friday and immediately foraged through the pantry to find 2 packets of active dry yeast, which I blended with a tube of my kids’ Go-Gurt and consumed. I then embarked on this exBEERiment and documented my experience:
| UPDATE |
I wanted to share this interesting response from r/homebrewing user, TreyWalker, in regards to this subject:
Of course this is a joke. Unpasteurized homebrew has millions of yeast cells still in it. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has an optimal ph of 8.3-9, the stomachs pH of 1-2 (up to 4-5) denatures yeast quite quickly.
http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/content/dam/sigma-aldrich/docs/Sigma/Datasheet/6/a7011dat.pdf
If that weren’t enough, best case scientific scenario:
One unit [S. cerevisiae ADH in lyophilized powder] will convert 1.0 μmole of ethanol to acetaldehyde per min at pH 8.8 at 25 °C (77°F)
http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/sigma/a2529?lang=en®ion=US
Bad math below, as I’m not a chemist / microbiologist by any measure, but I’m confident there isn’t any catastrophic mathematical errors that would derail this argument:
1.0 μmole of ethanol is roughly equal to 0.00005838mL. 60min/per unit = 0.0035028ml. In a 4.5% beer, there’s ~15.9696ml of ethanol. To metabolize only half of that in an hour, would require 2280 units (molecular weight = 40.4 x 10(3), times 2280) of the above powder, per the lab specifications / temperatures / pH.
Furthermore, you don’t want a belly full of acetaldehyde, as it’s now considered carcinogenic:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21401890
About the only useful thing consuming extra yeast would be to stave off C. diff infections:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9753273
TL;DR: Jim Koch is a professional functioning alcoholic and doesn’t have any other real trick up his sleeve.
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12 thoughts on “(Yeast + Yogurt) + Beer = Not Drunk?!”
I recommend skipping to 5:30. From this point, the quotes are awesome. Watch out Caddyshack!
On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 7:03 AM, “|Brülosophy|”
You should have joined me!
I figured it was BS. But legions of fools believed it. It’s pretty much contrary to even the most simple tests of common sense. But hey, people still think you can suck on a penny and beat a DUI.
Both informational and humorous.. Thanks for taking one for science.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the point about how many “units” it would take to metabolize the alcohol in your stomach pretty useless without a clear definition of a “unit”? I can’t find any definition in this article or in the links that defines whether “2,280 units” means “2,280 molecules” or “2,280 kilograms”.
This was seriously hilarious. Thanks for being a guinea pig!
Thanks! A breathalyzer is on its way, expect a more “formal” update soon.
Apparently they tried to patent this.
This is made doubly dubious by the fact that acetaldehyde is one of the reasons for hangovers, so even if this worked it would only make you less drunk, not less hung over.
I’ve tried it, consuming the same amount of alcohol, from the same bottles in about the same amount of time. Once with the yeast, once without, and the one without I felt way more gooned than the one with. I had 31 oz of 11% barleywine over the course of 2 hours on both occasions. You looked pretty mellow at the end, lol!
Now, I’ve only done this once so I haven’t been able to re-verify it just yet. But a few things I noticed.
– Yeast and yogurt tasted better than expected, I did notice the yeast burps a bit. This would take a bit of getting used to, but wasn’t something that overly bothered me.
– Farts were similar to home brew, not crazy but similar to a night of draft beer.
– I would like to do this again, with the same beers, as the same time, with the same meals and water over two days to really see if it works to my expectations.
– I would not do this everyday, however I would like to use it for beer festivals and tasting nights on occasion. Curious if it impacts the calories at all?
Did you ever try the breathalyzer?
I started recording the first part using the breathalyzer last year, then life got in the way. I still have plans to repeat this in a more controlled fashion.
Also, great site. Love the experimentation and such I’ll be spending some time going through this.