UrFU Scientists Creating Hangover-free Beer Rich in Oxidants

17:27, June 26, 2019

Brewery production waste products are especially beneficial for big city dwellers

Ural Federal University chemists proposed to add compounds which reduce harmful effects of alcohol to beer in the production process. This will rid consumers of headaches and supply them with healthy vitamins and minerals which exhibit antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties instead.

‘We select the modes and conditions, particularly, temperature, thus changing the properties of the yeast, flavor additives are used as well,’ UrFU Professor Elena Kovaleva says. ‘In partnership with colleagues from ITMO University in St. Petersburg, we are considering the possibility of using kudzu root and chlorella algae extracts in brewing. These products reduce the toxic effects of alcohol. In other words, as a result of our work, beer also becomes a functional product.’

The laboratory staff is developing biscuits and cereal bars based on brewer’s grains — the waste product of beer brewing.

‘Raw brewer’s grains are too hard to eat, however, after fermentation it is suitable as an additive to oatmeal to produce food substances, such as oatmeal biscuits. Meanwhile, the nutrients contained in such flour are digested fully, which is the functional product’s advantage over dietary supplements,’ Ms. Kovaleva emphasizes.

This effect is especially beneficial to the dwellers of modern big cities who, according to doctors, are in desperate need of healthy food supplements due to agricultural soil degradation, man-induced impact and unfavorable environmental setting.

Brewer’s grains are boiled malt remaining after the boiling and withdrawal of beer-wort, which consists of kernels and glumes. This mixture is widely used as cattle fodder. However, it contains starch and fiber (sources of monosaccharoses: glucose and xylose), vitamins (mainly B, C and D complexes), minerals, bete-glucans (probiotics — “food” for microorganisms which are good for digestion).

‘The field of functional foods is fairly new, but very promising,’ Alexander Cherepanov, the Deputy Director of the UrFU Center for Enterprise Relations. ‘It is based on decades of scientific research carried out by our scientists and is in demand all over the world. It will only become more relevant over the years. Today we are entering large projects with food industry enterprises and are ready to cooperate with new willing manufacturers.’

“Green chemistry”, as in creation of healthy foods from waste products of different manufacturing plants, is one of the key fields of the Organic Synthesis Laboratory of UrFU Innovation Center for Chemical-Pharmaceutical Technology.