IT’S ABOUT TIME that we cut out the middle man.
Why wait for the long brewing process to over, the product to be delivered to a pub, only to be made sit around to be served by a busy bartender?
Just brew that stuff up where it’s gonna eventually end up, like a one-man ethanol factory.
Yes, it’s possible. Auto-Brewery Syndrome is a thing, not just an excuse to be inebriated 24/7.
A report recently published by the International Journal of Clinical Medicine, documents the case of a 61-year-old man who found himself constantly drunk, even when he hadn’t had a drop of booze. The man would be clearly intoxicated at church and his poor wife even bought a breathalyser to attempt to get to the bottom of the problem.
He was initially diagnosed as a closet drinker, but his doctor got a gastroenterologist on board to get to the root of the problem.
After being banished to a room so he couldn’t access alcohol and given a ton of carb-heavy food, his blood alcohol concentration was 0.12. Keep in mind, the legal drinking limits in Ireland range from 0.02-0.5.
The problem was found to be excess storage of brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in the man’s gut, causing his intestines to brew alcohol. The yeast would ferment sugar eaten and turn it into ethanol. Of course, this is where alcohol would usually be absorbed, so the producer would become locked as a result.
NPR report that cases such as this are rare and are usually blamed on immune-suppressing illnesses and antibiotics that allow yeast to thrive.
Maybe it’s safer to leave it to Guinness so.
h/t Gawker
