Can yeast get you drunk?

[sd_brewbie]

Last weekend my brother was over as my assistant Brewer (meaning he drinks while I brew, occasionally stirs the wort and turns the hose on when I am not ready, soaking me). My keg of APA kicked on him and the last pint was full of yeast, though the rest of the keg had been super clear beer. This pint smelled strongly of yeast and looked like a decanted starter (US-05). He drank it anyways and had hiccups the rest of the afternoon.

Today he tells me that on his way home he grabbed a sandwich from which wich and ate it at home. When he finished the sandwich and stood up, he felt like he was coming off a full day of drinking half drunk, half hung over (he had maybe 3 or 4 pints over six or so hours at my place). He promptly fell asleep, woke the next morning and was fine.

So could the yeast he drank have fermented the goodies from his sandwich and produced alcohol? Or he is just a wuss that can't handle a few pints?

 

[tjmac5071]

There have been cases of yeast fermenting sugar in the stomach/digestive tract but that is extremely rare from my understanding...essentially if someone with this "alement"...see what I did there? consumes simple sugar they get drunk.

 

[Citizen86]

Our bodies don't really seem like they would be hospitable to yeast. However, it's also strange that he would have felt the affects of the beer so much later. Maybe he had another drink with his sandwich?

 

[Gavin C]

So could the yeast he drank have fermented the goodies from his sandwich and produced alcohol? Or he is just a wuss that can't handle a few pints?

No that's impossible. (Insert L. Skywalker gif of your choosing)

The stomach is filled with hydrochloric acid and a variety of enzymes and is an environment where yeast will not survive long enough to

• progress through the various stages of their metabolism,
• suddenly evolve en-masse the ability to ferment otherwise non-fermentable complex carbohydrates, and
• produce alcohol in sufficient volume to render someone drunk.

In short this is complete nonsense.

Yeast can give you the chits though.

 

[wallybangbang]

I am a firm believer that home brew and bottle conditioned beer get you drunker just for that reason. Do I have a science background or proof? No. But it makes sense to me and I always thought home brew got me more intoxicated especially when I eat a lot of food while drinking. A lot of people will disagree with me but oh well, just my 2 cents.

 

[sd_brewbie]

As the older brother I can completely accept he can't hold his alcohol 😀

 

[Aristotelian]

I have heard that homebrew yeast can produce gas. If it is producing gas, it must be consuming sugar, and if it is consuming sugar it stands to reason it would also be producing alcohol.

 

[Gavin C]

I have heard that homebrew yeast can produce gas. If it is producing gas, it must be consuming sugar, and if it is consuming sugar it stands to reason it would also be producing alcohol.

By the same gassy logic, eating a lot of fibrous beans and cruciferous vegetables must be a great cheap way to get wasted. Broccoli/cabbage/Baked beans would have to come with a warning label.

There must not be a cow alive that isn't drunk as a lord 24/7 . No wonder they always look so content.

 

[Double_D]

I have heard that homebrew yeast can produce gas. If it is producing gas, it must be consuming sugar, and if it is consuming sugar it stands to reason it would also be producing alcohol.

By the same gassy logic, eating a lot of fibrous beans and cruciferous vegetables must be a great cheap way to get wasted. Broccoli/cabbage/Baked beans would have to come with a warning label.

There must not be a cow alive that isn't drunk as a lord 24/7 . No wonder they always look so content.

You just can't argue with flawed logic

 

[wallybangbang]

By the same gassy logic, eating a lot of fibrous beans and cruciferous vegetables must be a great cheap way to get wasted. Broccoli/cabbage/Baked beans would have to come with a warning label.

There must not be a cow alive that isn't drunk as a lord 24/7 . No wonder they always look so content.

There have been some pretty mainstream stories of people who have developed yeast and had it consume foods in their stomachs. This led to producing alcohol and having increased BA levels while not drinking any alcohol. In those cases it involves a medical condition in which the yeast grew inside their stomachs. A little different than drinking yeast via homebrew but the logic would be the same. I'm actually interested if this had been studied by anyone, with the rise in homebrew popularity and all. Oh and the only problem with your cow analogy is he didn't pour the last pint of PA and drink a bunch of yeast. That is what prompted the OP's question

 

[jwelch1103]

When I read the OP I had a vague memory of reading, in a reputable, clinical journal IIRC, of a very rare disorder of fermentation occurring in the alimentary canal as has been noted here.

While our digestive tract can and does secrete powerful acids, the stomach is not filled with hydrochloric acid.

It is also my understanding that there are numerous so called friendly micro flora in the intestines. If they can live there then isn't it plausible that yeast, if they survive the trip through the stomach, could live at least a while?

I can imagine a scenario where if one ingested a very large load of yeast, which it sounds like he did, some would get into our intestines alive- and hungry!

 

[RM-MN]

When I brew beer it takes the yeast at least a couple days to create enough alcohol that the output could make one drunk. That yeast in his stomach must have really worked fast.

 

[masonsjax]

It's called auto brewery syndrome. It seems to be attributable mainly to candida overpopulation. There are studies that date back at least to the mid 70s. Here's a more recent one:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/13590849009003132#/doi/abs/10.3109/13590849009003132

 

[wallybangbang]

I read up on this last night. The guy from Texas that had auto brewery syndrome had a fungal infection that suppressed a certain bacteria in his intestines and led to yeast build up. Basically he was producing alcohol in his small intestines and it was being absorbed into his body there, not in his stomach. When we drink alcohol a lot is absorbed through our small intestines ( like 80%) and not our stomachs. In regards to the OPs question yeast would have to travel through the stomach which seems unlikely but I'm sure there are some rare factors or syndromes out there that would cause the stomach to maybe not kill the yeast on he way through . It was an interesting read .

 

[masonsjax]

Yeast definitely travels through the stomach to the intestines. I vividly remember the start of my homebrew career and the frequent runs for the border before getting used to the excess yeast in my diet.

 

[Stillraining]

By the same gassy logic, Broccoli/cabbage/Baked beans would have to come with a warning label. .

HAHA!..My wife would agree with you on this in my case..