Yeasty Beasties

Sam Adams Founder Jim Koch Says Spoonful of Yeast Makes Him Less Drunk

Really?
Really? Photo: Amazon

The beer company’s co-founder tells Esquire that the secret to maintaining that ultra-fine line between feeling a pleasant buzz and getting completely tanked is a strategic spoonful of ordinary active dry yeast, taken with a bit of yogurt just before he starts drinking. The underlying theory, which Koch learned from the late biochemist Joseph Owades, is that an enzyme called ADH immediately sets out to work on the alcohol in whatever Koch drinks, breaking it down into molecular bits before his liver ever gets its shot at it.

Somehow, this all feels like an exercise in the kind of thing that would lead to that bizarre medical condition that brews beer using the contents of one’s stomach, but the result is allegedly an experience that will “mitigate, not eliminate” the effects of booze — Koch swears by it, and even “keeps a breathalyzer around at all times just to assure he’s never too drunk,” says Esquire. The Reddit devoted to home-brewing, which has a vested interest, is all hopped up on myth-busting this one, but in the meantime, it’s Friday afternoon, so it’s a fair bet that lots of stores are suddenly sold out of jars and packets of Fleischmann’s, for better or worse.

How to Drink All Night Without Getting Drunk [Esquire]

Sam Adams Founder Jim Koch Says Spoonful of Yeast Makes Him Less Drunk