bee beer

Namibia is located in southwestern Africa. When scientists became interested in killer bees, they went there as part of a research project. They decided to collect samples of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (a fungus long used to make beer, wine and baked goods) from the gut microbiome of these insects that had died a natural death. The fungus is better known as brewer’s yeast.

When we returned to Cardiff we used brewer’s yeast isolated from the killer bee, as well as Welsh honeybee yeast, to brew a few batches of beer.
Les Bailey, professor of microbiology at Cardiff, said:

Killer bees are hybrids of different subspecies of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera), which lives in Europe, and the East African lowland honey bee (another subspecies, A. m. scutellata). This nickname comes from the fact that they are much more aggressive than other bee species. Killer bees are much more likely to perceive humans and animals as defensive threats, even pursuing such threats from greater distances than other species. Although killer bees are not as dangerous as one might think, they are believed to have killed at least 1,000 people since their arrival in America in the 1950s.

The Cardiff-based team’s beer is a spin-off of the larger Pharmabees project, which aims to investigate whether pollination of certain plants could lead to the development of drugs to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria or superbugs. As part of this project, the researchers moved and placed hives around the university that they hoped could produce super honey with new antibacterial properties.

Beer is not part of this goal, but The team is currently looking for a partner to help them bring the product to market. The income generated from this will be transferred to the financing of research on bees.

Our bee research shows how honey, beeswax and other bee products can play a role in solving some of the world’s biggest challenges, including antibiotic resistance and the fight against superbugs.
said Bailey.

There is no information about the taste characteristics or other characteristics of the new beer.