Vegemite Moonshine

[TPFKA@W]

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... t=20150809

I love the comments after the article.

Weird that alcohol is banned among the indigenous, I mean how exactly is that done and thought to be helpful? Yes I read there is a big problem with alcoholism but driving them to home brew, which can be pretty nasty/dangerous, doesn't seem to be the answer.

[Lord Jim]

driving them to home brew, which can be pretty nasty/dangerous, doesn't seem to be the answer.

Ah yes, the good ol' Law Of Unintended Consequences, a law that would-be do gooders frequently find themselves on the wrong side of...

Well, at least somebody has finally found a worthwhile use for the stuff...

[Gob]

I can't see the comments, do you have to register?

[Gob]

In some of them, Vegemite, sometimes fermented in bathtubs, is being used to skirt the laws, officials say. The Australian writes that "adults and even young children are getting drunk on the home brew, which at times is mixed with orange juice."

Boak!! Even I would not drink vegemite with orange juice!

Oh..

The minister stopped short of placing restrictions or bans on the sale of the spread or other yeast-based products in such communities.

Tony Abbott quashed the idea of a ban.

"This is a deregulatory Government and the last thing I want to do is to have a Vegemite watch ... because Vegemite, quite properly, is for most people a reasonably nutritious spread on your morning toast or on your sandwiches," he said.

"What's important is that we ensure that remote communities, all communities, are being properly policed."

and..

Australian media were sent into a frenzy Sunday following reports that Indigenous communities were making moonshine from the yeast-extract spread.

But is it even possible to make alcohol out of Vegemite?

Probably not, according to Dr Claudia Vickers, a senior research fellow at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.

Dr Claudia Vickers told NITV News that converting vegemite to alcohol was, “theoretically plausible but highly unlikely”.

She said that while yeast can be used to make alcohol, yeast grows well within a temperature range of 18-23 degrees Celsius and even around 30 degrees Celsius. “But if you heat it up to temperatures that you would likely need to make Vegemite, that would be very likely to kill the yeast.”

In response to claims that Vegemite may work as a yeast nutrient and help boost yeast growth, Dr Vickers said:

"This is possible, and more plausible than actually sourcing the yeast inoculum from Vegemite, but again, would need to be tested.

"Again you can buy yeast nutrient in bulk fairly cheaply, I'd be surprised if the Vegemite was cheaper and/or gave a better result."

Dr Anneline Padayachee, a nutritional food scientist at the University of Melbourne, agreed it was theoretically possible but not likely. She said brewer's and baker's yeasts were both active forms of the fungi and therefore could be converted to alcohol, but that it was a different story for the brewer's yeast in Australia's iconic spread.

"By the time the yeast gets into the state that it has become Vegemite, it’s deactivated," so that it cannot be used to ferment sugar into alcohol, she said, adding that it was high in Vitamin B.

Science journalist Signe Cane said she was concerned that media had been careless in their reporting.

”This story is completely bunk," she wrote on her blog Sunday evening. "Why no media outlet has bothered to check whether Vegemite alcohol is physically possible, I don’t know."

Ms Cane broke down why Vegemite was not an effective source of yeast to make alcohol in her post.

"Yeasts, a class of microscopic single-cell fungi, are capable of converting sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol via the biological process of ethanol fermentation. All alcoholic beverages contain ethanol that has been produced with the help of yeast, typically the species Saccharomyces cerevisiae," she wrote.

"Because yeast uses sugars such as glucose, fructose, and others as nutrition, the resulting alcohol is simply metabolic waste, a by-product of the cell division process. Carbon dioxide is the other by-product, and humans have found that useful, too – in bread making. Thus, if you have access to some yeast and sugar [and other ingredients I’m not aware of], it's quite possible to create a homebrew if you know what you're doing."

"Vegemite – and its British relative Marmite, along with various other brands – is a yeast extract product.

[wesw]

"m'lady, the people have no vegemite"

"if they have no vegemite, then let them drink cake!"

[Crackpot]

Gob I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it out of hand depending on what the end product tastes like it might not be so bad. I mixed orange juice and coffee before (I don't remember the exact circumstances that led to it) and that ended up surprisingly good. good enough to do a few more times but not so good to make a habit.

[TPFKA@W]

So it ain't true? A sad day when even NPR can't be trusted.

[rubato]

Don't discourage them. People have been trying to find a way to detoxify Vegemite for decades.


yrs,
rubato

[Joe Guy]

It seems to me that Vegemite wouldn't be a by-product of beer if it could be made into alcohol.