14 Mar 2014 CANADA: Beer positioned as ‘post-workout’ beverage

It is reportedly enriched with nutrients, antioxidants and electrolytes to help replenish the body after a good workout. Along with a proprietary protein, the beer is brewed to include other key nutrients such as glutamine, Vitamin C, zinc and sodium and potassium.

It will be sold in slender, 12 ounce cans, each with a 3.2% alcohol by volume. (Due to Canadian booze regs, a version sold Canadian grocery stores will have a 0.5% ABV.)

Ian Toews, founder of Vampt, said the idea was to align with the active lifestyles with young beer lovers, while promoting responsible drinking.

“It’s a form of guilt-free drinking,” he said. “It’s going to appeal to guys that want recovery benefits, but also want a beer with the boys, for social reasons.

“We just thought that maybe we could do something that would support a drinker, make it still socially fun, and help them accomplish what needs to be accomplished after an aggressive workout.

“We wondered what science had to say about this seemingly contradictory, but nonetheless appealing, pairing. Can beer really join the ranks of Gatorade and Powerade to become the next go-to sports drink? Turns out, the idea isn’t as farfetched as it might seem.”

Ben Desbrow, a sports nutritionist at Griffith University in Australia, said: “Beer itself contains a small amount of carbohydrates and electrolytes, he says. It’s not enough to do your body any good after exercise, but researchers like Desbrow have been experimenting with ways to reformulate beer so it’ll have the properties of a sports drink without the dehydrating effects of alcohol.”

In a study published last December in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, Desbrow and his colleagues found that beer’s dehydrating effect can be weakened by changing its electrolyte content — the first step in turning ale into a sports beverage.

By lowering the level of alcohol by volume to 2.3 percent and adding salt, they found that the manipulated beer actually hydrated their sample of athletes better than traditional ale.

Plus, he adds, since beer is plant based — the key ingredients, aside from water, are barley, hops and yeast — it contains a whole range of naturally occurring nutrients that manufactured sports drinks don’t have.

Source: NPR.org

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