Buck Beer

[Once again, a nation turns it’s weary eyes towards beer. Beer is the beverage of moderation, of unification. When President Obama got Henry Louis Gates together with the cop who arrested him for breaking into his own house, what did he serve? Beer? What beverage was it that convinced Man the Hunter-Gatherer to become Man the Farmer. Beer, of course? And what beverage convinced Man the Harem Master to become Monogamous Man? Well, that can’t be attributed entirely to beer, but you’d know all this if you read The Great Beer Trek, An Odyssey to Uncover the Secret of the Suds. (Still available on Amazon, hint-hint).

Might beer prove to be the elixir that gets anti-vaxxers and their opponents to see the world through the same foam-streaked bottom of a mug? The question is not “if” but “when.” SB SM]

This Scientist Brewed and Drank His Own ‘Vaccine Beer’ to Combat a Dangerous Virus. It Seems to Have Worked

Blood tests revealed that the beverage elicited an immune response, according to preliminary research. But far more safety and efficacy testing would be needed before this vaccine could become available

Margherita Bassi – Daily Correspondent February 10, 2026

Many people dread needles and fear the brief discomfort of getting injected with a vaccine. But what if the process could be as painless—and even as enjoyable—as drinking a pint of beer?

Virologist Christopher Buck recently tested the idea on himself with “vaccine beer” that he homebrewed with engineered yeast. The beer contained signals that tell the immune system to raise its guard against BK polyomavirus, which can cause kidney, bladder, brain and cardiovascular diseases. The unorthodox immunization seems to have heightened his body’s defenses against the pathogen, according to a study exploring edible vaccines posted in December on the research repository website Zenodo. It has not been peer-reviewed.  

“The idea really is to just take living yeast, which are what makes beer, and put a vaccine inside the living yeast. And by doing that, you can actually get the yeast to cause an immune response,” says Buck, who works at the National Cancer Institute but is conducting the beer project as an independent researcher, in a video. “It’s a radically simplified approach to making vaccines.”  

During previous experiments, Buck and his colleagues fed mice live yeast containing empty particles that resemble BK polyomavirus, reports Science News’ Tina Hesman Saey. Those particles had formed because the researchers had supplied the yeast with genetic instructions to make a protein found in the pathogen’s outer shell. Surprisingly, after chowing down on the particles, the animals’ bodies made BK-polyomavirus-fighting antibodies.

The team’s analyses suggest that live yeast protects viral proteins from stomach acid, allowing them to reach the intestines, where immune cells can learn to recognize them, Buck and another independent researcher—his brother—write in a different study that describes the beer-making process. It was also posted on Zenodo in December and has not been peer-reviewed.

“I’ve homebrewed beer off and on for 30 years. When I saw that feeding lab mice with engineered brewer’s yeast could induce protective antibody responses against the virus I study, my instant first thought was, ‘Well, I can definitely do that at home,’ Buck writes in a blog post.

And that’s exactly what he did—in his own kitchen. “It was one of the best homebrews I ever made,” Buck tells the London Times’ Will Pavia.

For five consecutive days in May, Buck drank one pint of the vaccine beer. He took a five-day booster dose seven weeks later, followed by another seven weeks after that. Blood tests indicated that after downing the drinks, Buck produced antibodies for two kinds of BK polyomavirus thought to be implicated in some bladder cancers, he tells the London Times. In the beer-making study, Buck and his brother also report no significant side effects.

The approach, however, has caused a bit of a stir. Buck skirted around a National Institutes of Health (NIH) research ethics committee’s decision that he couldn’t test the vaccine beer on himself by starting a nonprofit organization called Gusteau Research Corporation, according to Science News. This work as a private citizen is beyond the NIH committee’s purview.