I’m old enough to remember a time when people who were bulking up would hit the gym and then go home and eat some chicken or eggs. Then again, it was also a time when the gym was mainly full of meatheads, there weren’t neon lights on the wall flashing inspirational quotes at me, and no one was recording themselves in the mirror.
Times have changed, things have moved on, and I suppose I have too.
I’m pretty good at accepting new trends, I have no issue with protein products on the whole (some are better than others), but I saw one the other day that made me furrow my brow.
Protein beer. Yes. Beer.
Someone has made a protein beer and it piqued my interest enough to do some research, and I was surprised to find it wasn’t the only one. There have been a number of alcoholic protein beverages hit the shelves, although interestingly, it is alcohol free variations that seem to do better. They do say finding a niche is important for new businesses…
Is this too good to be true? Have protein products gone too far? Or is it one of those things everyone will be drinking 10 years from now? Only one way to find out – cheers!
Ingredients and Nutrition
It feels odd to be talking about beer and nutrition in the same sentence but here we go.
I have had a good look at as many protein beers as I can find, and it’s safe to say none of them could realistically be called nutritious. Apart from the protein they have very little in them that will help your body to function. The ingredients are the same as regular beer in most cases: malt, hops, yeast, water.
That said, they are an awful lot ‘better’ for you than regular beer. Or perhaps I should say they are no where near as bad for you as normal beer.
One that I looked at was the Barbell Brew made by Musclefood, a company you may well have heard of. This wheat beer was 3.6% alcohol with just 92 calories and 1.65 grams of carbs, but more importantly, it contained 21.8 grams of protein – about the same as 3 extra large eggs. There are no regular beers that come anywhere close to that in terms of carbs (some lighter beers are similar on calories), so you could make the case that if you were going to have a beer anyway, you may as well have one of these.
Of course, that would depend on whether or not it tasted any good, and since it has already been discontinued, we will never know.
This short lifespan was a trend with all the beers I researched, which doesn’t look good for the long term future of the idea as a whole. In fact, I could only find one brand still producing protein fortified alcoholic beer, and that was a brand called National Pro, in America. The rest were all alcohol free.
Alcohol Reduces Your Body’s Ability to Process Protein
You might already know this, but it only takes 2 bottles of beer for the alcohol to get in the way of protein-synthesis – which is what happens when your body processes protein.
If you have 5 beers your body can be 24% less effective at processing protein.
So a protein beer is a product which works against itself. The effect is worse the more you drink, but when you could just have a shake or a bar instead, why would you risk limiting your gains for the sake of a beer?
Perhaps this is why the MuscleFood Barbell Brew product made a few headlines when it was released but never really took off?
That said, if you are going to have a beer and want to minimise the damage in terms of carbs and calories, protein beer can work for you assuming you like the taste. The additional protein is an added bonus, but I wouldn’t rely on it as a supplement.
Alcohol Free Alternatives
The whole country has embraced alcohol free products in the last decade or so. They didn’t used to taste very nice but breweries have got them to a point where they are much more palatable these days.
This is the area where protein beer seems to have been most successful.
I suppose it makes sense really. People who take protein supplements probably fall into two categories:
- Super health conscious non-drinkers
- People who want to bulk and look good but still go out at the weekend
The non-drinkers aren’t going to buy alcoholic protein drinks, but they might try booze free options, and the drinkers aren’t going to choose something that feels like a ‘diet’ option for their boozy treat. So alcoholic protein beer falls into the gap in-between, but alcohol-free protein beer has a small market.
They tend to have more PG names including ‘Recovery Lager’ and ‘Lean Brew’. A company called Thrive has a ‘Peak Beer to Reload’ with 10g of protein and a ‘Play Beer to Refresh’ with added vitamin B and D – they sell them as the world’s first sports recovery beer and the world’s healthiest beer.
Being alcohol free they don’t impact how the protein is ingested either, so these could actually be an option for anyone who likes beer but doesn’t like alcohol.
I still think that’s a very niche market though.