On the AHA TechTalk mailing list, somebody listed the following question:

I was informed by a friend that her father used to brew his own beer, but stopped due to problems that one can get (such as gout, etc.) from drinking too much unpasteurized home brewed beer. I ignored it at first, but then decided to inquire. Is there truth to this?

Since I actually work for an arthritis study, I thought I’d do a little reading into this and post a response. I’ve done so, and thought it would be interesting to post here.

My response:

Caveat: I have no medical training. The following is entirely educated guesses. Just my $0.02.

From Wikipedia:

“Gout (also called metabolic arthritis) is a disease due to a congenital disorder [present from birth] of uric acid metabolism. In this condition, monosodium urate or uric acid crystals are deposited on the articular cartilage of joints, tendons and surrounding tissues due to elevated concentrations of uric acid in the blood stream.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gout

Assuming you have a predisposition to gout, you can reduce the risk of it developing by controlling your intake of purines, or increasing your output of uric acid.

Foods high in purines include:

- Foods high in proteins (meat, fish, poultry, tofu, etc).
- Beer, specifically brewer’s yeast.

Ways to increase your output of uric acid (or diluting your uric acid levels) include:

- Drinking plenty of liquids
- Ingestion of Vitamin C

So, the supposition that drinking homebrew can lead to gout is sound, but it requires a pre-existing condition.

Even then, it would seem that were you worried about it, investing in a filter to remove most of the yeast would take care of most of the problem. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that commercial brews are low in purine content.

It’s my personal opinion that gout should be essentially avoidable in most cases merely by leading a healthy lifestyle and I would in no way stop partaking in the best hobby in the world because of it.