Australian brewery creates beer using yeast from belly button lint

GISBORNE SOUTH, Australia (UPI) -- An Australian brewery is mixing up a unique malted beverage for an upcoming festival: a beer brewed using yeast from belly button lint.

The 7 Cent Brewery in Victoria announced on its website that the 2016 Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular next month in Melbourne and Sydney will see the debut of Belly Button Beer, which is brewed using belly button fluff from brewers.

"Perhaps the first beer in the world fermented from yeast captured from the brewer's belly button fluff; there will be a little bit of 7 Cent in every glass," the brewery said in a blog post. Some say why? We say why not?

The brewery said the team created several trial batches using yeast collected from different brewers until they found the one with "the best character."

Doug Bremner, co-founder of 7 Cent, said great care was taken to ensure the yeast strains were sterile.

"It's perfectly safe. Yeast is yeast -- this beer is no different to any other beer out there," Bremner told Australia's 9News.

Bremner said the "completely unique yeast strain" gave the beer a unique flavor, which the brewery said exhibits qualities of Belgian beer with the key characteristics being spiciness, clove and light banana esters.

"The orange zest and coriander seeds were used to help complement the yeast and a calculated amount of Riwaka and Mosaic hops were added to increase the citrus qualities and give it a refreshing hop kick," the brewers wrote. Four different grains were also used to add both body and complexity including: barley, wheat, oats and rye.

Bremner said the Belly Button Beer could be made more widely available after next month's festival "if it gets a good enough response."

The team said they were inspired by an Oregon brewery that created a beer using yeast collected from a brewer's beard.

A Polish brewery dubbed The Order of Yoni made headlines last month with a failed crowdfunding campaign seeking to finance production of beer brewed using yeast from Czech model's vagina.