KESS MPhil 1 year studentship in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sceinces: The creation of a low alcohol fermented honey drink using yeast isolated from the bees

In collaboration with the Bang on Brewery in Bridgend, we have developed a fermented alcoholic beverage called Mel which combines honey harvested from the universities bee hives with plants used in herbal medicine. The next stage of the development process is create a non-alcoholic version of brew in which we will replace brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) with naturally occurring non-Saccharomyces yeasts which metabolize sugar but produce little if any ethanol (Contreras et al., 2014).

The use of yeast isolated from non-traditional sources to produce beer is not novel, a group at North Carolina University isolated a strain of yeast called Lachancea thermotolerans NCSU from a bumble bee which is currently being used to produce bumble beer. In preliminary studies we have confirmed the feasibility of isolating non-Saccharomyces yeast from the universities honey bees.

In the context of this project we will collect yeast isolates from the universities honey bees and will:

1. isolate and identify non-saccharomyces yeast from honey bees
2. identify a yeast variant which produces little if any alcohol
3. use this yeast in combination with honey and plant extracts to produce a low alcohol fermented drink.

Eligibility: To be eligible to apply for a KESS II award, you must be resident, upon starting the scholarship, in the Convergence Area of Wales and you must be able to take paid employment in the Convergence area on completion of the scholarship.

For further student eligibility criteria related to the individual projects, please view the details of the individual project above.

Length: Full-time for 1 Year. (Theses must be submitted 3 months after the funded one year study period.)

Training: The achievement of a Postgraduate Skills Development Award (PSDA) is compulsory for each KESS II scholar (The PSDA is based on a 60 credit award, which is an additional award to the PhD).