Bang-On Brewery founder, Neil Randle, and Prof. Les Baillie have teamed up to produce Mêl, a bottled beer using honey from the School’s Pharmabees project, which has placed hives across Cardiff in a quest to find a therapeutic Welsh honey to rival New Zealand’s famous Manuka variety. Mêl means honey in Welsh.
Baillie is a professor at Cardiff University‘s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Neil Randle said: “I was introduced to Les by a friend. After a chat about projects, we realized we could join forces to make a brew which combines the natural goodness of honey with scientifically identified botanicals.
“Les and his team have been heavily involved in working towards producing a super honey that combines science with nature. They’ve used scientific methods to identify which flora provide the best natural botanicals that can have a positive effect when consumed. In addition, 50 varieties of hops have also been tested to assess the antibacterial activity against human pathogens.”
Once the secret ingredients were established, Bang-On Brewery’s Craig Jackson formulated a recipe to ensure the brew had the right taste and balance.
Craig added: “We are not making health claims about the beer. It’s simply about producing a great taste, but we hope the collaborative project may well evolve into something that could change the culture of how beer is consumed in the longer term.”
The first batch of Bang-On Mêl will be launched at the BBC’s four-day Good Food Show (Nov. 30-Dec. 3) at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre before going on general sale. A share of the profits will go towards supporting pollinator and wellbeing projects across Wales.
The combination of academic expertise and brewing knowhow has a longer-term goal for Baillie.
“This is our first product, and it’s very much a stepping stone on our way to develop an alcohol-free fermented adult drink, which we thing will have mass market appeal,” said Les.
“It also has the benefit of supporting the social enterprise we have set up to support pollinators, biodiversity and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) training across the city.”
The label for the new 4% ABV beer describes the personification of Mêl as: ‘A Pharma bee who is concerned about the world in which we live and is passionate about keeping that way for future generations.’
Cardiff University’s Pharmabees project is working to identify plant-derived drugs which could be used to treat antibiotic resistant hospital pathogens. Numerous species of bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics over the past few decades, so there is an increasing need to prevent and control the emergence and spread of antimicrobial-resistance in hospitals.