Yep, This Brewery Makes Beer Using Bacteria From People's Belly Buttons

Belly button fluff, for those of you who don't know, is the lint and sh*t you find in your belly button, usually ushered in by belly hair. Personally, I like to think of it as a lint pearl in my belly button clam.

Thankfully, I am not the only one to see the inherent value in this lint suppository. You'll be delighted to know an Australian brewery called "7 cent Brewery" found a way to make beer... using yeast grown from belly button fluff.

I will give you a moment to jump up and down in joy or vomit all over your dog.

The brewery calls it "Belly Button Beer," or "BBB" for short (disclaimer: I'm the only person calling it that).

Basically, what happens is the brewers cultivate the yeast that grows off the bacteria present in this fluff.

The hilarious thing about this is they are so scientific about it. Making beer out of belly button fluff is exactly as hard as it is gross.

As one of the brewers explains,

Positive controls were used to help us identify yeast colonies and negative controls were used to ensure our techniques were sterile. We selected individual yeast colonies and grew them up until we had pitchable quantities for trial batches.

Please, let me remind you all that "smart talk" is about belly buttons.

It's not the first time people tried making beer out of bacteria present on or in the human body. Last month, we wrote about a brewery that makes beer out of the bacteria in a model's vagina (because, apparently, people think even the vaginal bacteria of models are superior to that of normal women).

The "Belly Button Beer" Brewers themselves (BBBB) told Mashable they actually got the idea from Rogue Ales, a brewery that makes beer from beard bacteria.

The method these breweries use to make their beer is called "spontaneously fermented beer." It's pretty complicated, but go ahead and try it at home if you want. I hear there is a lot of bacteria in your eyelashes, so go crazy.

If you couldn't tell already, 7 cent Brewery has a pretty good sense of humor about itself. Its website is pretty much the best, and these guys seem awesome.

Let me leave you with the brewers' own description of how they came up with their brewery's name:

After a long day of construction at the brewery, we ended the day with a sacrificial burning of old couches to please the beer gods and give them something to rest their drunken and weary behinds on. In the morning, along with a couple of sore heads, all that remained was a pile of ash, burnt springs and old 1 and 2 cent pieces that had been long lost eons ago down the back of the couches. How many coins were there you ask? A total 7 cents of course! In our bleary-eyed state this was a clear omen from the beer gods and a name was born.

Keep up the good work, Australia.

Citations: Beer made from belly button fluff has a bit of the brewer in every glass (Mashable)