Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Nutritional Potential of Spent Brewer's Yeast, A Residual By-Product of Beer Production in Breweries for Future Applications

N’guessan Yevi Delphine, Otchoumou Kraidy Athanase., Bedikou Ehuie. Micaël, Assemian Ines Christelle, Ehon Ayawovi Charlotte

Journal of Advances in Biology & Biotechnology · pp. 30–39 · Published 17 Nov 2023

10.9734/jabb/2023/v26i9654

Abstract

The recovery of by-products from food processing chains represents an area of interest in the current world. Waste from beer production, such as beer lees or spent brewer's yeast, constitutes between 1.5 and 3 kg/100 L of beer, representing a source of pollution but a by-product available in quantity. This study aims to characterize the beer lees from breweries and propose possible ways of recovery. The scientific methods have been applied to highlight the nutritional potential of this by-product. Spent brewer's yeast is a high-biological value protein source (46.77%) with a well-balanced amino acid profile. Amino acids (glutamic acid and aspartic acid) and the essential amino acids leucine, lysine and valine are the most abundant, while sulfur amino acids, such as methionine and cysteine, are the least abundant. With a high mineral content (7.3%), the spent brewer's yeast contains significant amounts of manganese 5.54x10-2 mg/k, sodium 3.92x10-2 mg/k, and potassium 3.59x10-2 mg /k. The B complex vitamins are present in large quantities, followed by vitamins C, A and D. Less than 3% of the composition of the spent brewer's yeast is made up of lipids. The most abundant of fatty acids determined for the saturated category is palmitic acid, while oleic acid represents monounsaturated fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids are represented by linoleic acid and linolenic acid. Carbohydrates (32.77 %) are also important constituents of the dry matter of this by-product. This study showed that spent beer yeast is a source of polyphenol. Spent brewer's yeast has advantages for being incorporated into animal nutrition to meet nutritional needs. Further studies could lead to the production of activated carbon and hydrogen as excellent sources of alternative energy.

Brewery waste spent brewer's yeast nutritional potential added value

References (21)

  1. 1 A SIMPLE METHOD FOR THE ISOLATION AND PURIFICATION OF TOTAL LIPIDES FROM ANIMAL TISSUES [DOI]
  2. 2 [14] Analysis of total phenols and other oxidation substrates and antioxidants by means of folin-ciocalteu reagent [DOI]
  3. 3 An overview of the recent trends on the waste valorization techniques for food wastes [DOI]
  4. 4 Influence of information about manufacturing process on beer acceptability [DOI]
  5. 5 Characterization and determination of brewer's solid wastes composition [DOI]
  6. 6 Contribution of lactic acid fermentation to improved nutritive quality vegetable juices enriched with brewer’s yeast autolysate [DOI]
  7. 7 Utilisation of spent brewer's yeast for yeast extract production by autolysis: The effect of temperature [DOI]
  8. 8 Biotechnological Potential of Brewing Industry By-Products [DOI]
  9. 9 Nutritional ingredients from spent brewer's yeast obtained by hydrolysis and selective membrane filtration integrated in a pilot process [DOI]
  10. 10 Spent brewer's yeast extract as an ingredient in cooked hams [DOI]
  11. 11 Evaluation of Brewer’s Spent Yeast To Produce Flavor Enhancer Nucleotides: Influence of Serial Repitching [DOI]
  12. 12 Validation of the Analytical Procedure for the Determination of Malondialdehyde and Three Other Aldehydes in Vegetable Oil Using Liquid Chromatography Coupled to Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and Application to Linseed Oil [DOI]
  13. 13 Nutritional and toxicological evaluation of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) biomass and a yeast protein concentrate [DOI]
  14. 14 Determination of Water‐ and Fat‐Soluble Vitamins in Different Matrices Using High‐Performance Liquid Chromatography [DOI]
  15. 15 Downstream process for the production of yeast extract using brewer's yeast cells [DOI]
  16. 16 Brewery By-Products and Effluents [DOI]
  17. 17 Process Optimization, Amino Acid Composition, and Antioxidant Activities of Protein and Polypeptide Extracted from Waste Beer Yeast [DOI]
  18. 18 ICUMSA - International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis
  19. 19 Nutritional and toxicological evaluation of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) biomass and a yeast protein concentrate [DOI]
  20. 20 Official Methods of Analysis [DOI]
  21. 21 Brewing: Science and Practice

Cited by 10

Adding Value to Brewery Industry By-Products as Novel Ingredients in Non-Alcoholic Malt Beverage Applications

Muhammad Usman Akram, Helen Oluwaseun Agunbiade, Deepak Kadam · Foods · 2025

Valorizing agro-food waste for microbial B vitamin biosynthesis: impacts on gut microbiota dynamics and microbial communication

Nisha Kumari Pandit, Pallavi Sharma, Priyanshu Sharma · Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/Technology · 2025

Spent Brewer’s Yeast Lysis Enables a Best Out of Waste Approach in the Beer Industry

Livia Teodora Ciobanu, Diana Constantinescu-Aruxandei, Ileana Cornelia Farcasanu · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2024

Biovalorization of spent yeast for preparation of eucalyptus oil-based microcapsules

A. G. Thomas, G. S. Kocher, D. K. Kocher · Systems Microbiology and Biomanufacturing · 2025

Showing 4 of 10 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

13

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

10

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.