What if your next pint could do more than just taste great — what if it protected you from disease? That’s the bold idea behind a controversial experiment from virologist Chris Buck, who literally brewed a beer that may act as a vaccine.

Chris Buck drinking his vaccine brew. (Photo credit: ScienceNews)

From Lab Coat to Home Brew

Chris Buck isn’t your typical home brewer — he’s a virologist at the National Cancer Institute, known for discovering several human polyomaviruses, a family of viruses linked to cancers and serious infections in people with weakened immune systems.

Buck’s day job involves developing vaccines against these viruses, but he took things in an unexpected direction: using yeast engineered to produce viral proteins, he brewed a beer that delivered those proteins orally. Drink a pint, and your body might make antibodies against polyomaviruses — that’s the theory.

The DIY Vaccine Brew

Buck’s vaccine beer isn’t a government-sanctioned product — he brewed it in his kitchen and drank it himself as part of a self-experiment. After consuming multiple batches, including his brother and other family members, blood tests showed they produced antibodies against some types of the virus without apparent side effects.

To share his work, he posted the brewing method and results on open science platforms, though these findings haven’t been peer-reviewed — meaning the wider scientific community hasn’t yet vetted the data formally.

The Debate Around Vaccine Beer

Unsurprisingly, this brew has sparked lively debate:

Skeptics Raise Safety Flags:
Experts point out that Buck’s experiment involved only a few people — not the large, structured clinical trials typically required to prove whether a vaccine is safe and effective. That’s especially critical for vulnerable groups like organ transplant patients, who are at higher risk from polyomaviruses.

Concerns About Public Trust:
Some ethicists and scientists worry that releasing a vaccine-style beer outside rigorous studies could fuel misinformation or undermine confidence in proven vaccines.

A Different Perspective:
Other voices see promise in making vaccines more approachable. If people could brew or drink something familiar like beer to get immunity, it might reduce fear and barriers around vaccination — if it could ever be properly validated.

What’s Next?

Back at the NIH, Buck continues traditional research on an injectable polyomavirus vaccine. Meanwhile, his yeast-based approach remains unapproved by regulatory bodies like the FDA and outside established vaccine development pathways.

Buck argues that innovative methods are worth exploring — and that if people want to brew their own vaccine beer at home, that’s their choice. Whether beer as medicine becomes legend or just a curiosity, it’s already sparked a fascinating conversation at the intersection of brewing culture and cutting-edge science.

Sources and Citations

• ScienceNews: He made beer that’s also a vaccine. Now controversy is brewing
• Twitter: NEXTA

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