With the Christmas party season a distant, perhaps slightly
hazy, memory, Dry January® is now officially in full
swing for millions of people partaking in this annual event, which,
as the name suggests, results in participants consuming no alcohol
during the month of January. While a month off alcohol is certainly
advantageous in that any pesky hangovers are avoided, it is also
purported to be associated with many health benefits.
Fortunately, a range of alcohol-free alternatives are available.
One such example is disclosed in Japanese patent JP4819182B2, which
relates to a method for producing an unfermented beer-flavoured
malt beverage that contains zero alcohol. A typical method used to
brew beer comprises the following steps: (i) mashing malt, such as
that obtained from barley, adding water and heating the malt-water
mixture in a process known as saccharification, a process whereby
starch is converted into sugar, resulting in a product called wort;
(ii) filtering
