We asked staff to blind taste beer fermented from brewers' belly buttons

Ahead of the 2016 Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular (GABs) kicking off in Sydney this weekend (May 27-29) we thought we'd trial one of the festival's more unique brews, 7 Cents' infamous Belly Button Beer — the world's first brew fermented from yeast captured from the brewers' very own belly button fluff.

When news of the, erm, distinctive beer dropped, the public's response was a mixture of curiosity, bafflement and pure disgust. However, once you get over the beer's highly-publicised ick-factor, does it actually taste delicious?

To ensure the tipple was safe for consumption, I caught up with one of the head brewers at 7 Cent, Matthew Boustead, to find out more about the stomach-churning beer making process.

Typically, breweries buy brewer's yeast from yeast suppliers who grow yeast specifically for making beer, and it's these yeast strains that give the beers their different characters.

"These yeast strains originate from different parts of the world from many different breweries and have been cultured in the yeast labs to maintain the same strains for future use," Boustead explains.

However to create the Belly Button Beer, sanitary swabs of each of the brewers' belly buttons were collected and laid out on agar plates to allow the yeast and bacteria to grow.

"We used a number of controls to ensure that our processes were sanitary and that we weren't introducing anything else into the samples. We then selected an individual yeast colony from each agar plate and grew these up to pitchable yeast quantities for trial batches. This took a number of weeks and was all done under laboratory conditions," Boustead assured us.

"We sampled the results and decided which brewer had the best yeast qualities. I can't tell you [whose belly button swab was used] at this stage. All I can say is it's one of the three brewers: Bakes (Brendan Baker), Doug (Doug Bremner) or Bousa (Matthew Boustead)."

"The beer is similar to a Belgian-style witbier (wheat beer). The most common example you can find would be Hoegarden, but we have definitely put our 7 cent stamp on it."

To keep the taste test completely objective (read: hilarious for us to watch) we didn't mention the beer's icky fermentation process to our staffers until after they'd had a slug — though I later discovered a couple testers had cottoned on to our plan. Regardless, this is what they thought of it:

George, video editor

The verdict: "Going into this tasting, I knew about the premise of this beer. Having said that, I still willingly tried it. While I had no problem with the taste of the beer, the lingering thought of the belly button yeast seemed to trouble me, even though I understood it was 100 percent sanitary. Putting that aside, the flavour profile of the beer was commendable. Something you'd taste that's not too dissimilar from a 4 Pines or Stone and Wood ale. Definitely a beer to start on with mates, maybe have one or two, but not to bunker in to a solid drinking session on. Doesn't have the best drinkability. Overall Good fun!"

Ben, features writer

The verdict: "First impressions on tasting were 'this would go great with some calamari or salt and pepper squid'. Interestingly, the light – almost sweet – aroma hides the more potent, bitter aftertaste that comes with the final swig. As beers go, it's a proper palette cleanser and perfect as either a starter or refresher between meals. That is, until you discover the secret ingredient is belly button. Or at least the yeast collected from the brewers' belly buttons. But once you get past that initial shock factor, it's hard to deny that it's a decent drop."

Stuart, health writer

The verdict: "On a big night at the pub, literally anything can fall in your drink. Sometimes it's something innocuous like one of those tiny Keno pencils, and sometimes it's a little bit worse, like the spittle of the man who takes trivia.

"Nonetheless, I've drunk a few strange brews in my time.

"So after tasting the bellybutton fluff beer, I was pleasantly surprised at how 'crafty' it tasted. Expensive even. After some navel gazing of my own, I realised that this brew would be something I'd never buy – not because of the bellybutton fluff, but because of the taste – it tasted simply too good.

"Opening with a subtle hit of sweetness and quickly rising to a crisp, hoppy, finish, this is the kind of beer you would give to your father in-law as you hurriedly put together a mezze plate of two-month-old Jatz crackers and sliced cheese. It screams 'I'm crafty and have disposable income' without saying 'you need to drink 12 of me and take off your pants.'

"I'd give it a solid 7/10. The perfect beer to have over a fine meal, but not suitable for a Sunday session with the boys. For that, I'd recommend an armpit or even a subtle back hair brew."

Dan, sports writer

The verdict: "It’d be easy to forget you're drinking a 'belly button' beer because of the taste, with it definitely possessing a strong but very drinkable craft-style flavour. Knocking back one or two would be a breeze but it might be a bit overpowering beyond that – and give you too much time to think about exactly what went into your froffie."

The Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular will be held over three session on May 27 and 28 at Sydney's Australian Technology Park, before heading over the ditch to Auckland on June 18 at ASB Showgrounds. For tickets and more information visit the official website.