This Beloved Alcoholic Beverage Could Have Incredible Anti-aging Skin Benefits

Love to unwind with your favorite craft beer at the end of a long day? While you may just enjoy it for the taste, more and more research has come out showing just how incredible beer can be for your health, including your skin.

According to a study from Italy published in the academic journal Cosmetics, scientists have been analyzing the molecular content found in different kinds of craft beers, which are products that come from small, independent brewers. In particular, their work discovered that craft beers, as opposed to mass-produced varieties that we’re more likely to see at stores, contained higher concentrations of compounds called phenols and antioxidants. These are critical for maintaining proper cell health as we get older and fighting off dangerous free radicals, and they also protect against cognitive decline, type 2 diabetes, particular types of cancer, and so many other health issues that pop up over the years.

On top of that, this research shows that all of these phenols and antioxidants make craft beer a prime candidate for bringing those same anti-aging properties to the skin, potentially keeping it smoother and more supple for longer thanks to all of the malts, hops, and yeast. Hops, according to researchers, are particularly promising given that they could help better absorb phenols into your body, yielding more impressive skin benefits.

Scientists said there’s still lots of work to be done to to figure out how these ingredients could be used in actual skincare products going forward, but it’s nice to know that simply drinking your favorite IPA or hefeweizen could give a small boost to your skin. Just make sure you only drink beer in moderation though — you don’t want to start seeing the adverse effects of consuming too much alcohol over time.

These skin benefits aren’t the only reason to get excited about beer from a health standpoint. Other research has shown that it may soothe aching feet, lower your risk of heart disease, and help you live longer. If that’s not a reason to crack open a cold one, I don’t know what is.