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AI and beer

A famous German brewery called Beck’s was 150 years old in 2023. To celebrate, they did something very new: they asked an AI chatbot named ChatGPT to be the brewmaster. They told the AI to create a new beer recipe using only the basic ingredients: hops, yeast, water, and malt. The result was a lager called “Beck’s Autonomous”. One newspaper reporter said it was better than Beck’s standard lager.

Beck’s is not the only company using AI. Other breweries in America, Britain, and Japan are also using AI to create new beers. In March Coedo Brewery in Japan asked an AI model to analyse the preferences of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, and then developed four craft beers, one for each age range The brewers say that customers are liking these new AI beers.

Why are they using AI? Prinz Pinakatt, boss of the beer business for Tilray Brands, Atwater’s New York-based parent company explains: AI helps them find new recipes they never thought of before. The computer can study very small details of flavours. It can look at the ingredients a brewery has and then create a new recipe. It can change the sweetness or acidity to make sure customers will like the beer.

One brewer in America, Beau Warren, started using AI in 2022. He gave the AI all his beer recipes and information about ingredients. Later, the AI suggested a very unusual recipe for a lager beer. The brewer said, "I would never have thought of that." But he made the beer anyway, and it was one of the best he ever made! His customers also liked the AI beers more than the human-made ones. Unfortunately, his brewery closed last year because of financial difficulties.

Scientists are also interested. In 2024 researchers in Belgium used AI to study 250 different beers, including lagers, blonds and West Flanders ales. They wanted to understand how changing the chemicals in beer changes the taste. “The models we develop help us to understand the complex relationship between the chemistry of a beer, its taste, and how consumers will like it,” says Kevin Verstrepen, a bioscience engineer who led the research team.

However, AI will not replace human brewers. Someone still needs to physically pour the ingredients, watch the machines and taste the beer. Prinz Pinakatt, boss of Tilray Brands, Atwater’s New York-based parent company, says "AI will help more in the future but the craft of brewing is still the most important thing. It will be very difficult for machines to make our beers completely by themselves." 

Adapted from The Economist