{"id":5887,"date":"2025-11-26T11:14:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T11:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=5887"},"modified":"2025-11-26T11:14:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T11:14:53","slug":"ai-and-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2025\/11\/26\/ai-and-beer\/","title":{"rendered":"AI and beer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>W<\/strong>orldwide spending on artificial intelligence (AI) reached US $4 trillion last year, a sum that is set to double this year. This money has caused stock markets almost everywhere to soar, especially in the US, where the market capitalisation of the big six tech firms now accounts for around a third of the total. Many investors are likely to lose their shirts, but AI\u2019s effect on all aspects of life and commerce is certain to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beer brands are increasingly looking to artificial intelligence to improve their recipes. In 2023, Beck&#8217;s of Bremen, Germany marked their 150th birthday by using an AI chatbot to produce Beck&#8217;s Autonomous, a lager with a subtle sweetness, a hoppy texture and a robust head. Many tasters considered it superior to their standard lager &#8211; admittedly not a hard task!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Atwater Brewery in the USA introduced an AI-designed IPA, also in 2023, and, last year, the St Austell brewery in Cornwall produced another AI IPA called Hand Brewed by Robots. &nbsp;The response from customers was, according to the brewers, very positive. &nbsp;The boss of Atwater explained that AI can analyse complex flavours and then match them to the ingredients and the brewery\u2019s equipment.&nbsp; The AI bot then comes up with new recipes by tweaking the sweetness, acidity and hopping to produce beers that customers like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2021, the Species X Beer Project in the USA asked an AI bot to make a new lager. &nbsp;It suggested mixing Maris Otter malt, known in the UK as an ale and stout malt, with Belgian candi syrup. &nbsp;Despite their doubts, they brewed it anyway and customers judged it to be the best lager they had ever brewed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And in 2024 scientists at Leuven University in Belgium (the home of AB InBev) analysed the chemical make-up of 250 Belgian beers. &nbsp;Then they trained machine-learning algorithms to model the effects on taste by adding or subtracting different aroma components, such as glycerol and lactic acid. &nbsp;I have no record of any results and remain unaware of any recent improvement in Stella Artois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, and thankfully, a chatbot will never replace a human brewer because ingredients must to poured, brew kettles must be tended and beers must be tasted. &nbsp;While AI is likely increasingly to become part of the brewing process, the &#8216;craft&#8217; of physically brewing beer will remain human.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The inspiration for this item came from an article entitled<a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/science-and-technology\/2025\/08\/27\/the-rise-of-beer-made-by-ai\"> <em>Brewers Bot<\/em> in the <em>Economist <\/em>magazine<\/a> (30 August, 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Peter J Sutclffe<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Worldwide spending on artificial intelligence (AI) reached US $4 trillion last year, a sum that is set to double this year. This money has caused stock markets almost everywhere to&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5889,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887\/revisions\/5889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}