Artificial Intelligence – Smart Beers

By Ken Konarzewski Jr., Better On Draft

Back in January of this year, Atwater Brewery created completely from ChatGPT including scaling up a homebrew recipe to their 20 BBLs brew system. They named it simply Artificial Intelligence IPA, brewed with Centennial, Citra and Amarillo hops. ChatGPT, an AI chatbot available to the public, allows users to ask questions, find answers, and help with problems found in the real world. Joe Platt of Atwater decided to use this to see what type of beer could be offered with no human interference to the recipe. The beer itself is rated 3.5 out of 5 on the website and app Untappd, and while we may not be able to try it again soon, it shows there are no limits to what we can learn from computers.

It hasn’t stopped, however, with just Atwater. In the United States breweries across the country including Second Sin Brewing in Pennsylvania and Rio Bravo Brewing in New Mexico have all brewed their version of an AI beer this year, leaving the question – what is the possible limit that AI can help us with beer creation without it getting too far?

Having spoken to a few brewers in southeast Michigan, some believe it will help with the current supply chain issues where specific ingredients do not come in, or ideas for adjusting a recipe that just isn’t to the level they want the specific beer to be. Other brewers however show concern that the AI may never fully understand the ingredients used as humans do and will lead to unimpressive beers in the future. We won’t know what the future holds for AI as it continues to improve, but expectations are that it will be used more in the food and beverage industry. Less as a gimmicky one-time event, and more as an industry standard. Therefore, it will be important to continue promoting creativity and training programs within the industry.