![\"sugar](\"https:\/\/cdn.craftbeer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20250228152758\/sugar-creek-brewing-taproom-interior.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nIt shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise that, like many companies and entrepreneurs across the country, craft brewers are looking at how AI might improve efficiency and the overall brewing experience. One of the prime examples is Sugar Creek Brewing Company<\/a> in Charlotte, N.C., which uses AI and a network of devices to monitor the quality of its packaged beer, including temperature, fill level, and foam level.<\/p>\n However, beyond the standpoint of business and operations, brewers and other industry professionals are also experimenting with the tech to test its creativity. They\u2019re seeing if AI can push the envelope on recipe development and flavor.<\/p>\n Craft breweries in different parts of the country have already concocted AI-generated beers. This includes Asbury Park Brewery<\/a> in Asbury Park, N.J. and Atwater Brewing<\/a> in Detroit, Mich., each with their own AI-IPAs, and Urban Forest Craft Brewing in Rockford, Ill. which released a brew called Put the AI in sAIson.<\/p>\n Michael Oxton, co-founder of Night Shift Brewing<\/a> in Boston, used OpenAI<\/a>\u2019s industry-leading large language model ChatGPT<\/a> to make a hazy IPA. \u201cIt was fully capable of putting together a recipe with instructions and a water profile and suggested hops,\u201d says Oxton. He and his team were particularly impressed by AI\u2019s ability to come up with a target water profile within minutes, saying, \u201cIt might take us a few weeks or even a month to come up with something like that based on a lot of research and testing.\u201d<\/p>\n Night Shift\u2019s head brewer drew up a batch resulting in what they called AI-PA\u2014a beer that first hits you with a burst of mango and watermelon, and ends with citrusy lemon-lime notes. Oxton summed up, \u201cIt was delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of using ChatGPT or other commercially available models, Species X Beer Project<\/a> took things a step further. For Species X, founder Beau Warren had two different \u201cspecies\u201d of beer: the AI-created Silicon Species, and his own human-made recipes for the Carbon Species. Warren\u2014who has studied both beer microbiology and data analytics\u2014programmed seven different AI models himself for the Silicon Species.<\/p>\n He wrote code to build each model using a combination of two types of machine-learning techniques: regression models and neural networks. Each of the models he coded was then trained using proprietary data and information on different styles of beer (including water chemistry, yeast, hops, flavor profiles, ABV, human-made recipes that have worked in the past, etc.). He also used data from his Carbon Species, including customer and internal reviews, to teach his AI models what the parameters for a highly rated beer are. And Warren created models to focus on specific styles of beer\u2014one for IPAs and others for lagers, fruited sours, smoothie beers, low-alcohol beers, and even hard seltzers.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of these recipes are so out of left field, I cannot imagine myself sitting down and creating one of these recipes by myself,\u201d says Warren. \u201cIt throws tradition out the window entirely.\u201d Of course, the models have guardrails coded into them (except the Beh3moth model, which is trained on all types of beers with minimal parameters), mainly to make sure they can brew the beers within the laws of physics and not break any of their equipment.<\/p>\n One of the wildest brews Warren has ever worked on was an amber lager made with 100% Maris Otter malt, which is typically reserved for bitters, porters, and stouts for a rich, malty flavor. In the end, AI didn\u2019t steer him wrong and he came out with a well-balanced lager that turned out to be a hit.<\/p>\n Beh3moth also created an imperial pastry Baltic porter using a plethora of ingredients. The recipe involved three different types of fruit, coffee, vanilla, 12 different types of malts, lactose, and marshmallows. Then the batch was dry-hopped like a New England IPA. \u201cAbsolutely insane, but tasted amazing and balanced,\u201d summed up Warren. \u201cLiterally unlike anything I have ever had in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Each of Warren\u2019s AI-generated creations is unique, clearly built from the ground up, down to the water profile. He says, \u201cIt\u2019s not like we\u2019re using the same base recipes, swapping out hops, or we\u2019re doing a fruited sour and swapping out fruit. These things are completely brand new, beer to beer, and we can do it quick.\u201d<\/p>\n Moreover, it\u2019s not just craft breweries that are expanding the creative possibilities of craft beer using AI. Colorado-based yeast propagation facility Propagate Lab<\/a> has given brewers the opportunity to come up with creations that go against the grain with their AI chatbot \u201cYeast Buddy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Yeast Buddy helps clients filter through a database of more than 120 yeast strains and narrow it down to the one that best suits the beer style, flavor profile, and other parameters for their specific brew. It\u2019s kind of like an automated library catalog, making sure brewers don\u2019t need to go through the tedious Dewey Decimal System.<\/p>\n As a result, brewers have easier access and are able to discover the diversity of yeasts at Propagate Lab, allowing them to break away from defaulting to the \u201cstandard.\u201d Instead of going for a strain that a friend used or choosing something familiar, they have a chance to be more adventurous.<\/p>\n \u201cWith beer, there are so many different ingredients between hundreds of hop varietals, hundreds of malt choices, and several hundred yeast choices,\u201d explains Matthew Peetz, founder of Propagate Lab. \u201c[Yeast Buddy\u2019s] giving them more options in terms of putting together a recipe, rather than being pigeonholed with what you used before in your batches of beer.\u201d<\/p>\n With the conversation on machine learning comes the looming thought that AI might take over industries and jobs. If robots can be baristas, what\u2019s stopping them from infiltrating the taproom? After all, AI only gets smarter by the minute. However, the truth of the matter is that it\u2019s not yet poised to replace humans.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like having a brewing assistant right by your side that could come up with ideas,\u201d describes Oxton of his experience using AI. Admittedly, while the original AI-PA recipe fresh from ChatGPT was a hit, Night Shift had to make a few human adjustments in order to work with ingredients and materials they had available, for practicality and preference. And while creating the AI-generated art for AI-PA\u2019s label, Night Shift\u2019s designer had to make some modifications to fix some kinks and get it ready to display on a can.<\/p>\n \u201cI think, if anything, it was like a creativity enhancement more than a replacement,\u201d says Oxton. He adds that an AI assistant might be more useful to a newbie still trying to learn the ropes, as opposed to a head brewer with over 10 years of experience.<\/p>\n There is no denying that AI models are wildly impressive, especially with Species X\u2019s being particularly powerful and accurate in terms of hitting the mark on flavor profiles. But Warren emphasizes that a human still needs to be in the loop. \u201cAI needs humans to, first of all, put guardrails on it,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then second of all, to introduce new training data. Otherwise, you\u2019re going to be stuck with a non-updated model forever, essentially.\u201d<\/p>\n AI still needs someone to pull all the strings, feed it the correct information, and vet the results it yields in order to make sure they are sound. Peetz echoes this sentiment, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s as useful as a calculator. If you are punching in the wrong numbers, you\u2019re going to get the wrong result.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, though AI is readily available, the craft beer industry has nothing to fear. The full picture of this technology\u2019s future as it applies to beer is still uncertain. (At the time of publishing, Species X had permanently closed its doors after two years of operation, due to economical constraints.) However, what is clear is AI\u2019s potential not just to streamline business systems, but to help brewers knock down creative barriers.<\/p>\n Warren says, \u201cIt makes humans superhumans, essentially, because of how powerful it is, as long as it\u2019s used in the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brewers are looking at how AI can improve efficiency and the overall brewing experience. But it’s not yet poised to replace humans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7588,"featured_media":114446,"sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sticky_collection":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"58025,85670,53628,37698,104292,97698","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-full-pour"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"lineup](\"https:\/\/cdn.craftbeer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20250228152828\/lineup-of-canned-nightshift-beers-1200x630-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nBrewing Outside the Box<\/h2>\n
![\"species](\"https:\/\/cdn.craftbeer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20250228153004\/speciesx-neon-sign-with-hazy-beer.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nIs This a Taproom Takeover?<\/h2>\n
Taking a Step Back<\/h2>\n