DENVER — When they came together to make a beer, the brewers at Banded Oak Brewing in Denver and Old 121 Brewing in Lakewood had one goal: to create the beer of the future.
Easy, right? But humans aren’t always good a predicting the trajectory of trends, so they decided to do what everyone is doing these days. They asked for help from ChatGPT, the new — and somewhat terrifying — artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that can do everything from write college term papers and newspaper articles to plan vacations and offer dating advice.
“We took an ancient and timeless alchemy and attempted to predict the future by asking artificial intelligence to determine what the next trend in craft beer would be,” Banded Oak brewer Chris Kirk explained via email. And in mere seconds, ChatGPT “shot back a response” with a detailed explanation of what it called a “Wellness Beer.”
Interesting. The idea of wellness beers existed a few years ago when brewers were adding electrolytes and reducing alcohol in some offerings, but the “style” didn’t exactly take off. So, what would ChatGPT’s recipe for a wellness beer look like? The brewers asked again, and the chatbot generated a recipe based on its own research.
It also named it: The Bots Made Me Do It.
Kirk brewed the beer, which includes turmeric and four other spices, in late February and will serve it alongside Old 121 at Collaboration Fest on March 25. The state’s signature beer festival, which is hosted by the Colorado Brewers Guild, will feature more than 120 unique collaborative beers produced by 175 different breweries, including 20 from out of state.
The idea for the AI beer is partly for fun and partly to make a statement,” Kirk said. “Everything about Collab Fest is for fun, but when we first sat down and agreed to partner up for the event, we decided we wanted to try and steer our project in a little bit of a different direction.
“It’s always fun to throw in and attempt to marry some exotic or unconventional additions … or to try and reach extremes of any aspect,” he continued, whether that means unusual ingredients, or a beer with the most bitterness or the haziest look. “But our goal was to try and reintroduce a bit of innovation to, or education of, the process of crafting beer.”
In this case, Banded Oak and Old 121 did that by blending technology and anthropology, rather than marrying flavors, he added.
So, are they trying to create “some sort of liquid allegory about the future of brewers and the age-old battle of Man vs. Machine?” Kirk decided to let “our third collaborator, ChatGPT, answer that question.” Here’s what it said:
“It is difficult to predict which would win in a competition between artificial intelligence and human intelligence to design the world’s most perfect beer, as both have their own strengths and limitations. Artificial intelligence can process vast amounts of data and analyze it quickly, which could lead to the creation of highly optimized beer recipes.
“However, humans have the ability to taste and assess the quality of beer, as well as years of experience and cultural knowledge to draw upon, which could lead to the creation of unique and innovative beer recipes. Ultimately, the outcome of such a competition might depend on how the strengths of both are leveraged and combined.”
