Can AI improve the taste of beer? What comes to mind when you think of artificial intelligence? ChatGPT? Skynet? Cats doing impossible things? What about making better beer? As I sit at the family dinner table on Easter enjoying a cold beer, I'll have to raise the possibility that artificial intelligence could be used to make beer taste better.
Even if the thought of a bunch of computer servers tinkering with one of my favorite things is sacrilege, the resulting "improved" beer was received favorably.
According to a study published on the website Nature, Belgian scientists led by Professor Kevin Verstrepen from the University of KU Leuven used a machine learning model to predict the taste of beer after changing its composition. The parameters included not only the basic ones, such as alcohol content, the amount of sugar, yeast and hops, but also smaller compounds and their interaction with each other.
The model was trained on 180 online beer reviews and feedback from a 000-member tasting panel. Over the course of three years, the group tasted 16 beers for 250 different attributes, including bitterness, sweetness, alcohol content and malt aroma.
The model was then asked to improve the beer by suggesting changes to its composition. The researchers made some changes to commercial beers based on the modifications suggested by the model and presented them to a tasting panel. The resulting beer received a significantly higher rating from experts.
Clearly, beer is more than just a list of ingredients thrown into a vat. The brewer's skill and methodology will always be the key to good beer. But if AI can tell you how to make beer taste better, or, just as importantly, tell you how to turn crap beer into good beer, then I'm ready to be the guinea pig for the next testing session. Provided the beer is free.
On a more serious note, after making changes suggested by the model, the team was able to create a non-alcoholic beer that was indistinguishable from regular beer. There's definitely nothing wrong with that.
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