DENVER — Most of the ideas for what beers to brew at Colorado’s breweries come from the brewers themselves. But ahead of a big-time Colorado beer festival, the idea for one new brew didn’t come out of anyone’s head — it came from artificial intelligence.
“We actually turned to open AI and ChatGPT to help us figure out what type of beer to make,” said Sam Nicholson, head brewer at Old 121 Brewhouse.
Old 121 partnered with Banded Oak Brewing in Denver, and dove into their so-called "science project" with the help of the free, artificial intelligence software. First, they asked for help coming up with the type of beer to make.
“From all the data across all the interwebs, predict the trend of the future for craft beer,” Banded Oak’s head brewer Chris Kirk said.
“And the one that jumped out to us was a wellness beer,” Nicholson added.
A wellness beer is a beer that has additional ingredients that have some type of health benefit.
Once they had a trend, the two brewers asked for a recipe. They were surprised what came next. And how quickly.
“It took about five seconds to shoot back an answer,” Kirk said.
“Even all the instructions it would take to get this beer done,” Nicholson said, showing off the extremely detail instructions, down to time and temperature.
The wellness ingredients in the ChatGPT creation were lemon peel, organ peel, dried ginger root, and turmeric.
“That was essentially the recipe we used,” Nicholson said.
The pair, along with staff from each brewery, followed the AI instructions to brew it. As of midweek, it was still fermenting ahead of Collaboration Fest on March 25.
“It might not be perfect, but I think it’s gonna be pretty good actually,” Kirk said.
But even a beer dreamed up on the internet still needs a name. So, Kirk and Nicholson went back to the well.
“The answer (ChatGPT) gave us that we chose is The Bots Made Us Do It,” Nicholson said with a laugh.
You can try the AI brew along with other creative options at the Colorado Brewers Guild Collaboration Beer Fest on March 25 in Westminster. You can find more information, including a list of collaborating breweries and their creations, at CollaborationBeerFest.com.
