Jon Krohn: 00:05
This is Five-Minute Friday on the Krohn&Borg AI-crafted beer.
00:27 Welcome back to the Super Data Science Podcast. I’m your host, Jon Krohn. First of all, thanks to Pyramid Analytics for selecting Super Data Science as number one on their list of best data podcasts to listen to in 2024. We’ve got their full post for you to check out in the show notes, but it’s awesome to be on the list with several other podcasters I revere and have recently had the honor of having as guests on the show. Some of those people include Sadie St. Lawrence, Margot Gerritson, and Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, who was our guest in the preceding episode of this show, number 757. Thanks to everyone out there actually for all the recent five-star ratings on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and all the other podcasting platforms out there, as well as for likes and comments on our YouTube videos. I appreciate the support and feedback and the feedback I catch, I will read on air just like this.
01:19
All right, so for today’s episode, we’re doing something different than we’ve done before. If you’ve listened to episode number 755 last week with the brewer, Beau Warren, then you already know that I collaborated with him on a craft beer that we crafted with AI. So last week I actually flew to Columbus, Ohio for the launch of Beau’s Species X Brewery to try our AI-crafted lager myself, and that beer is named Krohn&Borg. And in addition to trying it myself, I also recorded drinkers’ reactions as they tried this innovative beer for the first time.
01:57
If you caught episode number 755 last week, then you already also know that Beau described the experience of having a machine learning model trained to simulate and predict the most delicious beer possible as like having another intelligence amongst us, like aliens coming down. But did it work? Well, Rehgan Avon, CEO of Align AI, and our guest on episode number 698, was at the beer launch, and this is what she had to say:
Rehgan: 02:24
Oh my God, that’s so good. I love it. Seriously, that’s delicious, and I’m not a big beer drinker. I have nothing sophisticated to add to that.
Jon Krohn: 02:34
And then Kelsey Dingelstedt, the CEO of Women in Analytics and DataConnect Conference added:
Kelsey Dingelstedt: 02:39
Unlike Rehgan, I love beer and I could drink the whole thing also, so it’s delicious.
Jon Krohn: 02:46
Very nice. And Allie Hagmeyer, the director of operations at Path Robotics concurred as well:
Allie Hagmeyer: 02:53
That’s delicious. It’s smooth. Smooth, yeah.
Jon Krohn: 02:57
For a bit more detail on flavor, Bill McFarland of Omega Yeast who has many years of professional brewing experience under his belt, was able to articulate deeply about his first sips of the AI-crafted Krohn&Borg beer:
Bill McFarland: 03:11
Super tasty. Kind of remind me a lot of the old European beers that you get that always kind of catch you off guard, surprisingly flavorful. A little bit of that really fruity, pleasant bite, but also still really easy drinking. Very similar to a Pilsner Urquell or something like that from the Czech Republic. Just welcoming. That’s probably the best way to put it.
Jon Krohn: 03:36
And tangential, but perhaps of interest to you generally curious listeners, Bill also filled us in on how technologies beyond AI, specifically CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technologies, can also be used to create new forward-thinking beer experiences:
03:49
You actually supply some of the yeast that they use here at Species X. I understand that they’re taking an unusual take. So in addition to having AI-crafted beers, their silicon species, they also have these carbon species where they’re using things like GMO yeast to get extra properties. Can you fill us in a bit more on that?
Bill McFarland: 04:08
Yeah, I mean, yeast is arguably kind of the glue that really binds in alcoholic beverages, particularly beer. You get a lot of flavor and aromatic components that come from the yeast, and particularly with modern science, CRISPR-Cas9. So the yeast lab I work for is Omega Yeast, and so we’re essentially in the lab creating new yeast that behave really friendly in a way that brewers can really take and experiment with, but also introduce new flavor aromatics experiences as a whole. And Beau and Species X are really capitalizing on that, kind of on the forefront of where our brewery is going to be in the next five years.
Jon Krohn: 04:48
Finally, Jim Lachey offensive tackle from the Super Bowl 26-winning then-styled Washington Redskins, who is also the father-in-law of Beau Warren, the head brewer behind Krohn&Borg Lager, had this to say about Beau teaching himself machine learning and applying it diligently to his craft:
Jim Lachey: 05:05
No, it’s just been a good experience to go through the process because when he started this, he’s banging away at his computer all the time. I’m like, “Beau, what are you doing?” He goes, “I’m inputting recipes.” I’m like, “Okay. What, what?” But then with the AI stuff, which we learned from your guys’ podcast, so cool to see that side of what he’s doing too. So hey, we’re impressed. He was using some words we’ve never heard of from him, so we’re thinking this is cool.
Jon Krohn: 05:30
Well, there you go. So hopefully we’ll be able to have cans of Krohn&Borg Lager shipped around the US soon. Stay tuned for that. And in the meantime, check out episode number 755 to get all the details on the machine learning approach I collaborated with Beau on, to produce this scrumptious AI-crafted beer. It’s been a delicious project so far, and I hope you found this real-world AI application interesting. Perhaps it even provides inspiration for new ways you could be applying machine learning to your passions.
05:59
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