Belgian researchers use AI to make beers tastier – IT Pro – .Geeks

Belgian scientists say they have used AI to improve the taste of beer. The researchers made a blonde beer with alcohol and an alcohol-free beer, both of which were rated as tastier than the original versions by a tasting panel.

The scientists share their findings in the scientific journal Nature Communications. For the experiment, the scientists collected the chemical composition of more than 250 Belgian beers, divided into 22 different styles, such as pilsner, fruit beer, blonde beer and more. These were, for example, examined for their alcohol percentages, pH values, sugar concentration and the presence of more than 200 different substances that influence taste. This includes, for example, terpenoids from hops and esters from yeast, both of which provide ‘fruity’ flavor notes in beer.

The fifty different beers were then tested by a tasting panel consisting of sixteen participants. They assessed the beer on fifty different characteristics. The scientists also used 180,000 reviews from beer review website RateBeer. This resulted in scores for all beers in terms of appearance, aroma, taste, mouthfeel and general quality, in addition to an average total score.

That data was fed to a machine learning algorithm. That algorithm could predict what beer would taste like and how it would be rated, based on its content. They then used that algorithm to improve two existing beers: an alcoholic blond beer and an alcohol-free variant. The algorithm recommended improvements that should make both beers better. The researchers tested this by adding flavor components. Both types of beer were indeed rated better than the standard versions. The two beers used are both commercially available, but the researchers do not share which ones.

Kevin Verstrepen from KU Leuven, who led the research, emphasizes to the NOS that AI cannot be used to come up with a recipe for a perfect beer anytime soon, partly because taste is subjective. The model can only predict which aromas are rated well by the test panel. The model could possibly be used in the future to make non-alcoholic beer tastier, Verstrepen reports.