Belgian beer study acquires taste for machine learning
- Reference: 1711539909
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/03/27/belgian_beer_machine_learning/
- Source link:
The ale family has long been a favorite of connoisseurs worldwide, yet one group of scientists decided it could be brewed better with the assistance of machine learning.
In a study led by Michiel Schreurs, a doctoral student at Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB) in Flanders, the researchers wanted to help develop new alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer flavors with higher rates of consumer appreciation.
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Understanding the relationship between beer chemistry and its taste can be a tricky task. Much of the work is trial and error and relies on extensive consumer testing.
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The Belgian group documented 200 chemical properties from 250 commercial Belgian beers across 22 styles, such as Blond and Tripel beers. Using online beer review database RateBeer, they then linked 180,000 sensory descriptions to known chemical compositions. They also used profiling data from a trained tasting panel of 16 people.
Drawing on the dataset, the team trained machine learning models to correlate and predict flavor in terms of how the drinker's appreciation correlates with the chemical profile.
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[5]Belgian ale legend Duvel's brewery borked as ransomware halts production
[6]Japanese brewery using generative AI to dream up new beverages
[7]Where do people feel most at risk of being pwned? The pub
According to a [8]paper published in Nature Communications today, the machine learning model achieved higher overall appreciation among trained panelists in blind tastings.
"The flavor of beer is a complex mix of aroma compounds," Schreurs said. "It is impossible to predict how good a beer is by measuring one or a few compounds. We really need the power of computers."
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The authors suggest this tool could help improve quality control and recipe development of many types of food and beverages to help meet consumer demands more efficiently, but the study was limited to Belgian beers.
Corresponding author Kevin Verstrepen, professor at Belgian university KU Leuven, said one of the biggest goals is now to help make better alcohol-free beer. "With the use of our model, we already succeeded in creating a cocktail of natural aroma compounds that mimic the taste and smell of alcohol, without the risk of a hangover," he said in a statement.
Schreurs admitted that the team did celebrate finishing the paper with the alcohol-containing variety. With some Belgian beers touching 15 percent alcohol by volume, he didn't say how bad the hangover was. ®
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/11/climate_change_means_beer_made/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/07/no_piss_up_in_duvels/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/19/kirin_ai_drink_development/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/01/pints_pork_scratchings_and_passwordfree/
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[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"beer flavors with higher rates of consumer appreciation"
Does this mean they'll taste nicer? Or just that more people will go for them (suggesting that they'll be more bland)?
Belgian AI-le
"Corresponding author Kevin Verstrepen, professor at Belgian university KU Leuven, said one of the biggest goals is now to help make better alcohol-free beer."
In Belgium??? What a waste of a good idea.
"Schreurs admitted that the team did celebrate finishing the paper with the alcohol-containing variety. With some Belgian beers touching 15 percent alcohol by volume, he didn't say how bad the hangover was."
I've just come back from a week, with friends, of sampling the liquid delights of Brussels and Ghent. We got through an extensive range and there was not a single hangover. Nor in similar previous visits. There's something in their brewing that filters out whatever crud causes it everywhere else. TBF we rarely went above 9% but the 15% beers are equally rare - generally the strongest on a regular menu is around 12%.
Compared to what?
"According to a paper published in Nature Communications today, the machine learning model achieved higher overall appreciation among trained panelists in blind tastings."
Higher appreciation than what? Did the panelists prefer machine-learned beers to uneducated ones? Did the model appreciate beer more than the panelists? (Were I one of the panelists, I might still appreciate beer after having been blinded, but I think I'd be a bit resentful.)
Test Spec.?
I'd be curious to know what they were rating the beers on. For me and my mates (drinking mostly British beers, but I'm sure it's transferrable to Belgium) there are lots of differing requirements depending on occasion, mood, time of night, and so on. There are the session beers that you can drink all night and still cycle home without falling off. Then there's the strong but quaffable one for that last pint of the evening when the session beer hasn't quite done enough. There are the novelties that you get at a beer fest, many of which you'll never drink again, either cos they're not-from-round-here or just plain horrible (to me, not absolutely). Finally, the canned beer that's been stuffed in with the tent in the garage for a year since last August bank holiday, is 6 months past its sell-by date and still tastes OK just after you've finished putting the tent up.
New Belgian alcohol-free beer
Creating alcohol-free beer would be good in today's environment - kiddies could drink it with Belgian chocolate!
So no legal issues these days although when I was a little kid I had a bottle of Guinness every Sunday lunch with my grandparents after I was four years old. That was back in the 50's when Guinness was the only major source of vitamins and minerals too - as a kid I loved drinking it every weekend and these days I'm still drinking it frequently.
The positive result of starting to drink as a four year old kid is that I have never had any drinking problems although after so many lovely Belgian visits, later in life at work, I'm still eating chocolate every day!