Some would say Species X Beer Project in Columbus is ahead of its time, but if you ask Beau Warren, the founder, he’ll say it’s just in time.
“AI is the future and now,” said Beau Warren, the founder and head brewer at Species X Beer Project.
Species X opened in January this year. From the outside, it looks like your average brewery; there’s beer, food, games, merchandise and a nice place to hang out, but if you look a little closer you’ll find that some of the employees are AI.
“Ghost is the IPA maker. Crisp P is a lager maker. Behemoth is the one with no guardrails,” Warren said.
Warren loves all things beer, and he also loves technology. Species X is a combination of his obsessions. Warren uses AI to create new recipes and methods to brew beer, including designing new ingredients like genetically modified yeast.
“Everything that we produce here is completely natural to digest,” Warren said. “There’s nothing that is going to harm you at Species X.”
The unique brewery doubles as a research project. There’s about 26 beers on tap. Some are from their “carbon species” which are made with human-generated recipes and others from their “silicon species” which are made from recipes generated by AI.
“I think it’s a tool that it makes humans into super humans essentially. So, if you’re a creative person, you’re going to be an ultra creative person… It’s like working with an intelligent alien, pretty much,” Warren said. “And it’s kind of tongue in cheek where, you know the next, the next species to overtake humans is, people say is going to be AI. That’s kind of where the silicon species comes from.”
While some industries are being threatened by the rise of AI, Warren hopes the beer industry will work alongside it. At Species X, the brewing process itself is still human operated and Warren said he can’t imagine the amount of money it would take to fully operate an entire brewery. The only caveat is if the AI beats him at his own game.
“I thought I was a better brewer or making recipes until we started brewing them here and now I’m starting to second guess myself,” Warren said.
Still, though, in an industry that values collaboration and innovation, Justin Hemminger, the deputy director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association, said using AI in the brewing process opens up all kinds of possibilities.
“It’s really exciting what a brewery like Species X is doing, embracing the technology and kind of like, and showing other breweries what they can do with it,” Hemminger said.
He anticipates more breweries will start using AI and expects they’ll benefit from it.
“You’ll see it a lot with smaller breweries using it for, say, can label art creation, some sales, analytics, you know, and taproom management, data collection and analysis,” Hemminger said. “But down the road, as the technology becomes more accessible and more affordable, it may be something that, that differentiates you.”
As for Warren, he said his brewing process is faster with AI, the recipe possibilities are infinite and the beer is groundbreaking.
“One of a kind, delicious beers. You know, make a drinking experience that’s pretty much unforgettable and something that people have never experienced before,” Warren said. “We’re looking to make a breakthrough. So, we’ve found that the industry has been really stagnant. And in terms of innovation and the same old beer styles, it’s just like over and over again. This completely makes innovation in a way that I’ve never seen before and amplifies it.”
Warren said he wants to eventually take beer to space so they’re not only brewing for the now, but for the future.
“We want to take brewing into space. So next ten, 20 years, when that becomes the thing, we want to be there for it. So, in order to get to that as well, you know, we need to get fairly big, I would say. So, that is another goal of ours.”
It’s a place where tradition meets the future, science meets art and technology meets humanity.
“You can just feel that excitement, because it’s all new,” Warren said. “No one knows, like, where it’s going to go. You know, I have ideas where to take it next and that’s really exciting to me is to just keep building and learning on what we have going on here.”
For more information on Species X visit here.