I am a tech entrepreneur and I live among apps and tech stuff but I'd love to discuss the what is going on the beer and brewing startup environment of these days.<p>What are the innovations in this market, products related and what the big and also the small craft breweries are doing to innovate ?
Mikkeller, who know a thing or two about brewing, seem to be making a big push into non-or-low alcoholic beers that actually taste interesting. And speaking personally I'd love to see more things happening in this front. As an old old man (ie past 35) who cannot drink like he did in his youth I'd love to go to the pub on a Wednesday, have 6 pints of varied and interesting beers and still be at work and ready to go the next morning.
<a href="https://www.brewdog.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.brewdog.com/</a><p>also see <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/29/brewdogs-open-source-revolution-is-at-the-vanguard-of-postcapitalism" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/29/brewdo...</a> which was on HN not long ago, discussion here <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11201300" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11201300</a>
I just heard a story on NPR about a startup in Boston called Purpose Energy turning waste water from a brewery (Magic Hat brewing) and turning it into usable energy (methane). There are other efforts to use brewing waste more environmentally/economically in permaculture [1], but this is the first I'd heard of them using it to create energy.<p>Here is the full story.<p><a href="http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-14/massachusetts-pushes-brew-new-green-businesses-help-fight-climate-change" rel="nofollow">http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-14/massachusetts-pushes-b...</a><p>The company is only a small part of the story on clean energy startups and the company doesn't just work with breweries, so it is only slightly related to the original question. Still, it sounds like this is a big problem for breweries to deal with and there is some innovation happening around it.<p>[1] <a href="http://plantchicago.org/" rel="nofollow">http://plantchicago.org/</a>
Analytical Flavor Systems[0].<p>We built a AI for beer flavor profile consistency and quality optimization. NVIDIA wrote an awesome article about us here[1].<p><i></i> More Info <i></i><p>Analytical Flavor Systems uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to build tools for the food & beverage industry. Our Quality, Process, and Market Intelligence services create real-time predictive decisions metrics at each stage of a products life-cycle. We leverage our predictive models across products & industries for flavor profile optimization, production process optimization, demographic targeting & cognitive marketing - helping companies create and sell the best product to their highest value consumers with every batch.<p>Our Services<p>__Quality Intelligence__: Real-time predictive quality control, assurance, and improvement from human sensory data.<p>__Process Intelligence__: Real-time predictive process control and optimization from human sensory data + manufacturing & LIMS data.<p>__Market Intelligence__: Linking flavor-profile, demographics, and sales data to find the highest value consumer demographics for a product's flavor-profile.<p>[0]www.Gastrograph.com<p>[1] <a href="http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2015/09/02/beer/" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2015/09/02/beer/</a>
BrewLog is helping smaller brewers manage their brewing operations/data online. Giving the smaller guys access to the tech the bigger companies have. <a href="https://brewlog.com/" rel="nofollow">https://brewlog.com/</a>
I'd love to get involved in creating a decent piece of brewery management software, I've heard it's all pretty horrific (from a sample size of two). What's the state of the art in brewing software?
I think this looks interesting for home brewers <a href="http://www.grainfather.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">http://www.grainfather.co.uk/</a>
<a href="http://brewfactory.org/" rel="nofollow">http://brewfactory.org/</a><p>"Full-Stack Homebrew with IoT and Node.js"
a blog post about: <a href="https://blog.risingstack.com/brewfactory-full-stack-homebrew-with-iot/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.risingstack.com/brewfactory-full-stack-homebrew...</a>
I'm a professional brewer and fermentation technologist, formally trained in Brewing Science and Technology, also in Microbiology and Microscopy. I'm in early stage development of a new software solution for breweries of any size and eventually expanding to wineries and distilleries. Prototype is already fully functional, it consists of constantly updated database of commercial raw ingredients along with its analysis, specifically for accurate recipe development, it will also assist and manage all of your operations from "grain to glass". Another big feature is the new and way more affordable technology the we are implementing of remote monitoring and eventually control and automation of all operations, both Hot Side, Cold Side and Storage. We also want to extend the software for management of Brewery QA & QC and Yeast Lab operations.<p>I'd love to discuss the project with whoever is interested, feel free to comment below :)
I'll add one on the edge — Rhinegeist [0] in Cincinnati, Ohio.<p>They are not a startup in the sense of software or technology, but in the case of a <i>very</i> rapidly expanding craft brewery. Their growth and expansion since the first beer ~3 years ago look a lot like a startup, and they've raised at least $10M in funding [1].<p>[0]: <a href="http://www.rhinegeist.com/our-story" rel="nofollow">http://www.rhinegeist.com/our-story</a><p>[1]: <a href="http://www.ohio.com/blogs/the-beer-blog/the-beer-blog-1.273124/rhinegeist-announces-10-million-investment-1.574600" rel="nofollow">http://www.ohio.com/blogs/the-beer-blog/the-beer-blog-1.2731...</a>
Tilt is an affordable innovative density meter.
It measures the angle/tilt of the device floating in the fermenting beer.
<a href="http://tilthydrometer.com/" rel="nofollow">http://tilthydrometer.com/</a>
I don't understand the innovation that makes it possible, but Aurochs Brewing has a gluten-free beer that's actually tasty.<p><a href="http://www.aurochsbrewing.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.aurochsbrewing.com/</a>
<a href="http://ohmbrewer.org/" rel="nofollow">http://ohmbrewer.org/</a><p>Open source IoT for homebrewers, designed to replace "sit and watch the temperature" with a cheap PID monitoring system.
I am a fan of what the guys at <a href="http://www.swig.co/" rel="nofollow">http://www.swig.co/</a> and <a href="http://www.drinkeasy.co/" rel="nofollow">http://www.drinkeasy.co/</a> are doing (disclaimer: I know the founders).<p>Swig is a social application that enables you to discover new brews that you might like (based off of you and your friend's preferences); sort of like Pandora for your palette.<p>Drinkeasy is an extension of Swig and enables you to order those drinks.
Mezcal Tosba has an interesting story: <a href="http://www.moleandmore.com/mezcal-diaries/2014/1/26/mezcal-tosba" rel="nofollow">http://www.moleandmore.com/mezcal-diaries/2014/1/26/mezcal-t...</a><p>As a New Englander I am biased, but I am partial to Downeast Cider: <a href="http://downeastcider.com/" rel="nofollow">http://downeastcider.com/</a>
That's a good question. I can easily foresee someone inventing a "vapable" alcohol solution that could be revolutionary ;)<p>For now, most of the capital is being allocated to distribution. "Uber for liquor" 1-Hour delivery model:<p><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/10/the-new-age-of-alcohol/" rel="nofollow">https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/10/the-new-age-of-alcohol/</a>
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Brewbot yet<p><a href="http://www.brewbot.io" rel="nofollow">http://www.brewbot.io</a>
<a href="https://www.beermenus.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.beermenus.com/</a> seems to have growing traction. I'm a happy user. Cool email alerts features.<p>I wish they had an API. I tried to build something on top of Untappd but kept hitting rate limits (note to Untappd: charge me)
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/bierkeller-beer-cellar/id1049437504?l=en&mt=8" rel="nofollow">https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/bierkeller-beer-cellar/id104...</a> is definitely worth a look :)
Marketplace for craft beers, direct from the brewery -<p><a href="https://www.eebria.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.eebria.com/</a><p>They also have a trade site -<p><a href="https://www.eebriatrade.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.eebriatrade.com/</a>
There's NextGlass that's here in Wilmington NC. I think they're using machine learning to figure out how your brew really tastes. <a href="https://nextglass.co" rel="nofollow">https://nextglass.co</a>
Something might come out of this:<p><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/tapping-genetics-for-better-beer-1.20336" rel="nofollow">http://www.nature.com/news/tapping-genetics-for-better-beer-...</a><p>Editing genome of yeast with CRISPR
Brewpublik is a curated craft beer delivery service to your home or office. They're a 500 Startups company:<p><a href="http://www.brewpublik.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.brewpublik.com/</a>
<a href="http://www.whitelabs.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.whitelabs.com/</a><p>A team of biochemists found this. They have a very scientific approach and you should check out the kind of teams they have.