I’m not a beer drinker, but I just heard about this on the BBC via PBS. A German company is test-marketing this, in part to reduce the company’s carbon footprint in shipping.
It has to be reconstituted and chilled before it’s palatable enough to drink, according to the interviewee.
Anyone else heard of this? I could see this being useful for people who, for instance, cook with beer but don’t want to buy a large amount at a time.
What do they suggest one use for reconstituting this potion?
Plain tap water!
You just know that some yutz is going to make it with vodka.
Here’s an article from (the notoriously unreliable) Daily Mail:
I’m very curious how they expect to be able to produce a beer that is both alcoholic and carbonated with just powder and water. Ethanol and Carbon Dioxide are both compounds that are notoriously resistant to being reduced to powder, so I suspect there’s trickery afoot. My guess is if you really want “a beer with the complete beer taste including alcohol and carbon dioxide and a head of foam” you’ll have to provide your own carbonation and alcohol along with the water.
Beer?
Step #1. Get a big bowl of water.
Step #2. Add powder.
Step #3. Flush.
Oh and as it happens, powdered beer is nothing new. You can buy dehydrated beer powder for cooking from a variety of sources online. But none of them claim the ability to be reconstituted into beer simply by adding water.
It sounds like it’ll mostly be delivered in bulk to bottlers. The consumer may not even know it was once a powder.
Sharp’s, perhaps?
Not unless they label it “Coors”.
Alcohol powder is already a thing:
As for carbon dioxide, I think Pop Rocks demonstrate that CO2 can be embedded in a solid. It probably doesn’t take much. It possible that the beer solids themselves could be used as the storage medium.
I remember a Martha Stewart parody recipe for dehydrated water. There was also a SNL skit where the Coneheads indulged in “Dry Beer” after such a product was launched with much fanfare. “Dry”, of course, meant the flavor.
I was reading about powdered alcohol just a few days ago due to a Wikipedia rabbit hole.
It’s encapsulated with a chemical similar to the active ingredient in febreeze air freshener. I’m not sure what effect that will have on the smell!
I remember there being a minor stink about it from the usual conservative, pearl clutching sources.
I know this is cafe society and all but let’s put our skeptic hats on.
The source for this seems to be an interview with Radio Arabella Bayern in August of last year (2022). It says the product should be available by “mid-September.” I’m assuming that came and went with no product released, or it was released and nobody cared.
The “German Firm” appears to be monastery brewery with about 40 employees.
Based on the translation of the summary (I can’t find the actual interview, nor do I know German), the managing director describes the product as being “alcohol free” unless you mix it with alcohol.
Powdered beers have been pitched before. They don’t seem to have caught on, outside of the aforementioned beer powder “spice.”
This feels like a slow news day attempt by the Daily Mail to drum up some RO. “They’re coming for you beer next in the name of environmentalism!” Or something.
I’ve made powdered beer a few times in the past. It’s super simple, just 12 easy steps (heh, ironic):
See? Easy-peasy!
Wrong! Everyone knows how Coors is made:
Seriously, if you want to reduce the carbon footprint of beer, just drink from your local micro-brewery or brew-pub.
Cheers! 