The Alterficial Intelligence project is THE liquid manifestation of our name, “Alter.”
Alter is defined as “change,” and one of the most momentous changes happening in the world right now is the expansion of artificial intelligence. It is a thrilling, and sometimes chilling, phenomenon to witness first-hand, but here at the brewery we believe it can be a powerful tool not to replace our creativity, but to elevate it to new heights.
In a first-of-its-kind project (to our knowledge), we are combining this amazing technology with the massive talent and expertise of our brew team, the artistic direction of our staff, and an insatiable curiosity for “what’s possible” into an incredibly unique lineup of beers intended to delight tastebuds and change people’s perception of the possibilities of beer.
How did we use artificial intelligence in this project you might wonder? Well, our first step was to utilize Chat GPT, a conversational AI that utilizes text prompts to generate, well, anything you ask for. Our head brewer Matt devised two separate prompts. The first (which we ran multiple times) was to create ideas for interesting combinations of trending flavors and styles. There was a HUGE list that we laboriously sifted through which resulted in a final 8 beers that we thought people would really dig. The second prompt was even more fun, and at times downright hilarious – coming up with beer names. Obviously, we aren’t going to spoil everything right now, but with our first beer being named “Cukezilla versus Lime Kong” you can rest assured that things are going to get pretty weird (in a good way).
The second component was label creation which used Midjourney – one of the best image-generating AI’s around. All the action takes place on the Discord chat platform where you use text prompts along with a multitude of variable parameters to create stunning, and sometimes freakishly disturbing, images. You may not be aware, but it is pretty darn difficult to jump in and immediately get what you want. Thus, several hours were spent watching YouTube tutorials and pouring through documentation to get even remotely close to what we were aiming for. You thought social media was a rabbit hole? Just wait until you start making these images… Better invest in some blue-light blocking glasses my friend.
In the end, after all of the circuits had cooled, our brains slowed to idle, and all of these fascinating components were assembled, we were left with a beautiful fusion of man and Machine (see what we did there?). It is a series of unique beers that we hope will captivate the senses, elevate the experience, and redefine what it means to enjoy great beer.
Become an agent of change and transform ordinary moments into extraordinary ones with the Alterficial Intelligence Project. Resistance if futile.
AI Project beers will be released periodically through the year on a… changing… schedule. They will be on draft and in an extremely limited run of cans available exclusively at Alter locations.
Cukezilla Versus Lime Kong is a one-time special release beer available exclusively at Downers Grove, Oak Brook, and St. Charles.