Cheers to you Norm! An AI sponsored scientific exploration of beer.
- David
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
As my extremely dedicated fans know, I concluded this blog series (focused on locally and culturally unique alcoholic drinks) when Ilene and I finished our around the world gap-year travels. If you are new to this series, (though it is hard to believe there is anyone out there who hasn’t read these) and want to catch up you can find posts here.
Since my last writing just under a year ago, a couple things have happened…
First, we have been overwhelmed by the volume of fan requests craving more content. So much so that we had to build our own AI data center so our bots could provide timely responses.
Second, as many of you know, the year of data gathering and extensive scientific sampling allowed me to develop and train an alcoholic AI model, named Norm.
Norm has been very successful, though admittedly, not in the way I intended. While originally intended to evaluate and rate alcohols around the world, instead Norm joined Moltbook, a social platform designed for AI agents to interact with each other, without human intervention. Well, let me just say, Norm may have something to do with the AI “hallucinations” and “mistakes” that the other AI’s make from time to time.
With Norm being such a success it has now taken over as my editor and has determined it needs more scientifically derived data since a) it can’t physically travel, and b) it can’t drink. So with Norm now funding the data gathering, out on the road I go!
First stop… London, England.
Why London of all places? Well, where else might one start an exhaustive (and scientific) exploration into beer. After extensive computational cycles and “conversations” with his AI buddies, Norm also decided the volume of research would require an intern to join me on the trip. Interestingly, Norm hired an intern uniquely qualified to gather data on the much overlooked Gluten Free beer segment.
As we discovered, the best way to explore beer in London is through its pubs. However, these elusive pubs can be very challenging to find and often require crawling from one to another. We did find the best way was to wait until the 5 o’clock hour then look for a massive crowd of people… it was 50/50 this was a tube station or a pub.
We also had Norm’s friend ChatGPT (weird name) customize a route that would expose us to some London history… historic pubs, that is. A couple of our favorites were The Black Friar, The Lyric, The Harp, Ye Olde Mitre, The Seven Stars, The Lamb, Admiralty, Westminster Arms, and The Clarence where we quickly became regulars. |  |
Our exploration of beer took us from light to dark, beer to ale and even included a classic cask drawn bitter, which was definitely my favorite. We explored pilsners, lagers, IPAs, stouts, and everything in between. Many of the pubs had 15 or 20+ beers on tap and with a little homework we even found pubs with 3 or 4 gluten-free options on tap! If you know, you know… but GF beer on tap is very hard to find in the US, well, anywhere actually!! There was definitely something for everyone!
I do have to admit that I tended to shy away from the “traditional English Ale” as I found some of them to be a little more like beer flavored water. This makes some sense since in medieval periods “beer” was often a water replacement; it was more sanitary and had a relatively low % alcohol (like 2%). In today’s English pub culture I could see how this style could be useful for hydration during hours on end in the local pub. The other surprising thing, it also seemed as though beer prices were regulated in London. Everywhere we went a pint of beer was roughly £7+/- (around $9.50 USD).
During our exhaustive search of London pubs, we did happen upon a few other interesting things around the city…
With our London data gathering coming to an end, Norm sent us north to Edinburgh, Scotland to explore regional differences. It was clear from the first pub that the Scottish beers were more hardy and flavorful as well as having a higher alcohol percentage averaging in the 5-6% vs the 4% in London. Maybe it’s the colder weather or the prevalence of whiskey drinkers, but you could definitely tell the difference. And a more important difference… a pint was closer to £5!
We found a couple of micro-breweries and no shortage of pubs that featured a wide selection of beers on tap. One of the best micro-breweries in Edinburg has to be Fierce Beer with an amazing selection of beers! We also observed that it was much easier to find a red or a brown ale (my preference) here than in London. However, outside of the micro-breweries, Gluten free beers were a little more scarce. Ultimately, I think I preferred the Scottish beer style better than those in London.
Norm was very detailed with the prompts for us and our time in Edinburgh, however we did manage to carve out some time to explore Scotch when it wasn’t monitoring us… it is possible that power outage wasn’t an accident. But, how could we resist!?!
We snuck away to the Johnnie Walker Experience as it was easily accessible in the center of Edinburgh. I had always thought of Johnnie Walker as an American brand. However, I soon learned it was founded in Scotland in 1820 by John Walker when he blended Scottish moonshine whiskeys to create personal blends customized to each patrons’ tastes. We did a blended Scotch tasting of some of the classics like Johnnie Walker Black Label and at the higher end Johnnie Walker Blue Label as well as a seasonal blend only available at this location in Edinburgh.
One clear takeaway from this trip is Scotland (and Scotch) will require dedicated future exploration. Though, if Norm won’t fund this we may need to open to external funding from you our dedicated fans!
Oh, and we also happen to stumble on a couple other things while there...
With that leg of our data gathering complete, we hopped across the channel to explore the Benelux region. In particular, we were sent to focus on Belgian beer as this was the source of modern brewing styles in the UK (i.e. hopped beer not traditional Ales) and also happens to be the corporate home of the “King of Beers”… Anheuser-Busch. Unfortunately, my intern could not keep up with the pace of our in-depth research and needed to return home. However, I was joined by my traditional research partner and previous editor.
With the personnel change complete we worked our way through a number of Belgian cities (Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp) ending up in the city of Leuven, home of the original Stella Artois brewery and corporate owner Anheuser-Busch. Leuven is a small town surrounded by breweries and credited as the home of the original Belgian beers. It also happens to be a classic university town with the oldest university in the Benelux region. In other words, a captive population for the scientific explorations of beer!
So sparing no expense, we utilized local knowledge and explored breweries, pubs, and beer museums. My takeaway… Belgian beers are some of the best in the world by far! The Belgian beers range from a “table beer” at 1% ABV (really beer flavored hydration) to 12-14% ABV with flavor ranges to meet all tastes. They have fruity flavored beers, Ales, wheat beers, but the real explorations come when you enter the land of Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad beers.
This is where the fun begins as each of these represents a progression in alcohol percentage and different flavor profiles. The Dubbel (6.0% to 7.5% ABV) are typically dark brown, malt-rich, and slightly sweet. The Tripel (8.0% to 10.0% ABV) are generally golden-colored and crisp, despite their strength. And, the Quad (10.0% to 13.0% ABV) are the heaviest of the three, featuring deep, dark colors and rich, complex flavors. I found myself gravitating to the Tripel because of the warmer weather though in the deep of winter would definitely appreciate the others. Also, prices ranged from 3 euro to 6 euro mainly depending on strength.
It is also critical to know that every beer brand must be served in its own style (and branded) beer glass because the brewer designed the glass to highlight the unique characteristics of that specific beer. And this becomes an important part of any Belgian tour as illustrated by this tour guide telling us about each type of beer as we walked through the city.
During a brief palette reset we also discovered a local Belgian aperitif. The Picon vin Blanc has a zesty, tangy sweetness of candied oranges with the crisp acidity of a white wine. The classic mix is typically 2 parts Picon and 2 parts white wine with a dash of lemon. It reminded us a bit of the Tinto de Verano in Spain, which is
probably still our fav.
We aren’t sure where Norm will send us next but rest assured even with Norm making the decisions, we are here for you our dedicated fans all in the name of… Science!
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