
Wolf Files: Cutting-Edge Beer
A Strange Brew Is Coming Your Way
By Buck Wolf
July 29, 2003
There's nothing like waking up in the dead of night in the wilds of New Jersey to start thinking about the future of beer. After a long night of toughening my liver with an old friend, something was definitely ale-ing me.
Sprawled on a hammock, I thought about the barbecues of tomorrow. In the age of cloned sheep and blue ketchup, what strange brews await our children?
Can science build a better beer? Are we ready to complicate one of life's last simple pleasures?
Here's a look at where science and marketing is taking hops and barley. Pop open a cold frosty brew, and let's contemplate how barflies of the future will sip suds.
Technology on Tap
Nicotine Beer: Imagine having a beer and a cigarette in one sip that's like a vacation in degenerate heaven.
For other people, just quitting smoking as painlessly as possible would be the answer to a prayer. That's the intention behind work from Duke University researchers who have developed a liquid nicotine solution that can be added to a beverage to satisfy a nicotine craving.
You've heard of "the patch." Why not "the pint" as a treatment for reformed smokers? Now in the experimental stage, the liquid nicotine solution can be added to any beverage, not just beer. I just like the idea of working on one bad habit while weaning yourself off another.
Drinkable nicotine might be better than the nicotine gum, lozenges, nasal sprays, and other stop-smoking aids, in that it's easier to control the dosage, researchers say. In places like New York City, where smoking is now banned from bars, a nicotine beer seems ideal. Besides, you can actually have an extra round and explain it away by saying, "I'm trying to cut down."
Freeze-Dried Beer: Are you ready for the Tang of beers? Perhaps one day astronauts will down pints of freeze-dried ale to celebrate an intergalactic Octoberfest with strange new life forms.
Certainly, little green men with antennas start to look a little more appealing after you've finished a second round and slipped on your beer goggles.
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