According to BeerHistory.com’s Concise Timeline of Beer History, prehistoric nomads might have made beer before they figured out how to make bread.
Fast forward through the Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Chinese and Incas, past the Africans, Romans, Germans, Austrians and English. Slow down when you get to indigenous Americans and colonial Americans (did you know the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock because they were nearly out of beer?), and stop when you get to modern-day Columbus.
It’s here, in an old industrial building on the edge of Downtown, where a craft that revels in its adherence to long-established recipes and techniques is about to get a futuristic jolt from a former college football player who’s now a high-tech brewer.
Beau Warren, 35, is the brains behind Species X Beer, where terms such as artificial intelligence and mutagenesis are far more prevalent than Old World and tradition.
“I think it will be a good take, a little bit of a refreshing twist, on craft breweries,” said Warren, who plans to open his taproom at 408 N. Sixth St., as early as January. It’s in the building most recently occupied by Cleveland-based Platform Beer, which closed its Columbus pub in early 2021.
“Brewing is a very traditional practice,” he said. “Our focus will absolutely be on the cutting edge.”
How cutting-edge?
Warren’s long-term dream is to develop technology that will allow people to brew beer on the moon and Mars or in orbit around them.
For now, his work is a little – just a little – closer to Earth.
The Species X Beer Project, as his venture is called, embraces technologies that he knows still give some people the creeps.
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Gene-edited yeasts from suppliers such as Berkeley Yeast of San Francisco are used in the recipes for two beers he already has developed: a blonde Festbier and a grapefruit-infused American Wheat. Warren also works on his own yeast strains, including one that he said comes from a 600-year-old sourdough starter.
In addition, Warren uses artificial intelligence to develop recipes for new beers. He has created data sets of 180 elements of the brewing process – amounts and types of ingredients such as hops, malt and yeast, as well as time variables for each step, additional flavors, and other factors – plus ratings and reviews of existing beverages.
Each of the resulting 10,000 recipes has been virtually taste-tested.
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“I know I’m playing with two things that are somewhat controversial,” Warren said. He pointed out, though, that people have been breeding better species of plants since agriculture began. Close to home, Reynoldsburg’s identity has been shaped by Alexander Livingston’s development of bigger, sweeter commercially viable tomatoes in the 19th century.
About people’s concerns over the use of artificial intelligence, he said: “I don’t think AI brewing will be able to take over the world.”
It’s not going to take the human element out of craft brewing, either, he insisted, offering that the data models he uses have an important guardrail. It’s Warren himself, who has a dozen years of experience at breweries in Columbus and in his home state of Virginia.
Warren earned his degree in psychology and sociology from Virginia Tech, where he played center on the football team and was signed by the NFL’s St. Louis Rams in 2011. He said he wanted to chart his own path, though, and chose brewing. His brothers also played at Virginia Tech, and his father played pro football in Washington, D.C.
Technology has always been an interest, too. Warren studied brewing microbiology at the Siebel Insitute in Montreal, and earned a data analytics certificate from Ohio State University. He’s versed in all things science-, space- and technology-related; he slipped into a storage area at the Species X taproom that’s now under construction and emerged with a jar of recreated Martian regolith that he had hoped he might be able to use for growing hops.
He pictures Species X as a destination for those who share his interests. He’s working on a beer collaboration with a data scientist and plans hackathons as well as the usual beer fests. The bar will have 24 taps, wine and spirits, and a focaccia-focused menu of pizzas, sandwiches and salads.
“Columbus is great. We have all these tech-savvy people,” Warren said. “I think they’ll be looking for something to enjoy that’s in that realm.”