If you’re a Google fan, you probably not only search a lot of things all day, use Gmail, or even Google+. But now with the cooperation of the Dogfish Head brewery, the search giant has come out with its own brand of beer, The Register reports.
The beer, URKontinent, is inspired by Belgian Dubbel beers. The ingredients list was suggested by people around the world on a Google site and includes honey from Google’s own beehives. (Yes, Google is awesome enough to keep their own bees.) It also includes wattleseed from Austrailia, alng with Pilsner, Munich and chocolate malts, along with Belgian Candi syrup. The beer supposedly has a coffee-like aroma and flavor.
The name URKontinent comes from the fact that all of Earth’s continents were linked together in the distant past and the fact that the beer includes ingredients from all over the world.
Google and Dogfish Head have released a fascinating video documenting the creation of the beer. A spokesperson for Google says they chose to work with the brewer because their cultures were fundamentally similar and “Googly.” Dogfish Head also uses Google Apps extensively, including Google Docs and Google Sites.
http://youtu.be/RiFewPyLlQA
The video shows how extensive and painstaking the creation of good beer is, from the sourcing of the ingredients to the brewing. One Google employee among the handful of those invited to watch the brewing process was able to stream the brewing process over Google+’s Hangouts feature.
I haven’t had a chance to taste the beer, so I can’t vouch for how good it is, but this looks like an inspired project that shows the potential of online collaboration, and how it can make interesting things happen in the real world. It’s a combination of the sometimes abstract world of bits and the very real, very messy, very aromatic world of malts, hops, and yeasts. It will be interesting to see what Google brews up in the future, with Dogfish Head or anybody else.
If you like this post, check our posts on a beer can robot, a beer-fetching robot, and the redesign of Google Docs and Google Sites. Cheers!
