From Test Tube to Tavern: London Craft Brewery Uses DNA Testing to Create Bespoke Beer

If you’re willing to shell out nearly $31,000 for a bespoke brew, The Drinks Business reports that Meantime Brewing Company, a London-based craft beer company, is now offering customers the chance to create a beer that appeals specifically to their individual flavor profiles by using DNA testing.

Meantime Brewing Company has joined forces with genetics company 23andMe to make custom beverages, which they’re advertising as “the world’s most personalized beer.” Dubbed “Meantime Bespoke,” the service begins with 23andMe’s scientists, who test beer lovers’ saliva samples for hereditary variations in oral taste receptors (which involves a taste gene called TAS2R38). This helps identify genetic variants that may determine whether drinkers are disposed toward certain flavor profiles—think sweetness or bitterness—in beer. (This is reportedly determined in part based on customers’ sensitivity to a bitter compound called 6-n-propylthiouracil.)

Once your genetic makeup is analyzed, Meantime’s brewers will use the scientists’ findings to guide the brewing process. You’ll consult with a brewmaster to contribute feedback, and ensure that the final product is exactly suited to your liking. If you want, you can even partake in the fun by adding hops and grain to the mix and testing it. (To ensure your skills are up to snuff, your commissioning cost also pays for a beer-making course called “The Knowledge.”)

After the brewing process is complete, customers are supplied with more than 2000 pints of customized beer. For an additional fee, they can personalize the packaging design, purchase custom glassware, or have their personalized brew poured in Meantime’s tasting rooms and have kegs sent to their local bar.

So far, there are no testimonials from customers on whether Meantime Bespoke’s science-inspired venture really produces the perfect pint. But according to Meantime, their head brewer, Ciaran Giblin, recently became the world's first person to create his own beer inspired by his DNA flavor profile. He prefers bitter tastes, so he ended up with a hoppy Double IPA.