The Democratic Republic of Beer
British brew pub chain BrewDog makes some great ales. When its owners wanted to create another, they asked the public to mix up the recipe. Thirsty beer drinkers promptly took to Twitter, Facebook and the BrewDog blog, sending their impassioned suggestions to co-founder and brew master Martin Dickie at headquarters near Aberdeen.
Get ready for their creation: #Mashtag.
Available next month, #Mashtag will be an "American brown ale" full of New Zealand hops, infused with hazelnuts and aged on oak chips (if a few weeks counts as "aged").
"Mashtag was an epic experiment in crowdsourcing, which handed the keys to the brewery over to craft beer drinkers for a week," the brewery says on its website. "The beer is currently fermenting away nicely in tank."
You might have missed the five-day chance to weigh in with your favorite malt and hops suggestion in late March. Don't fret. Through today you can help design the #Mashtag label by clicking on the link in the previous paragraph and voting on the choices. I like the one pictured to the right above, but don't let me influence you.
One other point about #Mashtag. It will have a 7.5 percent alcohol content. That's staggering for a beer. If you're not careful it could have you slurring your tweets in no time. So you might want to crowdsource a designated driver.
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Photos from BrewDog
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com