Well, at least the recipe they use to brew it is. A group of students at IT University of Copenhagen have produced what they claim is the first open-source beer.
The recipe and brand of their beer is published under a Creative
Commons license, which means anyone can use the recipe for pleasure or profit.
The only catch: If you make money selling their unique beer, you have to
give them credit and publish any changes you make to the recipe under a similar
license.
Their inspiration wasn't just to get drunk, but to see what happens when an
open-source structure is applied to a universally known product like beer.
"Why not take the legal framework, the open-source licenses, and apply them
on analog products?" said Rasmus Nielsen, a member of Superflex,
an art organization that helped create the beer in conjunction with a student
group called Vores 0l (Our Beer).
On their website, the students said they are interested in seeing how their
beer will get better once it is out in the world, acquiring slight improvements
as the recipe is shared. Vjores 0l hopes that the beer "perhaps one day
becomes the Linux of beers."
Version 1.0 of the libation is brewed using classic techniques but has a special
ingredient to make it unique. Each batch of the golden-brown ale has guarana,
a South American stimulant, added to it. The guarana is equivalent to 35 milligrams
of caffeine, which Vores 0l suspects should counter the drowsiness-inducing
effects of the 6 percent alcohol level.
Proponents of open source are always quick to counter the assumption that
they make software code "free." A famous
quote on the open-source GNU Project website explains the kind of freedom
they really promote:
"Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept,
you should think of 'free' as in 'free speech,' not as in 'free beer.'"
The guarana-infused beer isn't going to be handed out at frat parties, because
it isn't free of charge. But the recipe to make a batch of the beer is open
to all and is being enjoyed by beer lovers from Brazil to France, judging by
guestbook entries on the Vores 0l website.
As open source spreads beyond software to online encyclopedias like Wikipedia
and biological
research, it was only a matter of time before somebody created an open-source
beer.
According to the site, Vores 0l created the beer "as an experiment
in applying modern open-source ideas and methods on a traditional real-world
product." While the idea of open-source beer has been around since 1998 as
a joke, the students and Superflex decided to make it a reality.
"Beer was chosen for its universal qualities as a commodity that we would
like to think of as free," said Nielsen.
In an industry where taste is everything, a beer seller's recipe is typically
kept under strict trademark. Home brewers, however, commonly share tips with
each other, and home-brew recipe books abound.
"Home brewers enjoy telling the story about how they made it and what the
recipes were. There are very few secrets kept by home brewers," said Charlie
Papzian, president of the Brewers
Association.
In the beer business, more than just recipes are moving toward open source,
as some brewers are adopting an open-source business model as well. An ex-Red
Hat employee in Australia has developed his love for spirits into an open-source
project by creating a brewery that is owned in part by its customers.
Brewtopia allows its patrons to
own part of the brewery and chime in on important brand decisions that relate
to Blowfly, its beer.
"We second-guessed our choices every day that leaving the company open was
the right thing to do," said Liam Mulhall, Brewtopia's CEO. "But when you have
Harvard Business School using your company as a case study ... it's extremely
satisfying."
Brewtopia's libations are a hit in the IT industry, with employees from Cisco
Systems, Mitel and Alcatel all making it their choice of beer at company parties.
Brewtopia even supplied the beer at Yahoo's 10th anniversary party.
