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What does it do?

Be it a craft beer drinker, brewer, or a regular beer drinker, people seem to be interested in adding a little twist to their beers with an additional flavor. An infusion device designed specifically for beer drinkers, the BeerFusion shines new light on old favorites. Our goal is to make the beer infusion process more accessible, easy to use, visually appealing and fun! We focused our prototype on 3 primary functions: flavor, ease of use, and user involvement.

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NEXT STEPS: 

•Continued Design work •3D printing (In- Progress) •Working with actual glass •Talking to restaurants/bars •Festive designs as shown in the picture

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Inspiration from Parallels

We visited Capital Teas for some inspiration on tea infusers. We then visited the craft store to start getting our hands dirty. We built two prototypes: one that uses suction, and can be applied to a variety of glassware, and another that screws into the glass, effectively becoming part of the glassware itself.

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Prototypes and User Testing

Prototype 1: Uses suction (can be applied to other glassware)

Prototype 2: Cartridge is part of the glassware itself (and is screwed in by the user)

User Testing

We learned a lot from testing users, from flavor combinations that work to users’ preferences for level of involvement. Jalapeno was a big hit for IPA’s, while strawberry and cinnamon were favored for darker (doppelbock) beers. Users varied in terms of how involved they wanted to be:

Users, to our surprise, preferred the suction-based prototype. It could be applied to the glassware of their choice, and could be pulled out relatively easily if they wanted to adjust flavors. Some users really enjoyed cutting up and loading ingredients themselves, while others wished they knew more about what amounts worked with what beers, and ideally, that the infusers came pre-loaded. This leads us to believe we may want to carry forward with both iterations.

Users are often unsure how much to put in the filtration cartridge, as some flavors are more overpowering than others. It was often hard for the user to adjust the ingredient amount once pouring the beer. This leads us to believe we need to provide suggested recommendations for ingredient/beer pairings, including amounts.

Our other insights from the testing:

•Infusion takes time!

•Some flavors had quick and strong effects (jalapeno especially), others had negligible effects.

•The effect on smell is also important as it shapes many users’ impressions of the beer.

•Some ingredients (peppermint, cinnamon) need preprocessing (ie crushing or freezing) to have a significant effect.

[beerinfused]

What does it do?

Be it a craft beer drinker, brewer, or a regular beer drinker, people seem to be interested in adding a little twist to their beers with an additional flavor. An infusion device designed specifically for beer drinkers, the BeerFusion shines new light on old favorites. Our goal is to make the beer infusion process more accessible, easy to use, visually appealing and fun! We focused our prototype on 3 primary functions: flavor, ease of use, and user involvement.

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Progress Update ("pre" designing/building)

Last week our team met with Ben Little, head of sales for Basic City Brewery. Ben used to work as a buyer at World of Beer, where we met with him for a beer. We spoke to him about infusing flavors into beer, and also talked about his experience with the Beer Infuser that is featured at World of Beer here in Charlottesville and many other locations across the country.  A picture of the infuser is seen below.

After speaking with Ben, we learned a lot about flavor infusion in beers and this particular beer infuser that actually helped us pivot our concept/prototype from a point of sale device connected to a keg to a concept that can be applied to individual beers (or even other beverages) by the consumer him or herself.

WHAT WE LEARNED:

The beer infuser has been a total flop at World of Beer, for several reasons:

1) It is VERY expensive ($50-60k)

2) The infusion of flavors takes a lot of time (~30 min). Since the infused ingredients are only placed within a clear, 36 oz canister, the bar is limited to serving up to 36 oz at a time before having to wait for the flavors to infuse.

3) Because of the structure described above, a lot of beer is wasted.

4) It has ended up being more of a conversational piece, but patrons of the bar don't often follow through and actually buy infused beer.

5) It is painful for the bartenders to set up and clean out the infuser on a daily basis.

NEXT PROTOTYPE ITERATION:

These findings (a combination of functional issues + user demand issues) have led us to pivoting to a flavor infuser that is a) not only limited to beer but b) can be applied at the individual level, versus at the point of sale. There is certainly demand for infusing fresh ingredients and flavors into beverages (think tea, wine, beer, cider, etc.). We would like to develop a concept that makes flavor infusing more mainstream, easy, and adds a level of sophistication to drinking with people at the dining table/restaurant table/etc.

We drew out some concepts for models that can be added to existing glassware, as well as a concept for a new type of glassware altogether (see prototype specific post for details on our design/building progress).

We then visited Capital Teas at Stonefield as well as Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Michael's for some inspiration to help us develop our prototype. At Capital Teas, we found a lot of infusers that are applied not only to tea, but also beer and wine according to the employee who worked there. However, none were self contained within pint glasses or other normal drinking glasses. We see this as an opportunity/problem for us to dive deep on.

KEY CHALLENGES:

Flavor - is it possible to infuse flavors into cold beverages (beer) without relying on fruit juices/syrups (for instance, various spices)

Usability - Should we develop a concept that can be added to any/most glassware? Or should we develop our own glassware? Perhaps both?

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This week’s questions - Problem Definition + Experiment

Problem Definition - People are interested in drinking beer with flavors infused at the point of sale. These people include customers (who drink the beer), bartenders (who serve the beer), and bar & brewery owners (who sell the beer).  This exists at a hobbyist level, but hasn’t become mainstream yet.

Questions to explore:

1) Are people interested in drinking flavored beer?

2) Does the means in which the beer is flavored matter in answering the question above?

3) Would bars be interested in having this capability? Breweries? Both?

4) Would a disposable cartridge in which bartenders can place fruits or other flavorings be more advantageous to a tank that bartenders would have to clean out regularly?

5) Would flavoring beer be able to improve the sales of certain types of beers at bars and/or breweries?

6) What flavors would consumers be interested in?

7) Does the visual component to a beer infuser ultimately matter in determining its success?

Potential experiment - Get a keg of beer and have a get-together with some friends. Serve the beer in 3 different ways:

a) the beer (as is) poured into glasses

b) we as a team add a flavor of our choosing, and infuse it into the beer using a French press

c) give our guests the option to apply the French press to the beer themselves, being able to choose from a variety of fruit flavors.

Over the course of a few hours, we will observe and take note as to whether guests are interested in infusing flavor into their beers, and if so, whether they trust the servers choices or want to be involved in the process themselves.

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Random Row

Today the team went to Random Row Brewery, where we spent some time talking with the bartender (Gavin). We were able to ask him some questions related to the customer base, his day-to-day job (including his pain points), as well as some of his thoughts on infusing flavor into beer at the point of sale.

Some valuable insights we gained:

1) They tried infusing beer via syrup towards the end of the brewing process (A company had sent them the syrup as a promotional offering). The brew-masters were unhappy with the taste and decided to not go through with it.

2) Many patrons rely on the bartender for recommendations.

3) The biggest thing that slows down a bartenders work is pouring flights (as opposed to pints or growlers)

4) While some beers sell better than others, they have never had to discard a beer because it went bad before they were able to sell it off.

...and more

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Critical Questions

Do people want flavored beer? If so, who (ie casual beer drinkers, experts, enthusiasts, etc.)? Do they want to be able to add flavor to any beer post production? Do they prefer a featured beer with “live” infused flavoring? Do they want to pick flavors themselves, or trust the judgement of the brewmaster? Does the visual aspect of seeing the beer running through the fruit increase users’ desire for flavored beer?

Potential experiments: flavored water in Abbott (can experiment to see if users like/dislike, what their pattern for selection is, whether or not visual component is important).

Potential discussions/questions: we are currently setting up a meeting with Three Knotched brewmaster

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Potential User Process #1:

Step 1 – User wants to drink beer and get out of the house.  (key stakeholders: user)

Step 2 – User gauges interest from friends in terms of getting out of the house/drinking beer. (key stakeholders: user, users’ friends/social network)

Step 3 – User and friends decide where to go. Options include restaurants, bars, breweries, vineyard, etc. They conclude they want to go to a brewery for the ambiance, quality of beers, and diversity of beers.] (key stakeholders: user + friends, local establishments)

Step 4 – User 1 , who happens to be a knowledgeable beer drinker and beer enthusiast, wants to try flavored beer that is featured. He/she is attracted to the uniqueness of infusing a flavor into the beer post production (provided it was the brewmaster’s idea). User 2, who is not a big beer enthusiast, and typically doesn’t like beer (thinks its too bitter) is also attracted to the idea of infused fruit flavoring. He/she is particularly attracted to the visual appeal of the beer (seeing the tap running through a transparent container filled with lemon wedges, for instance).

(key stakeholders: user + friends, other patrons, bartender, brewmaster)

Step 5 – At the end of the day, bartender replaces cartridge, solicits feedback on how the beer/flavoring did, and decides what fruit/flavors he’d like to incorporate next (key stakeholders: customer, bartender, brewmaster)