窪蹋勛圖厙

road trip multi-ethnic group friends group hipster beer african american hippie sunglasses smiling summer afro sunny camper van van happy girl trip teenager travel women party drink retro
A blood alcohol level of .07 led study participants to more insightful ideas than their sober counterparts. (Photo: Photolyric/iStock)

This Beer Will Make You More Creative

Danish brew measures creativity in ABV

Published: 
road trip multi-ethnic group friends group hipster beer african american hippie sunglasses smiling summer afro sunny camper van van happy girl trip teenager travel women party drink retro
(Photo: Photolyric/iStock)

New perk: Easily find new routes and hidden gems, upcoming running events, and more near you. Your weekly Local Running Newsletter has everything you need to lace up! .

The idea that just the right amount of alcohol can make us more creative from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago back in 2012. Now, that research has paved the way for a beer that seeks to unlock our creative potential, sip by sip.

The beer, engineered byDanish communications firm CP+B and brewed by Copenhagen-based microwbrewery Rocket Brewing Company, is called. It’s described as afruity, hoppy, IPA.Its 75-centiliter bottlehas hash marks running up its side, telling you exactly how much to drink based on your weight. Its not an exact science because of the variance in our respective alcohol tolerances and dehydration levels. And then theres the problem of actually stopping when you get to your appointed hash mark. For that, we havent quite figured out a solution.

But let’s back up a step.

In their experiment three years ago, University of Chicago researchers divided 40 participants (all males), into two groups of 20. One group stayed sober while the other was given just enough beer to reach a .07 blood alcohol content. Then the researchers had both groups perform a range of tasks. One task involved word association, where the researchers would give a few wordssay, river, piggy, and bloodand ask the participants what word was needed to form two-word phrasesin this case, bank. But it wasnt enough to just get it right; research also asked how the participants got to their answers. Those who were intoxicated had significantly more insightful solution processes, or, they solved the problems more creatively.

The researchers also had the participants perform memory-based tasks, which the intoxicated group was significantly worse at. The idea here is that alcohol makes us bad at remembering things, but thats good because distraction can enhance creativity.

Getting to that perfect .07 blood alcohol level without carrying around a breathalyzer is kind of a trick, though. Drink too little and you start feeling sleepy. Drink too much and your good ideas inevitably fall along the lines of: And Im going to tell my boss exactly what I think of his stupid face. Yeah!

We actually tested the beer working on creative ideas for our clients. We have come up with some pretty creative ideas, says Mathias Birkvad, who works for CP+B. He wouldnt give any hints on his teams beer-fueled epiphanies even when I pried, saying that they were still confidential. But he did say that The Problem Solver makes an appearance at most after-hours meetings. Before you start thinking, this all sounds very Mad Men, know this: About three drinks would put a 150-pound guy close to the .07 BAC mark. Thats what Don Draper drinks before breakfast.

problem solver beer
(Problem Solver Beer)

As an aside, its important to note that beer only makes you a more creative thinker for a limited period of time. It wont actually raise your I.Q., although, last year researchers at Oregon State University found that a compound in hops could . Unfortunately to get the same effect, humans would have to drink upwards of 5,000 beers a daya task even we are not up for.

Currently The Problem Solver is only available in Europe (clearly proving that Europeans fear Americas collective brain power and dont want to give us a boozy boost). Birkvad says that CP+B is working on exporting the beer to the states, though well believe that when we see it.

Lead Photo: Photolyric/iStock

Popular on 窪蹋勛圖厙 Online