Using AI to make better NABLABS

Broadcast Date: April 13, 2026 | 11:00am - 12:00pm

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Webinar Summary

Beer aroma depends on many interacting chemical compounds and therefore proves challenging to understand and predict. We combined extensive chemical and sensory analyses to train machine learning models that allow predicting aroma and consumer appreciation. We measured over 200 chemical properties in more than 350 different commercial beers, performed quantitative sensory analysis and mapped data from over 180,000 consumer reviews to train different machine learning models. The best-performing algorithm, Gradient Boosting, yielded models that accurately predict complex features and consumer appreciation from chemical profiles. Model dissection allowed identifying unexpected compounds as drivers of beer flavor and appreciation, which were validated by experimentally improving commercial beers. In a second phase of the project, we are now focusing on using similar models to improve the aroma of NABLABs by using AI to design mixtures of natural aroma compounds that mimic the aroma, flavor and mouthfeel of alcohol. The resulting mixtures dramatically enhances the alcoholic expression of NABLABS as well as spirits such as gin, closely mimicking the effect of adding pure alcohol.

Together, this lecture will demonstrate the power of AI to understand and tune beer aroma and design better beers.

Learning Objectives

Attendees will be able to:

• understand how AI can be used to study and improve beer.
• understand the basic underpinnings of AI modeling.
• understand the importance of collecting data and the infinite possibilities that this technology offers in the very near future.

About the Presenter

Moderator: Shelby MacNeil | Breton Brewing

Kevin Verstrepen

Director, VIB Center for Microbiology

Kevin Verstrepen serves as professor in Genetics and Genomics at Leuven University and Group Leader in Systems Biology at VIB (Flanders Institute for Biotechnology). He serves as the director of the VIB Center for Microbiology, director of the Leuven Institute for Beer Research, Guest Professor at Tianjin Institute for Industrial Biotechnology and expert at the EFSA. Kevin's team studies yeast genetics, genomics and various applications of yeast cell factories, including traditional food and beverage fermentation as well as precision fermentation.

Kevin studied bio-engineering at KU Leuven and served as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT in Boston. He started his career as group leader and lecturer at Harvard University before returning to Belgium as part of the Odysseus Project of the Flemish government.