Our Take On Beer Foam Art

To print or not to print? That may soon be the question breweries and bars find themselves asking when this printer that puts text and images onto beer foam becomes available for purchase.

According to this article we found online while we were being unproductive, Beer Ripples prints edible ink onto beer foam so your pint can also be served up with a special message like “drink responsibly” or “call your grandma”. Just don’t use it to propose to someone because if they don’t read it before they take a sip of their beer you’ll have to try again. You can check out the full story and video here if you want to know more.

We asked our marketing team for their take on this new industry invention:

Our thoughts on the article:

“I feel like this is one of those things that management would approve because of ‘engagement’ or ‘connecting to snapchatting millennials’, but in reality you’re just making a bartender’s life harder.  Imagine how many times they’ll have to say ‘dude, I can’t draw that’ or ‘there’s no way in hell I’m writing that and handing it to someone’.  In the wrong hands, you’re just weaponizing the creepy guy at the bar. I know if I worked with one I’d be saying it’s down for cleaning more than a Mcdonald’s McFlurry machine. I’m mostly joking; I do want to see this thing IRL even if it’s just for the ‘gram.” — Adam

“The nerd in me loves this idea.  The fact that someone said to themselves while drinking an independent craft beer on a sunny afternoon in May, ‘you know what would be cool? if the beer foam had an edible ink design of Starry Starry Night on it’; then they took that idea and actually made it however many days later.  I like to pretend that’s how fast a product goes from idea to prototype. It’s always cool when someone has a vision and gets it realized.

The practical side of me thinks this idea is only really meant for companies who have tons of cash to burn – they could equally buy 20 of these machines or just put that same amount of cash in a blender and drink it – it’s basically the same thing from their perspective.” — Jared

“Being a server once, I don’t see this being a functional process.  With the amount of beer we are putting out to customers at times, taking an extra 5-10 seconds every beer seems like wasted time to me.  However, now that I’m in a marketing role, I understand the benefits because it enhances the consumer experience.” — Aimee

How do you think customers at [ the pub ] would react if we started doing this?

“I don’t think this would have an impact on the brewery connection to consumers, that is what servers are for.” — Brooke

“As a consumer, I would not pay extra to have a design printed on my beer or latte, because I will literally drink it and then eventually vacate it 2-3 hours later. If it was free, I would think ‘huh, that’s kinda cool, I wonder how much it costs’…then never think about it again. Although, ‘I’d TOTALLY IG That Shit’.” — Jared

“This is something that could create brand recognition in the consumers’ mind for the business.  Although the price seems steep, I could easily see this being posted all over social media. I definitely agree with Jared, in that I wouldn’t pay more for something like this as a consumer.” — Aimee

Will it help brands be memorable? Or is this just another marketing gimmick?

“I think this is totally a marketing gimmick. The cost is way too high to see an impact at all. That is why you have a logo on a glass. 🙂 After your first sip the logo is gone, but on a glass it stays for the whole drink. I guess it would be a cool, different thing for the first-time consumer but after that it loses its edge.” — Brooke

“From a marketing standpoint, it’s a gimmick.  It’s literally the snapchat of beer foam. You can see it, but only as long as you don’t start drinking, because once you do it’s gone.” — Jared

Will Iron Horse Brewery get these at [ the pub ]?

“I don’t think [ the pub ] should get this.” — Brooke 

“I think Brooke should order 5 of these.” — Jared

So what do you think, fellow beer drinker? Do you want to be served a beer with a custom message in the foam?