The Science Behind the Next Glass App: My Latest Piece on The Alcohol Professor

Last fall, a new app called Next Glass launched on smart phones and other devices around the US and Canada.

According to their press release:

Photo courtesy Next Glass (http://nextglass.co/)

Photo courtesy Next Glass (http://nextglass.co/)

“Next Glass has developed the world’s first Genome Cellar, an extensive database that contains the chemical makeup – or ‘DNA’- of tens of thousands of wines and beers. By looking at each bottle on a molecular level, Next Glass defines a unique taste profile for every bottle by analyzing thousands of chemical elements…

Once users download the Next Glass app, they are prompted to rate a few wines and beers that they have already tasted. Next Glass then compares their chemical taste preferences to the entire Genome Cellar to predict the next glass of wine or beer that each person will enjoy. Users just scan or enter the name of a wine or beer through the app and then receive a personal rating without ever having to take a single sip….”

To sum up briefly, the “magic” happens in the lab and the app is stocked full of chemical “fingerprints” for thousands of beers and wines. The user downloads the app, answers a bunch of questions regarding what brands of wine or beer they like (or don’t like), then the app takes that information to create a unique “chemical profile” that will be indicative of the sorts of wines or beers the user is most likely to enjoy.

Finally, the app takes that individuals profile and tries to match it against the chemical fingerprints it has on file for thousands upon thousands of beers and wines, and ultimately presents the user with the top beers or wines they would most likely enjoy.

According to Next Glass, they have been able to produce these individual flavor profiles and recommendations with 96% accuracy.

So how does this “magic” happen to produce the wine and beer chemical fingerprint library in Next Glass?

Find out how on the full article I wrote for The Alcohol Professor by clicking here.  Warning: lots of geeky stuff behind that link! 🙂