Pass or Fail? Adding sachets of flavor to macro light beers

Us CBBers, like you, obviously love craft beer, but we also, like you, remember a time when our beer choices were guided more by economics (and youthful stupidity) than taste buds. You know, scraping together loose change with some pals to head down to the gas station to buy a case of Big Beer Brand for the evening. Grim times, indeed. But what if we could’ve made those same purchasing decisions but improved the flavor profile?

This is the idea behind Hop Theory, a concept launched by a 25-year-old biology student at Towson University in Maryland, who is looking to make flavor available to cash-strapped college students at macro beer prices (and is the latest entry in our Pass or Fail? archives).

From the Colorado Springs Gazette:

To balance taste with budget, [Bobby] Gattuso created biodegradable sachets filled with coriander, orange peel and Cascade hops. Drop a sachet in a glass, pour the beer of your choice – he says light beers are the best match – and enjoy.

“I think Hop Theory is only good for craft beer because it opens up people to more flavorful options,” Gattuso said.
His Relativity sachets, available for preorder to begin shipping in August, can make a non-craft beer taste more in line with a Belgian wheat. If that’s not to your liking, just wait a while. Gattuso, who also is a home brewer, said he’s working on new flavors, including raspberry, pumpkin and a double IPA.

The idea is noble, but at $14.95 for a pouch of 12 sachets (each good for four 12-ounce beers), I suppose one could argue “just buy some actual craft beer.” Well, 1,089 people have already committed $30,978 on Kickstarter, so some people certainly believe in the utility and vision of Hop Theory.

“I wanted to start a brewery,” said Gattuso, who expects to graduate from Towson next year. “I love craft beer and want to be a part of it, but there is so much competition. I wanted to be a little bit different. I wanted to give the consumer an outlet of choice.”