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| Type | Beer |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Independent |
| Country of origin | Denmark |
| Introduced | 2004 |
| Related products | OpenCola (drink) |
| Website | https://freebeer.org |
Free Beer is a beer brand collaboration between students ofIT University of Copenhagen[1] and the artist collectiveSuperflex initiated in 2004. The recipe of the beer is published under aCreative Commons license, granting others the right to freely use and distribute it.[2][3]
In December 2004, a group of students from theIT University of Copenhagen, in partnership withSuperflex, brewed a batch of beer in the university's cafeteria. The group named the beer "Vores Øl" (Danish for "Our Beer"), inspired by a 1994Carlsberg beer advertisementslogan. They launched a website to promote the project and released the beer’s recipe and label design under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.5 license. Since cooking recipes are not protected bycopyright, theshare-alike licensing approach used is legally questionable and had not been tested in any court of law.
The developers of the beer stated that they wanted to raise awareness of the "dogmatic notions of copyright and intellectual property that are dominating our culture."[6] The group admitted to having limited experience with beer production. After the first batch of the open-source beer was brewed, Superflex continued developing the concept under the name "Free Beer" and designed a new label. Inspired by colourful aesthetics of the 1960s, it was meant to further underline the concept of freedom.[7] The name Free Beer is a play onRichard Stallman's quote about free software being “'free' as in 'free speech,' not as in 'free beer.'”[8]
The first Vores Øl recipe drew criticism from thehomebrewing community for its lack of necessary instructions.[9] Community members were concerned the recipe had not outlined how much water to use in themash, what type ofyeast to use, the style of beer being produced (other than being dark and heavy), whether or not to add anyhops, what thefermentation temperature should be, or how the beer was supposed to taste.[10]
Due to the free availability of the recipe, the recipe has been changed several times. Major Free Beer recipe iterations (v3.0 and v4.0) were developed in collaboration with a Danish brewery, Skands, inBrøndby.[11][12] The amount of sugar has been decreased by 90% to improve the quality of the beer.
| Version | Codename | Date | Brewery/Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| "FREE BEER – Performa Version" | October 31, 2023 | Brewed byEvil Twin Brewing for thePerforma Biennial inNew York.[13] | |
| "FREE BEER / FREE UKRAINE" | August 9, 2022 | Mikkeller and Warpigs inCopenhagen and Berryland Cidery inUkraine[14] | |
| 8.0 | May 31, 2022 | Brewery 304 inSeoul[15] | |
| 6.0 | "The Atlantic Brew" | October 30, 2017 | Summerskills brewery inDevonport, Plymouth[16] |
| 4.1 | August 25, 2010 | Brewery inHuntington Beach, California | |
| 4.1 | "Artspace" | October 2008 | Steam Brewing Company inNewton, New Zealand[17] |
| 4.0 | "SKANDS" | September 2008 | SkandsMicrobrewery inBrøndby,Denmark |
| 3.5 | "Hops & Barley" | March 2008 | By the Hops & Barley microbreweryBerlin, Germany[18] |
| 3.4 | "Germania" | November 2007 | Arnaldo Ribero, Germania brewery inSão Paulo,Brazil[19] |
| 3.3 | "Linghzi" | November 2007 | Everything Mushroom,Knoxville, Tennessee |
| 3.2 | "St Austell" | July 2007 | St Austell Brewery inCornwall, England |
| 3.0 | "Skands" | June 2006 | Skands Microbrewery in Brøndby, Denmark[20] (and more)[21] |
| 2.1 | "Apollo" | August 2006 | Apollo Microbrewery inCopenhagen[22] |
| 1.5 | "Samvirke" | Suited for homebrewing | |
| 1.1 | FREE BEER | May 20, 2005 | First time served under the name Free Beer at theVolksbühne[23][24] |
| 1.0 | "Vores Øl" | December 2004[25] | Brewed by students at the IT university inCopenhagen withSuperflex |
Known derivatives using the free license include:
Free Beer has received coverage in international print anddigital media.[30][31][32] The brand has been discussed in books on copyright.[33] The project been written about by figures in the free software movement, includingCory Doctorow[34] andLawrence Lessig.[5][2] In 2005, Superflex interviewedRichard Stallman on the project.[35]
Free Beer has been distributed at technology conferences, including Summit 2008 andRMLL 2011, 2012, and 2014.[28][36] TheFSCONS 2008 resulted in an ebook that featured Free Beer.[37][38] Free Beer was also exhibited in art exhibitions and museums, such as theArt Basel Miami Beach 2006, theVan Abbemuseum in the Netherlands in 2007, and theTaipei Biennial 2010.[39][4]
FREE BEER refers to information freedom, not economic freedom. [...] Designing a visual program for an idea [...] builds on a vivid and colorful reference to 60's liberation."
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