What product might a cool minimalist tech company turn its hand to after phones and wearables? More accessories? A tablet maybe? No, Nothing has made a beer. And it's the perfect antidote to the saturation of the surrealist psychedelic retro maximalist approach so prevalent in the design of craft beer labels.
Nothing has approached the design of its beer, and its packaging design, in a similar way to how it approaches its smartphones and accessories. No, the can isn't actually transparent like the Nothing Phone (2) and Nothing Ear (2), but it is as minimalist as you might hope, somewhere in between stripped down chic and the utilitarian look of a supermarket value brand.
Made by the Welsh microbrewery Freetime Beer Co, Nothing's beer is called simply Beer (5.1%). The company was only slightly more verbose in the tweet in which it announced the launch, describing it as "a crisp, unfiltered rice lager". And that's all one needs to know.
As for why Nothing would decide to make a beer, the company's only explanation is that "making beautiful tech is thirsty work". And the wasp? Er... that's Buzz Lightbeer apparently, which is actually more like the kind of name you might expect for a craft lager.
It's not the first time we've seen a tech brand launch a random alcoholic beverage. Elon Musk's Tesla released a limited-edition tequila and even followed up with a set of bizarre Tesla drinking glasses that were impossible to put down on a table. But then Tesla also made a Cybertruck cat tray.
While forays into strange product lines can feel cringey or just plain weird, Nothing Beer at least feels on brand in terms of its design. It even serves as a kind of calling card for Nothing's sleek minimalist approach to tech, its most recent additions being the CMF by Nothing range.
Nothing Beer (5.1%) is available from the Nothing website in the UK while stocks last. The company says it working to try to expand availability to other countries.
