Solana Launches Beer With NFTs on the Can 

It seems NFTs being attached to food and beverages is the newest IP-leveraging trend in the industry. We just recently got the announcement of the Bored Ape Club being licensed for a limited edition M&Ms line and now, other popular NFT collections are finding their faces on food. 

barrelDAO, a brewery which is owned and controlled by members of a DAO, has announced the launch of Solana Summer Shandy. As the name would imply, it has an interesting connection to the Solana blockchain. 

More specifically, it is inspired by NFT collections like DeGods, Degenerate Ape Academy, Okay Bears, and Solana Monkey Business, all of which are Solana-based projects. 

Brewing up an NFT Storm

The beer was officially launched on August 26, 2022, and only 333 units of 16-packs were released. On the cover of the cans are various NFTs from different collections and the packs themselves are being sold as redeemable NFTs. 

How this works is that customers can buy the NFTs from the official barrelDAO website and then use the NFTs to redeem their beer packs. Each pack of beer is being sold for  1.35 SOL, which comes to around $45. 

In a statement from Dave Goldman, the co-founder and CEO of Barrel Labs,  to Decrypt, it was revealed that 20 of the NFTs that are printed on the cans are actually owned by the DAO while the other 23 were licensed. 

For many NFT collections, having ownership of an asset grants IP rights, meaning their owners can use them in commercial ventures. This also means that the image and likeness of the assets can be licensed out to others, as was done in this case. 

According to Goldman, the DAO hoped that this venture would continue positively to the ongoing discussion about NFT IP rights and licensing. 

“Over the past three days, we painstakingly went through and licensed every single NFT used in this can design. We knew that this could kick off a big conversation about IP in the NFT space, and wanted to be sure that we set a standard for other [consumer packaged goods] brands to follow,” he said.

With this and the Bored Ape M&Ms being announced within days of each other, it is clear that the owners of these NFTs are taking full advantage of them and monetizing their image and likeness. 

Taste the Blockchain

NFTs and food are an unlikely combination but these days, the two are becoming more closely intertwined. From the upcoming Bored Ape restaurant to the recent M&Ms and Solana Summer Shandy, we’re seeing more NFT imagery on food items. 

And this is a good thing for all involved. For the owners of the NFTs used, there is revenue from licensing and a return on their investment. For NFT lovers, this is a chance to get their hands on what is essentially edible merchandise. Perhaps as this becomes more popular, we will see NFT-themed foods in our local grocery stores. But only time will tell.