This Brewer Prints World Cup Tweets on His Beer So You'll Get Off Your Phone

The World Cup officially kicked off on Thursday in Moscow, with an elaborate opening ceremony that involved women in sequined tracksuits, an official ball that spent time on the International Space Station, Vladimir Putin and 1999’s own Robbie Williams. It was… something. Although it’s hard to use Twitter as a collective noun, Twitter had feelings about it, about Putin’s presence, about the lackluster pairing in the opening match, and about the fact that the United States didn’t qualify. (Some people only just realized that, bless their hearts.)

The World Cup seemed to be Twitter’s major talking point, even on a day that featured the two most statistically terrible participants facing each other. (Tournament hosts Russia beat Saudi Arabia 5-0, although Robbie Williams probably could’ve also beaten Saudi Arabia 5-0). The sheer amount of commentary isn’t surprising: the 2014 World Cup was the most tweeted-about event in history, with more than 672 million tweets being sent during its month of matches. This year’s is projected to exceed even that.

And that’s where Swedish brewer Norrlands Guld comes in. The beermaker wants everyone to be focused on the live matches, not staring dumbly at their phones. It has partnered with ad agency Åkestam Holst to develop a printer with malt-based ink that will write all of those #WorldCup tweets in the foam of its brews.

According to Ad Week, the tweets can be printed on each beer “within seconds of being posted,” which means that some lucky bar-goer in Sweden might’ve been served a drink with former US Men’s National Team defender and current FOX soccer analyst Alexi Lalas’ thoughts about Williams yesterday morning. (“Robbie Williams is so good,” he wrote.)

“The Social Beer,” as Norrlands Guld calls it, debuted during Sweden’s recent friendly against Denmark, and it will be available at “a few Swedish bars” for the duration of the World Cup. Sweden’s national team is in Group F, along with Germany, Mexico and South Korea, so some of those Swedish-language tweets might get increasingly despondent or profane as the tournament progresses.

All the more reason to order another beer.