Bitcoin beer, explained
Bitcoin beer: a German lager with sats under the cap
Beer of Satoshi Genesis is a 4.9% German lager in 330 mL glass bottles, brewed by Vulkan Brauerei in Mendig. Under every crown cap sits a sealed QR code with a Bitcoin reward between 21 and 1,000,000 sats. Open the bottle, scan the code and claim the sats with a Lightning wallet.
The short answer
What makes it a Bitcoin beer?
Plenty of beers put Bitcoin on the label. Here the Bitcoin sits under the cap. Every Genesis bottle carries a one-time reward code beneath its crown cap. You only see it once the bottle is open, and you claim it to your own Lightning wallet: real sats, no exchange account.
The beer comes first. Genesis is brewed in partnership with Vulkan Brauerei in the Vulkaneifel under the German Reinheitsgebot, with regional Eifel barley, natural volcanic water from the Eifel and Simcoe and Cascade aroma hops.
Facts at a glance
Genesis Lager in nine lines
- Product
- Genesis Lager by Beer of Satoshi
- Brewed by
- Vulkan Brauerei, Mendig (Vulkaneifel), Germany
- Style
- German lager, brewed under the Reinheitsgebot
- Alcohol
- 4.9% vol
- Bottle
- 330 mL glass bottle with crown cap
- Packs
- 6, 12 or 24 bottles, from €32,52 EUR plus €0,48 reusable bottle deposit ( €16,42 / l excl. deposit); shipping is shown at checkout
- Reward
- 21 to 1,000,000 sats per cap, claimed with a Lightning wallet
- Age
- Sold to adults aged 18 or over only
- Company
- Beer of Satoshi GmbH, Cologne, founded in 2024
From cap to wallet
Sip. Scan. Stack.
- Open the bottle and turn over the crown cap. The sealed QR code is printed underneath.
- Scan it with your phone camera and open the claim link.
- Claim the sats with a compatible Lightning wallet. Keep the cap until the claim is complete.
Don't trust, verify
Can I check that the rewards are real?
Yes. Claimed caps appear on the public leaderboard, together with participants and sats distributed. The prize-distribution algorithm, bos-algo, is open source under the MIT license, and the full reward table for all 27,140 Genesis bottles is published.
The table describes the complete edition. It does not say which rewards are still unclaimed.
Who it is for
A first Lightning moment you can hand to someone
Bitcoin beer works where a wallet tutorial does not: on a meetup table, at a conference, or as a gift for the Bitcoiner who already has everything. It works just as well for the friend who has never received a sat. At our 2025 event stands, three out of four beers were paid with Lightning.
Prefer alcohol-free? Beer of Satoshi Zero brings the same cap reward to alcohol-free beer as a paid preorder for Q1 2027. Gift cards are shop credit and contain no cap reward.
Questions
Bitcoin beer, answered
What is Bitcoin beer?
Bitcoin beer usually means a beer linked to Bitcoin culture. Beer of Satoshi Genesis goes one step further: a 4.9% German lager with a sealed Bitcoin reward code under every cap, claimed with a Lightning wallet.
Where can I buy Bitcoin beer?
Genesis is sold in the Beer of Satoshi online shop in packs of 6, 12 or 24 bottles. Available destinations and shipping costs are shown at checkout. Alcoholic products are sold to adults aged 18 or over only.
Who brews Beer of Satoshi?
Genesis is brewed in partnership with Vulkan Brauerei in Mendig, in Germany's Vulkaneifel, under the Reinheitsgebot. Beer of Satoshi GmbH, based in Cologne, was founded in 2024 after an idea shared at Bitcoin Amsterdam.
How many sats are under the cap?
Between 21 and 1,000,000 sats. The published distribution for the 27,140-bottle Genesis edition has one cap with 1,000,000 sats, 10 with 100,000, 100 with 10,000, 1,000 with 2,100, 2,000 with 1,000 and 24,029 with 21 to 500 sats. It describes the complete edition, not which rewards are still unclaimed.
Do I need to own Bitcoin already?
No. You need a phone camera and a compatible Lightning wallet; the claim page shows which wallets work. You do not need an exchange account.
Is there an alcohol-free Bitcoin beer?
Yes: Beer of Satoshi Zero, a paid preorder for Q1 2027. The exact dispatch date is shared by email before fulfillment.
Ready for your first sats?
Shop Genesis Lager