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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

beer

Heineken UK Beer Packs Ditch Plastic Rings in Favor of Cardboard

Heineken UK is now tackling the problem presented by all those plastic rings connecting their bottles of beer by ditching them for a more environmentally friendly cardboard topper to hold those cans together.

Heineken UK today announced the Green Grip, its new cardboard packaging that is 100 percent plastic free. It will first be used by brewer on Heineken, Foster’s and Kronenbourg 1664 multi-packs before being rolled out across the company’s entire line of beverages.

Heineken says that between the Green Grip and the removal of shrink wrapping on consumer packs, the company will eliminate more than 517 tons of plastic annually.

Plastic waste has been a big problem for us and our planet, with more than 8 million metric tons entering our oceans every year. Then along came the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated our plastic problem as people go through millions disposable gloves, and, more relevant to Spoon readers, single-use restaurant takeout containers.

Heineken UK isn’t the only beer company looking to get rid of the plastic rings on its multi-packs. A couple years back, Carlsberg started gluing cans of its brew together into a Snap Pack instead of using the plastic rings. And last year Coca-Cola and AB InBev announced plans to use the KeelClip paper-based multi-pack topper to be rolled out across Europe this year.

Admittedly, these are small changes, but if enough companies can follow suit, these small changes to the way we carry a six-pack into our next party (whenever those are allowed again), could make a really big impact on our planet.

Drinkworks Launches Beer Pods for its Home Cocktail Machine

In this time of social distancing, the question of whether or not to go out for a beer with friends is suddenly fraught with serious implications, or being banned outright. And while we would never suggest you drink alone, Drinkworks announced today that its cocktail machine can now make beer in the comfort of your home.

Drinkworks, which is a joint-venture between Keurig Dr Pepper and Anheuser-Busch InBev, partnered with Los Angeles-based Golden Road Brewing to create beer pods. Pop the pod into the Drinkmaker, push a button and carbonated beer comes out (just be sure to tilt the glass properly as it pours).

I can already see purists out there crinkling their face at the idea of a pod ingredients mixing with water to make beer. But I spoke with Victor Novak, Brewmaster at Golden Road, by phone recently, and he insists that there really isn’t a difference. Golden Road is making beer as it normally does and handing it off to Drinkworks, which then freeze distills it, removing the water and leaving the beer-y concentrate complete with alcohol. This new liquid goes into the pod which pops into the machine (though unlike other Drinkworks pods, the company suggests you keep the beer pods chilled).

Despite all this, there are probably a lot of skeptics out there. Even if it does taste like draught beer, the process may seem overly complicated for a drink you can pick up at any corner store. But Drinkworks is aiming for a different kind of convenience. Sure, you can pick up a half-rack, but how many can you store in your fridge? What if you want a variety of different beers? How many different six-packs can the average person keep?

By going with the pods, Drinkworks reasons, they reduce the footprint of beer. So people can keep more beer, and more varieties of beer, without taking up too much room. It’s the same thesis behind Drinkworks’ cocktail offerings. Instead of having to buy and store big bottles of booze, shrink the complete cocktail down into a pod and throw a party that can accommodate all kinds of tastes (just keep the party small, for now).

The biggest hurdle to most people experiencing this pod-based brew is availability. Drinkworks is in the middle of a slow roll-out and its machine ($299) is only available in California, Missouri, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York thus far.

Each beer pod makes a 14oz. drink and is being sold in a variety four-pack of wheat brews: Mango Wheat, Blood Orange Wheat, Pineapple Apricot Wheat and Strawberry Guava Wheat. Four-packs retail for $12.99, which is more than a lot of six-packs will run you, but they will take up a lot less space.

With the addition of beermaking, Drinkworks is separating itself from other home cocktail machines out there like the Bartesian and the Barsys, which can only make mixed drinks. The question now is whether people will pony up for pods of beer. Then again, given the times we live in, you can stockpile a lot more pods of beer than bottles.

Exclusive: PicoBrew is Up For Sale

PicoBrew, the Seattle-based maker of high-tech beer, spirits and coffee brewing appliances, is up for sale the Spoon has learned.

According to company CEO Bill Mitchell, PicoBrew had until mid-December to close a new funding round as part of terms agreed to with a bridge lending group comprised of current and new PicoBrew investors. PicoBrew had decided to take on bridge financing last year as it looked to lock down its second institutional funding round.

Mitchell said conversations went fairly deep and they entered due diligence conversations with a few potential strategic investors, which led the lending group to extend the original due date on the loan from June to mid-December of last year. However, PicoBrew ultimately wasn’t able to close the funding round, and the bridge lender decided to call in the loan and force PicoBrew into selling the company through a somewhat complicated process called receivership.

Mitchell indicated the bridge lending group has plans to continue funding the company through the Washington State receivership process and hopes to essentially take full ownership of the company with a winning bid, but runs the risk that another bidder will swoop in with a higher bid.

Mitchell told me the receivership motion was filed yesterday.

So how exactly did PicoBrew get itself into this position in first place?

According to Mitchell, it’s a complicated story in part because the company’s product portfolio has become increasingly complicated. After first making products tailored towards home and prosumer craft brewing enthusiasts with the Zymatic and later the Pico, the company ventured further into equipment for both small craft breweries and cold brew coffee makers. From there, the company made a small distilling add-on for its home and pro brewing appliances, teased a new coffee machine, and, most recently, has expanded further into professional distilling with a new spirits-aging product line called CaskForge (more on that later).

While all of these products are essentially high-tech beverage appliances, they serve different markets and, as a result, each were of varying interest to different suitors. According to Mitchell, the company had “investment interest in PicoBrew and spent hundreds of hours with some of the biggest names in the industry.”

Ultimately, though, things got hung up due to the diversity of the portfolio and, said Mitchell, their cap table.

“It’s important to understand that we operate a diverse and complex business,” said Mitchell. “PicoBrew is comprised of 3 completely different yet complementary businesses and as you might expect from a 10 year old startup, we have a diverse and complex cap table as well, both of which have hindered our fund-raising efforts.”

In other words, beer might be interesting to one strategic investor, coffee products to another. However, finding an investor who wants the entirety of the product portfolio, which the company has sometimes described as “brewing computers”, has been a tough task, at least up until this point.

I also think, generally, hardware startups have been a tough sell over the past couple years in the world of venture capital. And while PicoBrew does offer suitors a hardware+ continuous revenue model with their food supply business with PicoPaks, the company’s yet to turn that business into a huge revenue driver.

So what now?

Wait and see who bids says Mitchell. He indicated that he expects other potential buyers to come out of the woodwork, but wouldn’t name any names.

I can see a big beer or CPG company being interested in the IP portfolio the company’s amassed has built around beer and spirits. I also think we’re slowly moving towards a post plastic coffee pod world, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the company’s new coffee machine business being of interest as well to appliance company suitors looking to take on Keurig.

Being a backer of the company’s first Pico through a Kickstarter campaign back in 2015, I personally hope someone buys the company, in part because I’d like to see my countertop beer brewer continue to have the support of a growing company.

On another level, the company’s also been fascinating to watch ever since I first wrote about the Zymatic back in 2014, in part because it was the first time I’d seen a company attempting to bring the same precision and automation to beer I’d seen in the food within the Modernist Cuisine movement. Founded by a couple Microsoft founders (Mitchell essentially ran a skunkworks division for Bill Gates, leading the software giant’s first smartphone and smartwatch efforts), the company has essentially been doing continuous invention in the drink space since their founding a decade ago.

They may not have hit on a home run yet, but the company’s been fun to watch for a food tech nerd like myself, so let’s hope someone with deep pockets purchases the company and continues to fund their crazy ideas.

CES 2020: INTHEKEG is an All-in-One Beer Brewing, Storage, and Dispensing Machine

By the end of CES, I’m betting all attendees (this reporter included) will be in dire need of a cold beer. They might want to hit up INTHEKEG, a smart brewery platform I took a tour of at CES’ Eureka Park this week.

INTHEKEG is roughly the size of a refrigerator, has a small interactive screen display, and runs off of electricity. The device can hold 10 ‘SMARTKEG’s, the 18-liter container in which the beer is brewed and stored, each of which can be a separate flavor. Brewers order ‘SMARTKEG’s from the INTHEKEG website. Each container comes with all of the ingredients needed to brew a particular style of beer (pale ale, IPA, etc). 

Put the SMARTKEG into the machine with some water, press a button, and between two and four weeks later (depending on aging and brew environments) you’ll have freshly-made beer, which can be dispensed directly from the INTHEKEG machine. Beer brewing and levels can be monitored via the INTHEKEG app. The full containers are stored in the device at the optimal temperature for its particular flavor of beer. After use, the machine automatically sterilizes and cleans itself.

While INTHEKEG is pretty hands-off, those who want to customize their brew can add flavorings — like pumpkin, blueberry, or fresh hops — to a canister which will infuse the beer. An INTHEKEG rep told me that people use that option to make unique brews for special events, like weddings. He said that the device will cost roughly $10,000 to buy. However, he told me it can be leased out for around $50 per month — which seems incredibly low to me, but clearly they’re hoping to hook people and continue selling them SMARTKEGs. He did not disclose how much the SMARTKEGs cost.

If that sounds pretty high-tech and high-volume for a home brew operation, it is. INTHEKEG’s giant size and almost-as-giant cost will likely make it a tough sell for home brewers, especially since there are more affordable countertop devices like Picobrew, BEERMKR and Minibrew out there.

However, I could definitely see it being a fun device to rent out for events, like weddings and birthdays. INTHEKEG could also be a good investment for restaurants or catering operations that want to attract beer-lovers with a signature brew which was made on-site — provided they can figure out how to move the heavy machine to different venues. The machine can also make wine, kombucha, and sake, which opens up some possibilities (fresh kombucha at music festivals, anyone?) 

INTHEKEG is already sold in China, India and Korea, and will land in the U.S. later this year. If you want to take a little tour of the machine, check out the video I shot on the CES show floor below!

CES 2020: A Tour of INTHEKEG's Smart Brewing Machine

PicoBrew Goes Coffee-First With New ‘Brew Computer’, The Pico MultiBrew

PicoBrew, the Seattle based startup that’s made a name for itself with countertop beer brewing appliances, has set its sites on a different type of beverage with its newest product, the Pico MultiBrew: coffee.

In short, PicoBrew has taken the technology it has developed over the past decade for high-precision beer brewing and applied it to making the perfect cup of joe. The MultiBrew will use what the company calls “brew programs” to govern the time, temperature and fluid flow of each coffee brew.

If that sounds like a very high tech approach to coffee brewing, that’s because it is. This shouldn’t be all that surprising since PicoBrew’s founding trio includes a couple of former Microsoft execs and a food scientist.

“We’re ex-software guys and computer guys, as well as coffee and beer guys,” CEO Bill Mitchell told me last week when we visited the PicoBrew offices near the University of Washington to take a peek at the MultiBrew prototype. “So it made sense for us to start with the hardest drink [with] beer and go from there.”

While the MultiBrew is the first ‘coffee-first’ machine from PicoBrew, it isn’t the first that makes coffee. In fact, Mitchell’s brother Jim (a PicoBrew cofounder and a food scientist by training) started making coffee with their very first appliance, the Zymatic, and both the PicoBrew Z (pro unit) and Pico C (consumer) can make cold brew.

And then there’s the Pico U, the multi-beverage brewing appliance the company unveiled in the spring of 2018 and ultimately pulled the plug on even after hitting their Kickstarter funding target.  According to Mitchell, what they heard from their community was that while they liked the Pico U’s ability to make multiple types of drinks like coffee, beer and kombucha, ultimately the U wasn’t coffee-forward enough.

“Coffee, coffee, coffee is what we were told,” said Mitchell.

And so unlike the PicoBrew U — which looked like a scaled down version of the Pico C — the MultiBrew looks and acts like a coffee maker, allowing the user to brew different sizes ranging from single serve to a full carafe of coffee. The MultiBrew also lets users brew using their own coffee grounds or from pods that are made of the same compostable pulp paper material as with the Pico’s beer-ingredient packaging, the PicoPaks.

While I’ve given up on Keurig because coffee from pods generally tastes bad (not to mention all the plastic waste), PicoBrew has a spin on coffee pods that could make me reconsider. Not only are they are designing their own (compostable) pods that will not only apply precision parameters specifically designated by the coffee’s roaster, but are also designing the pods to mimic pourover brew methods rather than the brute force heated water injection method used by a typical pod-brew system.

Mitchell showed me a prototype of a MultiBrew brewpod with an laser-cut pattern through which the water will be poured on the coffee (photo below).

Similar to the way the company worked closely with craft brewers to create ingredients for PicoPaks, they are now in discussions with a variety of craft coffee makers about the possibility of cobranded coffee pods for the MultiBrew.  Unlike Keurig, which tightly controls the supply of coffee that goes into their coffee pods, PicoBrew is telling smaller roasters they can both provide roasted beans for their high tech system as well as optimized brewing parameters for the specific roast.

With all this emphasis on coffee, it should be noted that the MultBrew is true to its name and does brew drinks other than coffee ranging from kombucha to golden milk to, yes, beer. The MultiBrew will allow users to brew beer using the same kegs as the Pico C by putting the keg directly under the dispense mechanism (rather than using plastic tubing of the Pico C).

While the multi-drink capability of the MultiBrew does makes it stand apart from other high-tech coffee machines on the market, will it be enough? There’s certainly lots of competition in the high-tech coffee space, as companies like SharkNinja have sold millions of the Ninja Coffee Bar while newer entrants like the Terra Kaffe are in market with products that not only can grind coffee, but can make espresso and milk-based coffee drinks using highly-tailored brewing parameters.

We will see soon enough. The MultiBrew, which will be priced “in the same range” as the machines like the Ninja Coffee Bar (below $200), will be available for preorder in the fall and will ship in 2020.

Kickstarter: The Stasis Brings Glycol Chilling to Homebrewing for More Fermentation Temperature Control

I don’t make my own beer, but given the number of startups out there trying to make the whole homebrewing process easier, I feel like I should start.

The latest entry into the homebrew gear game is the Stasis, a countertop glycol chilling device to keep fermentation at the correct temperature. The Stasis is in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign that has already blown past its $50,000 goal and raised more than $100,000 in pledges.

But before we get too far into the weeds with what the Stasis does, I feel like we should do a quick primer.

First, proper fermentation temperature is important when brewing beer. If the beer gets too hot during fermentation, it can create off flavors in your beer. Too cold, and the yeast might not activate.

Second, glycol, which is what the Stasis chills, is actually propelyne glycol, which is food grade anti-freeze. Yes, you read that right. It has a lower freezing point than water so it acts like a good coolant.

The Stasis connects to just about any fermentation system, and, well, this gets a little complicated, so I’ll quote the Stasis Kickstarter campaign and paste in a nifty GIF:

The Stasis then gets to work by chilling the internal tank of glycol & water mixture to 30°F. Meanwhile, an included wired temperature probe monitors your beer as it ferments. When the temperature of your beer is higher than the temperature set on the digital thermostat, a pump turns on to move the 30°F chilled glycol through the coil submerged in (or the sleeve wrapped around) your fermenter. This quickly cools your beer to the set temperature and maintains it within 0.5°F. 

The Stasis is a product of Craft a Brew, which previously successfully Kickstarted (and delivered!) the Catalyst fermentation vessel back in 2016. Craft a Brew Founder and President Kyle Westfall told me that his company has been developing the Stasis for the past two and a half years.

If you read The Spoon regularly, then you know that we are pretty skeptical of crowdfunded hardware campaigns. Mostly because they seem to have a hard time actually getting to market. I asked Westfall about manufacturing and avoiding the pitfalls of others. He responded quite confidently that between their manufacturing partners in China, his frequent trips there and his business partner connections, that the Stasis will indeed make it to backers. Thankfully, the company has a proven track record to back up that bravado.

As noted earlier, we are entering into a golden age of home beer brewing as more tools come on the market to make it easier than ever. In addition to the Stasis, there is the stalwart PicoBrew system, the forthcoming BEERMKR, and the Brewie, which now includes the connected fermentation monitor Plaato.

The Stasis is roughly the size of an old tower computer, and while the device targets a very specific function (chilling Glycol), Westfall says it’s actually easy enough for even beginner homebrewers to use. Early backers can pick up a Stasis for $599 (it will retail for $749) or they can pick up a full brewing system that includes the Stasis plus the Catalyst and more tools for the homebrew n00b for $829, with the product expecting to ship this November. Maybe it is time for a beginner like me to get started.

The PicoBrew Z Professional Grade Beer, Kombucha and Cold Coffee Brewer Now Available

As we’ve noted many times, backing a crowdfunded hardware project can be a bit of a crapshoot. But one company that has consistently come through is PicoBrew with its various beer brewing appliances (the pulled Pico U notwithstanding). This week PicoBrew announced that its crowdfunded PicoBrew Z line of professional grade brewing appliances is available for immediate purchase.

Meant for restaurants, bars, pubs and the like, the Z series is an all-grain brewing device that can make beers, kombucha, cold brew coffee and spirits. Depending on the model, the Z line allows users to produce gallons of craft beer or cold brew in a short amount of time (hours), at a price point meant for businesses (or very hardcore homebrewers). According to the press release:

  • Z1 produces up to 2.5 gallons of beer/4 gallons of cold brew per brew cycle (MSRP $2,749.99)
  • Z2 produces up to 5 gallons of beer/8 gallons of cold brew per brew cycle (MSRP $4,999.99)
  • Z4 produces up to 10 gallons of beer/16 gallons of cold brew per brew cycle (MSRP $9,499.99)

In addition to using the standard beer and kombucha PicoPaks, the Z line also allows customers to customize their brews by using their own ingredients.

The Pico Z was notable among the PicoBrew line of products because it was pre-sold outside of a platform like Kickstarter and direct to consumers. While sidestepping a massive platform like Kickstarter was a gamble for the company, it paid off as PicoBrew raised $2.2 million in one day. Those early backers also got a bargain paying just $1,499 for the Z1, the Z2 for $1,999, and the Z4 for $3,999.

Worth noting is that the Z3, which was part of the crowdfunding campaign and made 7.5 gallons, is not listed on the company’s current purchase page. We’ve reached out to the company to find out more. UPDATE: A company spokesperson emailed us with the following:

Since the Z series is meant to be modular, we decided to focus on the configurations that our users have expressed the most interest in to streamline our communications and purchasing. Theoretically, a Z3 is just 3 Z1 units. A user with a Z2 could upgrade to a Z3 at any point by purchasing an additional Z and they automatically configure themselves to work together.

The crowdfunded beer brewing appliance market is tough. Brewbot, iGulu and Hopii were all successfully funded projects that went under for various reasons. A new entrant in the crowd-backed beer making market is BEERMKR, which costs $399 and is projected to ship this summer. Elsewhere, the crowdfunded Brewie recently partnered with connected air lock Plaato for an integrated home brewing solution.

By opening up to cold brew coffee and kombucha, PicoBrew has also opened up its potential market. In addition to bars and restaurants, it’s not hard to see cafés and grocery stores possibly purchasing Zs to craft their own blend of non-alcoholic drinks. This de-centralized move towards production at the edge is part of a larger trend we see in other categories with Bellwether ventless coffee roasting and the Breadbot.

If PicoBrew can crack into these new markets, the Z definitely won’t be the end of the line.

Hop On: There’s a Sudsy New Wave of Homebrew Appliances Looking To Automate Beer Brewing

How many people will make beer at home if you give them an machine to help in the process?

The next few years should provide an answer to that question as a new wave of beer-brewing appliances hit the market.

Home beer brewing machines aren’t new. PicoBrew started shipping the Zymatic a few years back and followed that product with the consumer-focused Pico. Brewie started shipping its second generation, the Brewie+, last year. Australian extract-beer giant Coopers got into the game in 2017 with BrewArt (though technically some wouldn’t call extract-derived beer “brewing”), and we’re not even counting those like HOPii that have already come and gone.

Despite all this activity, it seems the homebrew market has only just started to pick up speed. With that in mind, here’s a quick look at the new entrants to home brewing appliances coming to the U.S. in the next year:

BEERMKR

Set to ship this summer, BEERMKR’s open platform and proven ability to deliver products make this startup one of the more promising new entrants to the home brew appliance space.

Here’s what I wrote in March after I saw the BEERMKR in action at the Housewares show:

The system, which comes with a brewing appliance and a beer dispenser, sells for a post-Kickstarter price of $399 for the complete system. MKR KITs, the optional ingredient packs for those that want to “brew-by-number”, will each cost $12 and deliver a gallon or so of beer.

At $399, BEERMKR is one of the most affordable new entrants to the market. The company will sell MKR KITS that include all the ingredients for a batch of beer for $12, though you can also use your own grains and hops.

You can watch founder Aaron Walls walk me through the product below:

A look at the Beermkr beer brewing appliance

LG HomeBrew

We were as surprised as anyone when LG announced their intent to enter the home-brewing appliance space in advance of this year’s CES. The new appliance, aptly called LG HomeBrew, sees the South Korean appliance giant taking a Keurig-style approach to home brewing with an all-in-one capsule-based system that automates the entire process, including dispensing.

If anything, a big consumer electronics brand like LG entering the home-brew-appliance space helps legitimize it, even if LG runs into challenges finding a market for their product. Of course, much of the product’s ultimate success will depend on pricing and on how well it actually works, but I worry that by creating a fully-capsule based system the company might be going against the trend towards more open brewing systems. After all, consumers who go through the trouble of making beer at home have shown they want some room for creativity, one of big the reasons PicoBrew finally opened their platform to enable ‘bring-your-own-ingredients’.

MiniBrew

MiniBrew, the brain child of two Dutch advertising executives, is different from all the other appliances on this list for one reason: it’s already shipping.

The product, for which the company raised €2.6M in funding in December, started shipping throughout Europe in the fall of last year and the company is targeting a 2020 entry into the U.S. market.

Cofounder Olivier van Oord gave me a walk-through of the MiniBrew when I was in Europe last month, and I have to say I liked what I saw. The system is both open enough to allow the brewer to craft their own recipes while also also applying enough automation to make the brewing process (and serving) much easier and approachable.

One aspect I liked was an app that allows the user to craft recipes easily around their own beer preferences. From there, they can order ingredients based on their own recipe or choose an ingredient pack based on a beer from one of MiniBrew’s partners. Once the wort is created, the user tosses the yeast into the brew keg and tells it to start the fermentation process with the app.

Keeping the the wort and what becomes the fully fermented beer contained in one keg that also serves as the (fully refrigerated) dispensing keg is something van Oord saw as critical, in part because it eliminates room for error:

“Where beer goes wrong is in the transport of wort,” he said. “Working clean is the most important part of beer brewing.”

The MiniBrew isn’t cheap, selling for €1,200 (which is roughly $1,350 USD), but for those that was a powerful but open system — and one that is already shipping — the MiniBrew is a strong contender.

You can see my walk through of the MiniBrew below:

MiniBrew Beer Brewing (and Dispensing!) Appliance

DrinkWorks

While not technically a home-brewing machine, DrinkWorks at least deserves mention for one reason: the home adult beverage machine is a product of a joint venture between Keurig and the world’s largest beer company, AB InBev.

The DrinkWorks machine, which is now available in beta in the Budweiser’s hometown of St Louis, MO, to consumers statewide in Missouri and Florida, uses pods to make cocktails and, surprisingly, beer. While it’s unclear exactly how the beer is made from a pod, it’s not through traditional brewing and fermentation methods. But for those that like the idea of making cockails and beer at the press of a button with a Keurig-like pod system, you have to at least be intrigued by DrinkWorks.

While DrinkWorks has been fairly vague on details, we expect the product to be more widely rolled out later this year. For now the DrinkWorks machine will set you back $399, though pricing could change in future.

Brewie Adds Connected Fermentation to its Homebrewing System with Plaato Partnership

Peanut butter and chocolate is probably a slightly odd comparison to make when talking about home beer brewing appliances, but that’s kind of the feeling you get when learning about the new partnership between Brewie and Plaato.

Brewie is a connected home beer brewing appliance that pretty much automates the entire beer brewing process… until you get to the fermentation step. Which is why the company is hopping (ugh, sorry) on board with Plaato, which makes a connected air lock that monitors the fermentation aspect of beer making.

The two companies have integrated their technologies into one mobile app allowing homebrewers to monitor their beer as it goes from grain to wort through fermentation.

Brewie launched in 2015 and went on to crowdfund $720,000. Unlike other crowdfunded home beermaking appliances, Brewie actually delivered, and has sold more than 2,000 units across 50 countries. While the Brewie can be fully automated for the amateur, it is also an open platform that allows more serious brewers to full control every aspect of the brewing process.

The Brewie appliance normally sells for $2,000, but starting on May 10, to promote its partnership with Plaato, customers will be able to purchase a Brewie and Plaato bundle for $1,599 for a limited time (the price will go back up to $2,150 after the promotion ends).

Brewie is billing this partnership as the only system that covers the whole grain-to-beer process, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Picobrew offers the PicoFerm to monitor the fermentation process. And the forthcoming BEERMKR does the brewing and fermenting all in one device.

Regardless of who’s the first or only, the broader point is that whether you’re a n00b or a pro, devices like Brewie and Plaato and BEERMKR are making homebrewing as easy and as sweet as chocolate (stout).

I’ll Bet You’re Thinking of How this Beer Vending Machine Can Be Tricked While You Read This

In a world where there are vending machines that dispense pizza and hot ramen, it only makes sense that eventually we’d have one that serves up ice cold beer and other adult beverages. Last week, PanPacific unveiled the SmartPan Pro, an age-verifying, beer dispensing vending machine.

If you’re like me, your first thought was well how quickly will a high schooler be able to trick that machine. But according to the press release, the machines use “ultra-accurate finger-vein biometrics as the consumers’ identifier” which also prevents ID sharing. Once the user completes an account creation process, they can use their finger on any SmartPan Pro machine.

The SmartPan Pro is meant for venues like sports arenas and other, similar, high-traffic venues. Operators can add restrictions to the machine to create purchase or timeframe limits.

At first glance, it seems like this type of unattended sales mechanism would be ripe for abuse. Finding ways around booze restrictions is a time-honored tradition, after all. But borrowing someone’s finger to buy a beer is a lot harder than borrowing their ID. Sure, someone could buy a beer and then give it to an underaged friend somewhere else, but that always has and always will happen — with or without vending machines.

But if set up properly, a self-service beer vending machine makes sense. Place one or two in a designated beer garden (to check IDs before getting in), and you can free up human staff to serve higher ticket food items that require more human-level skill. (Well, until robots do those jobs too.)

This isn’t actually the first time you’ll be able to use your finger to pay for beer at a ball game. Last year, CLEAR (of airport fame), debuted a system at CenturyLink Field in Seattle allowing people to pay for concessions including booze.

A combination of tech like age verification, robotics and internet connectivity is transforming the capabilities of vending machines, opening up whole new options for eating around the clock in busy places like airports and hospitals. Though, the ER seems like a bad place for a beer vending machine.

Crowdfunded Home Beer Maker iGulu Appears to Be a Goner

If you love beer and are contemplating backing a crowdfunded home brew machine — don’t. This free advice is brought to you by more than a year of covering Kickstarted beer campaigns, most of which have taken the public’s money, only to shut down before shipping any product.

Following in the steps of Brewbot and HOPii, it now looks like iGulu is the latest automated home brewing appliance to fold. The following update was posted to Indiegogo and Kickstarter on April 4:

Dear Backers,

We regret to announce that we have to put our project in ‘hibernation’ and pause our regular update. For the past few weeks we have experienced some of the hardest challenges for our company and the project. Our funds were exhausted and we experienced a significant team downsizing due to the financial constraints.

While I still maintain great working relationships with all of our key team members, I couldn’t keep them as employees before I secure new funds from the investor. We have been talking with several prospects since last year, but the financial markets are unfavorable to start-ups like ours recently so I haven’t had any luck yet.

I’m still trying but I cannot at present give any specific timeline for recovery of this project. I will share any further updates whenever we have tangible progress that we are able to report. I deeply apologize again. We have shipped the first machine to one Australian backer. We will continue to fix existing bugs, optimize our product, ship 2nd, 3rd and more machines. Please believe us. We won’t give up.

Regards,

iGulu Team

This development isn’t actually that surprising for anyone who backed or followed the project. iGulu met its funding goal in May of 2016, and after a litany of production and manufacturing delays, the CEO publicly apologized to backers in December of 2017 and said the company had secured an undisclosed amount of funding from three Chinese VC firms to supplement the $1.1 million it had raised via crowdfunding. At that time, the company was expecting to ship its product in July 2018.

This projected ship date obviously came and went with no (well, one?) iGulus brewing up frosty mugs of beer for the backers who ponied up at least $489 a pop to get one. And though the latest update seems to offer those who funded the project a ray of hope, history shows its unlikely that all of the 1,000+ backers will ever get their iGulus.

We’ve reached out to iGulu for comment and will update if we hear back.

At this point, we sound like a broken record, but there’s a HUGE caveat emptor when backing hardware projects from untested companies on crowdfunding platforms. Designing a one-off prototype is relatively easy. Manufacturing that same device at scale in China brings up a host of unforeseen and expensive issues (see: Rite Press, Cinder).

Some home beer brewers have come out of crowdfunding unscathed — Picobrew and BrewArt, for example. I am also optimistic about BEERMKR because that was built by an existing company that had previous experience with beer-related hardware.

It doesn’t look, however, like iGulu has got what it takes to succeed. Appliance giant LG is getting into the home brew appliance business; maybe it can do what Desora did with Cinder and buy up iGulu’s assets for cheap.

Oh, and if that lone Australian who received their device is reading, please drop us a line to let us know how it works.

Leftover Sushi Rice Gets Upcycled into Danish Beer

Brewing beer generates a lot of leftover organic waste via spent grains. But now researchers in Denmark have turned the tables and found a way to turn sushi rice that would go to waste into beer, reports Beverage Daily.

While rice has been used to make beer in Asia before, it’s a challenging ingredient because it’s starchy and blocks the filters used in the brewing process. Researchers from the Technical University of Denmark, along with a company called ScienceBrew, partnered up with the Copenhagen restaurant Sticks ‘n’ Sushi to upcycle as much excess cooked rice as possible.

The trio was able to brew up 10 liter batches of beer made almost entirely out of surplus cooked rice, water and little bit of malt. The result is dubbed Gohan Biiru, and it’s available at the Sticks ‘n’ Sushi in the Lyngby district in Copenhagen (road trip!).

While creating beer from rice in one restaurant is just a drop in the bucket in the fight against food waste, it is part of a larger upcycling trend that is going global. ReGrained actually uses the spent grains from beer brewing to create flour that is both sold and turned into snack bars, Pulp Pantry turns the leftover bits from juicing into flavorful snacks, and Render is making new drinks out of leftover whey and pickle juice. And, of course, there’s Toast Ale, which makes beer out of bread that would otherwise be thrown out.

As my colleague Catherine Lamb wrote, to truly make an impact in reducing food waste, we need more behavioral changes at the consumer level. But an easy way to start (if you’re in Copenhagen) is to consume a pint of sushi rice beer.