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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

home brewing

For the Future of Beer, “New is King” — That Means Cannabis, Automation, and Glitter

Fittingly, we held our Future of Beer food tech meetup last night at Pike Brewing Company’s Beer Museum, which features an epic collection of memorabilia spanning from the invention of beer in 6,000 B.C Sumeria to Prohibition to the craft brewery revolution of today.

But we were concerned with where beer is heading next. To tackle this subject, we brought in Erin James of Sip Northwest, Annie Johnson of Picobrew, Scott Riefler of Tarukino, and Drew Gillespie of Pike Brewing Co. Here are a few takeaways from the experts on what the beer drinking experience of the future might look (and taste) like (yes, robots are involved).

Photo: Catherine Lamb

For beer, new (and fresh, and local) is king
Our panelists all agreed on one thing: in the beer world, consumers are always looking for what’s new. That can be new ingredients — like different varietals of grain, CBD and THC, wine yeast, or even glitter (gag) — or new drinking experiences, like cans instead of bottles or breweries with child play areas.

It can also be a new twist on beer itself, like different styles or infusions, or even new drinks that beer-like (carbonated, with low-ABV), such as hard kombucha and boozy sparkling water. James called the latter trend the “adulting” of traditionally non-alcoholic beverages. She explained that this new wave of beer-ifying non-beer drinks is feeding the demand for two things: “more” and “new.”

Millennials are leading the charge
Millennials love beer. No, but really love it. According to James, in the millennial demographic, beer has surpassed spirits as the most popular alcoholic beverage. However, this audience is not just driven by taste. “They’re also very value-driven,” she explained. And they value both ingredient sources (local is king), opt for local craft breweries and prefer cans to bottles (for environmental reasons).

Turns out, they’re not so keen on brewing at home, at least with Picobrew’s countertop brewing and distilling device. “At first, we thought our customer was a millennial,” explained Johnson. “Actually, it’s more of an engineer.” Millennials prefer to drink their beers straight from the source: local craft breweries.

Beer drinking isn’t just about the beer itself
According to Riefler, when medical marijuana becomes legal in a state, alcohol consumption drops 15 percent. “It gives people a choice about how they intoxicate,” he said. Beer is one such vehicle, but not the only one, and when people have more choice, they might move away from booze. That doesn’t mean that you can’t fuse the two: In October 2018 Tarukino launched Reeb, a cannabis-infused barley soda “reminiscent of a pale ale.” But instead of alcohol, Reeb has THC.

Gillespie isn’t worried that cannabis will take too much business away from the alcohol industry — or at least the craft beer industry. “Craft [beer] is different than general liquor,” he said. He believes craft beer drinkers want a specific drinking experience, one that’s “sensory and social,” not just a new way to get intoxicated.

Photo: Catherine Lamb

Science can enable better beer drinking
Craft beer brewing may be an art, but it still relies on science and technology. “There’s a lot of science going on in the ‘back room,'” said Riefler. That can be relatively basic technology — like brewing tanks and taps — or more futuristic stuff, like Picobrew’s countertop brewer, which some would categorize as a robot.

Johnson, who has a strong craft brew pedigree (she won the American Homebrewer Association’s Homebrewer of the Year award in 2013), still thinks that in order “to get good beer, you need automation.” That’s true whether you’re a craft brewery or just an avid home brewer: automation helps ensure that beer is consistent and tastes good. Which means that, with Picobrew’s tech, you could make a batch of Pike Brewing’s Monkey’s Uncle beer at home using the same ingredients and brew method — and it would (at least theoretically) taste just as good as if you’d gotten it fresh from the source.

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We can talk about glitter beer and robotic brewers all we like, but as Johnson put it, “at the end of the day, all that matters is the taste.” Consumer tastes and brewing technology can change, but appreciation for quality and consistency will never go out of style.

For the short term, there is one type of beer you should expect to see dominating the taps at your local brewpub: lager. James explained that, after the IPA craze, lager is coming back in popularity with a vengeance. Johnson made another prediction for what’s going to be the next big thing in beer (you heard it here first): wine/beer hybrids. Cheers to that.

Keep an eye out for our next food tech meetup coming soon! 

PicoBrew Goes Beyond Beer with Pico U, a Universal Brewing Appliance

Today PicoBrew announced the Pico U, a new multi-drink brewing appliance that allows users to make beer and a variety of other craft beverages such as cold brew coffee, kombucha, and horchata.

While the move into what the company calls “fusion drinks” is a significant new direction for PicoBrew, it’s not altogether surprising. The eight-year-old company has become reliably predictable by introducing new products every year that are both more affordable and offer greater functionality.

The dimensions of the Pico U are significantly smaller than both the Pico Pro and Pico C, which PicoBrew told us was in part an effort to make the appliance more attractive to those worried about kitchen counter space. Makes sense, since the crowding of countertops is real in the era of kitchen gadget proliferation, and the Pico U’s footprint is closer to that of an espresso machine to that of the Pico C’s countertop microwave oven-like dimensions.

With the move to smaller form factor and fusion drinks, the Pico U also comes with a smaller step filter which holds the company’s compostable ingredient pods called PicoPaks (the smaller PicoPaks for the mini step filter will be called, naturally, PicoPak Minis).  The smaller step filter makes 1.3-liter batch drink brews, and those looking for larger batches (or who want to brew beer) will need the standard 5-liter step filter.

To brew fusion beverages such as kombucha, horchata or yerba mate, Pico U owners will need to buy a PicoPak through the PicoBrew website. The company has indicated that they will offer both multipak and single pak versions to buy online and that the pricing for the Paks will range depending on the price of the ingredients. More exotic brews with high-priced ingredients like saffron or peaberry might cost over $15 for a batch; simpler tea based brews will be lower.

In typical PicoBrew fashion, the company is launching the new product via Kickstarter. The Pico U, which ship this fall to backers, comes in both a “basic” and “deluxe” configurations seen below:

Pico U Model Configurations

As can be seen above, Kickstarter pricing for the basic configuration starts at $169 and pricing for the Deluxe configuration is $189. My guess is that with only a $20 price difference the Pico U Deluxe package will be the most popular, particularly for those who have been on the fence about buying previous Pico models and were waiting for the price to come down. When these models come to retail, they will be priced $249 and $299 respectively.

One feature of the Pico U that is intriguing to me is the single serve coffee capability. With its single-serve coffee function,  PicoBrew allows the Pico U owner to brew coffee with “Gold Cup” standard precision temperature control, which means the water must be 200°F plus or minus a couple degrees when it hits the grounds.  That’s pretty cool since Gold Cup coffee makers are a thing, but I’m more intrigued by the ability to do single cup brews, one of the things I wanted with my still MIA Spinn.

I also like the idea of being able to use my own coffee beans, a departure from other beverages such as beer which require PicoPaks. If there’s one complaint I’ve heard from home brewers considering previous Pico models, it’s that the cost-per-brew of the Pico is still fairly high. PicoPaks range in cost from $20 for the PicoBrew house brands up to $25 to $29 for PicoPaks from their brewery partners. That translates to about $1.50-$2 per 12 ounce beer, which is less than buying in bottles but still not exactly cheap.

Pricing gets us to the broader question of is whether this is the PicoBrew model that will take the company – and home brewing – more mass market. The company seems focused on making that happen by continually dropping prices, improving the ease of use and making their products smaller all while adding new features like fusion drink brewing. And certainly, by doing all that with the Pico U, my guess is they will likely entice more wannabe homebrewers into the PicoBrew universe.

However, going more mass-market will ultimately depend on how many are ok with paying for ingredient packs.  Long term, it will be interesting to see if the company starts to bring the pricing down on their ingredients, something which will ultimately be heavily dependent on volume. Of course, this is dependent on how many Picos are out in the field brewing up batches of beer and kombucha. If that sounds like the classic chicken-egg problem, that’s because it is.

However, there’s no doubt the Pico U is the most approachable and mass market-ready PicoBrew yet, so I expect we’ll see the company beat its past crowdfunding records and sell a whole bunch of beer brewing appliances.

PicoBrew Aims To Fill Gap Between Home & Pro Market With PicoBrew Z

Today PicoBrew teased the release of a new beer brewing appliance called the PicoBrew Z.

Unlike the Seattle startup’s last two crowdfunding campaigns which offered up new appliances for home beer brewing, the PicoBrew Z looks to be designed for the pro market. While the company is keeping most of the details of the new appliance under wraps until next week, the teaser site indicates that the new device will brew up to 10 gallons and is targeted at brewpubs, restaurateurs and home brewers looking to take their hobby to the next level.

Here’s how PicoBrew CEO Bill Mitchell described the PicoBrew Z in an email to potential backers:

Today is an exciting day for us: We’re introducing the PicoBrew Z Series, our first professional-grade, all-grain brewing appliance line. While we have been very successful with 2 generations of consumer Pico machines, we have not yet addressed the needs of the prosumer and professional audience since the launch of our original Zymatic…until now! Reap the benefits of larger batch sizes from 1 to 10 gallons, rugged, maintainable, industrial grade components designed for professional use and more with the new PicoBrew Z Series.

In some ways, the Z appears to be an evolutionary step forward from PicoBrew’s first device, the Zymatic. While the Zymatic was never pitched as professional grade equipment, about half of the roughly three thousand Zymatics ended up in craft or mass market breweries.

The reason brewmasters liked the Zymatic is it gave them a way to prototype new beers without spending thousands of dollars experimenting on big batches. However, some craft brewers wanted to go beyond prototyping and use the Zymatic to create small experimental batches to serve their customers. The problem with that idea is the Zymatic only brews 2.5 gallon batches, about half the size of a soda keg (a cornelius keg) and just a fraction of the standard beer keg (15 gallons or half a barrel).  The Z fills the gap between the Zymatic and smaller pro grade brewing equipment (which often start at half a barrel to a barrel of brew capacity) by brewing up to 10 gallon batches.

While PicoBrew has yet to release pricing on the Z, my guess is it will come in below $10 thousand. With the cost of entry for traditional microbrewery equipment often reaching $100 thousand or more, the PicoBrew Z could tap into an unmet demand by filling a substantial void between consumer and pro markets. The Z also looks like it will have some headroom to grow, as Mitchell describes the new line as a “series”, which sounds to me like it will have different SKUs with potentially different capacities.

In another departure from past product introductions, it looks like this time around PicoBrew isn’t headed to Kickstarter. In one way, they look to be taking a cue from Glowforge, a company which shattered all hardware crowdfunding campaigns in 2015 with its 3D printer.

Early indications are this was a good idea. In an emailed response to my inquiry about the PicoBrew Z, an exec said the PicoBrew Z is on a ‘GlowForge-like trajectory’ since unveiling this morning with “thousands of signups” in the first hour.

You can hear about PicoBrew Z in our daily spoon podcast.  You can also subscribe in Apple podcasts or through our Amazon Alexa skill. 

PLAATO Adds IoT Smarts To Beer Fermentation

Here’s how Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine describes the purpose of a fermentation airlock:

The sole purpose of any airlock is to allow an otherwise sealed fermentation environment to relieve internal pressure. That’s it. Airlocks aren’t designed to tell you anything, and they aren’t indicators of fermentation. 

Sorry to break it to you Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, but the folks behind PLAATO have different ideas.

That’s right, the Norwegian startup is looking to take what is typically a dumb $3 piece of plastic used to release excess CO2 during the fermentation process and add IoT smarts to create a tool for beer brewers to monitor beer gravity, temperature and estimate the alcohol content of the beer using algorithms.

Sure, the PLAATO isn’t a beer brewing appliance, but as it turns out, when it comes to modernizing the beer brewing process not everyone wants a turnkey system like PicoBrew and BrewArt. Some home brewers want to brew their beer the traditional way, but aren’t against the idea of applying modern technology to refine the process and elevate their craft. PLAATO helps do that by monitoring the amount of CO2 generated by fermentation, send that data via Wi-Fi to the cloud, which then allows the brewer to monitor the brew process in a mobile app.

The PLAATO app

The PLAATO airlock, which can also be used for fermentation of cider, wine and mead, has reached its target via the company’s Kickstarter campaign. The campaign, which as of this writing has six days left, has raised a total of $165 thousand.

The team behind the PLAATO started working on the concept a year and a half ago. After finishing their first prototype in May of 2016, the company finished hardware design in February of this year and started the process of moving into production. The company plans to ship the PLAATO to backers by October of this year.

PicoBrew Announces PicoStill, A Home Still That Makes Whiskey (And Oh Yeah, Essential Oils)

One of the worst kept secrets in craft distilling is nearly every whiskey maker gets their start making the good stuff at home. One only has to look at the many home stills for sale online to see there’s a strong market for home distillation equipment. Everything from big vats for making moonshine to smaller copper pot distillation kits for “essential oils” are widely available on the internet.

The reason home distilling is a semi-secret at all is because it’s against federal law. Of course, that doesn’t stop most wannabe home distillers, since local authorities don’t have the time or resources to bust people for making hooch unless they sell it or present a danger to your neighbors. (Related: Read about the state of home distilling laws in 2017 here).

Even with lackadaisical enforcement of federal anti-home distilling laws, the number of home liquor distillers has remained just a fraction of the size of the beer brewing market. While federal anti-distilling laws have hindered the growth of the market, the reality is home distillation is just not as easily approachable as beer making. Not only is making liquor at home technically more dangerous, it’s also a more complex, multi-step process.

But now, PicoBrew, a company that has simplified the craft of making beer with its beer brewing appliances, hopes to help make home distillation easier too. Today the company announced the PicoStill, a new device that, when combined one of the company’s brewing kegs, utilizes a patent pending process to transform beer into the hard stuff. Of course, PicoBrew emphasizes the PicoStill is for making essential oils, concentrated oils extracted from plants that can then be used for such applications as incense or adding flavor to food or drink. PicoBrew also lets you know that if you have the “proper licenses and permits”, the PicoStil can also make a “wide range of alcohols”.

The Pico Still

If spirits distilled from beer sounds strange, it shouldn’t. In fact, pretty much all whiskey starts as what is a form of beer.

“All bourbon is whiskey, all whiskey is ‘beer’,” says Nate Kaiser, the founder and head distiller of 2Bar Spirits, a craft distillery in Seattle. According to Kaiser, his distillery’s bourbon starts as a form of what he calls “corn beer”, which is basically a relatively low alcohol beer.

But as with most whiskey, the fermented “beer” distillers get from grains isn’t meant for consumption. Usually it’s just a step in the process towards eventually making whiskey. That’s not to say you can’t make whiskey from fully finished, drinkable beer and, increasingly, more professional distillers are doing just that. Some of these whiskies, such as Marko Karakasevic’s Charbay Whiskey R5, have garnered rave reviews.

And now, PicoBrew hopes that those who buy one of their beer brewing appliances  – provided they have the proper licensing and permits (wink wink) – can make great spirits too. The new PicoStill is available as part of the company’s Kickstarter campaign for their third generation brewing appliance, the Pico C, for $170. Backers can buy the Pico C and the PicoStill as a package for $499, and the PicoStill will be available for retail for $349 in the fall.

Nate Kaiser, who got his start without the benefit of something like the PicoStill, thinks that the device could help usher in a new a generation of craft distillers. “This allows people to try distillation in a simple and direct way, to learn the process by which essential oils or spirits can be made” said Kaiser.

Want to meet the leaders defining the future of food, cooking and the kitchen? Get your tickets for the Smart Kitchen Summit today.

Can You Make Hooch At Home? Not Yet. Here’s The State Of Home Distilling in 2017

If you want to create your own booze, I have good news for you: With home distilling kits widely available online and an abundance of of information about how to make liquor through books and websites, it’s easier than ever to make hooch at home.

But there’s still one problem for all you aspiring Jasper Newton Daniels out there: It’s a federal crime to distill liquor at home for personal consumption.

Of course, it shouldn’t be that way. At a time when millions of people make their own beer and wine and the legalization of pot in many states has also opened the door for people to grow their own cannabis, the federal law against home distilling seems like an antiquated holdover from the prohibition era. While the authorities point to the fact that these regulations have been put in place to protect consumers – it can be dangerous after all to make liquor at home without the proper precautions – most home distilling enthusiasts believe the real reason both the state and federal governments haven’t changed the law is fear of what such a change would have on the billions of dollars in tax revenue liquor sales generate every year across the country.

One only needs to look at the continued growth in demand for craft beer to realize this is a ridiculous argument. Not only has the craft beer industry exploded since home brewing was legalized in 1978, home production has also served as a training ground for many creative entrepreneurs who have helped reshape the craft beer and broader beer industry as a whole.

There have been signs of hope on the legislation front. Two years ago, a bill was brought up in Congress (H.R.2903) sponsored by Minnesota Congressman Erik Paulsen that would have legalized home distilling of liquor for personal consumption.  The bill, which spawned a similar bill in the Senate (S.1562), was called the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act of 2015 and was focused in large part on streamlining and reducing taxation of the burgeoning craft distillery market. Nestled in that bill was also a stipulation that would have made home distillation legal at the federal level.

While seeing fairly strong bipartisan support, both the House and Senate bills never made it out of committee. However, both the bills have been resurrected this year with the same sponsors of both the House and Senate, but the problem is both curiously left out the provisions for legalization of home distilling. Given the strong anti-legalization posture around marijuana coming from Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department, one has to wonder if the backers of these bills predicted strong headwinds against the legalization of home distilling under the Trump administration.

All of this ignores the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of people that make their own spirits at home today. Home stills are legal to sell under the guise that people will make such concoctions as hop oils (which are legal), not spirits such as whiskey (currently illegal for home production). The reality is most people who buy home stills use them to make booze. The reason they can get away with it is local law enforcement have bigger fish to fry than chasing after home distillers (unless, of course, they sell their wares to others).

One possible route towards legalization in coming years could be at the state level. Missouri has already made it legal to make spirits at home, and given what we’ve seen in the cannabis world, there might be a movement towards doing so in spirits. There is also a push by home distilling interest groups to get language inserted in the current bills up for consideration to allow for home distillation, but so far there’s no sign that the sponsors of those bills will make any amendments.

Bottom line? If you want to make booze at home, you easily can, and soon there might even be innovation by some aspiring entrepreneurs to make doing so easier. Just make sure to tell anyone who asks that you’re making “essential oils”.

A Look At The New Machine Washable Pico C Keg

This morning I wrote about PicoBrew’s new Kickstarter campaign and their new lower-priced Pico C homebrew appliance (starting at $279).

While much of the focus for PicoBrew in this most recent product launch was reaching a more affordable price for new brewers, the company also focused on making the process of home brewing a little easier. This effort included a new brew app as well as a new beer subscription service, but perhaps the biggest step forward in ease-of-use is the new Pico C Keg.

What’s the difference with the C Keg and the older ball-lock model that came standard with the original Pico? For one, the connectors move away from a ball-lock model to a much simpler hose-barb connector.  According to PicoBrew CEO Bill Mitchell, newer brewers often will neglect to fully lock in the ball-lock connectors on the older model, so the newer connectors should eliminate that possibility.

But perhaps the biggest difference is the new Pico C’s removable lid and machine washability. One of the challenges with home brewing is the need for home brewers to make sure equipment is really clean, which usually requires special cleaners that need to be purchased at a local homebrew store or speciality retailer online. With the Pico C Keg, the need for special cleaners are eliminated since you can just drop in the dishwasher.

Of course, this doesn’t eliminate the need for cleaners for serving kegs, but one step at a time, right?

You can watch PicoBrew’s Bill Mitchell explain the new C Keg in the video below.

Want to meet the leaders defining the future of food, cooking and the kitchen? Get your tickets for the Smart Kitchen Summit today.

AB InBev & Keurig Team Up to Create Home System For Beer & Cocktails

While companies such as Picobrew and Whirlpool’s Vessi were showcasing their high-tech methods for brewing beer at CES 2017 in Las Vegas, two giants of the beverage industry confirmed a partnership that could shake up the market for home-based brewers. AB InBev, the world’s largest beer brewer, and JAB Holdings, the corporate parent behind the Keurig pod-based drink system, announced they are teaming up to create a home-brewing system that can deliver beer and spirits to consumers.

The deal should come as no surprise given that JAB Chief Executive Olivier Goudet is also the chairman of AB InBev.

The announcement leads to more questions than answers, but the partnership is likely to take advantage of the technology behind Keurig’s Kold machine which offered single-serve sodas. Considered a bust, Kold was discontinued in the summer of 2016 when customers who owned the product were given refunds. Some of the Kold features, such as “Party Mode,” which allowed a user to crank out more than 30 drinks in a row, will be useful for the new unit.

The new appliance will be able to serve beer, spirits, cocktails and mixers. Given that those beverages require vastly different brewing methods, In-Bev and JAB might be looking at two machines. Beer requires a lengthy fermentation process which would be challenging to distil into an on-demand dispenser. For beer lovers, the two companies could develop a popularly priced home-fermentation machine along the lines of Whirlpool’s Group W Indiegogo project, Vessi. Such a machine might carry the branding of AB InBev’s popular Budweiser or Stella Artois, targeting the fan bases of those already popular brands.

The AB InBev/JAB Holdings partnership will have little impact on the higher-end home beer brewing market. Entrepreneurs looking to build DIY systems are focused on experienced hobbyists who want to create highly customized brews. Home brew masters are rarely novices and are more likely to want machines that allow them to focus more on the art of brewing rather than the mechanical process. The brewing appliance created by the new partnership will target those wanting to up their home entertaining game rather than sophisticated drinkers.

The Keurig for the cocktail set is an easier play for the two companies, with a retooled and improved version of the Kold (a 2.0) ready to tackle that segment. The robotic bartender market is already well established with such companies as Barbotics, Blend Bow and Bartesian already creating interest with early adopters.  Bartesian is making cocktails in second utilizing a proprietary cocktail capsule. Neither InBev nor JAB owns any companies in the spirits business, but plenty of brand names in that space would be eager to partner with someone able to crack the mass market with an adult beverage Keurig machine.

On the surface, building a market for home beer making could appear to be a conflict for In Bev. In actual practice, companies such as Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and even JAB’s Peet’s Coffee did not lose branded-store customers when they expanded their reach to include retail channels and Keurig K-Cups. In fact, by allowing beer drinkers to enjoy a fresh Bud or Stella from their home taps could extend customer brand loyalty to bars and restaurants. The challenge for the two companies will be to create an easy-to-use set of ingredients and recipe to replicate the branded brews while allowing the advanced home brewer the opportunity to put his or her signature touch on the final product.

One thing is certain—anything proprietary that results from AB InBev/JAB alliance will be more closely guarded than Keurig’s original K-Cup design. The patent for Keurig’s single-serve pods expired in 2012 because of the ambiguous wording of its original claim. Failure to protect its IP cost the company billions as competitors lined up to create pods for the popular machine.

PicoBrew Will Now Let You Customize Your Brew With FreeStyle PicoPaks

While PicoBrew’s second generation home brew appliance, the Pico, made significant leaps forward in approachability when compared to the company’s first home-brew machine in the Zymatic, it also sacrificed one really cool feature: the ability to customize your home brew.

That’s because the Pico uses a pod-system called PicoPaks that come preconfigured with the grains and hops rather than requiring the home brewer to mess with all that him or herself. It makes brewing much easier, but it also means less creativity since you are brewing a pre-configured and pre-measured brew from the PicoPak.

But at CES this week, the company announced the arrival of the FreeStyle PicoPak BrewCrafter, their new online PicoPak configuration tool that allows home brewers to drag and drop ingredients in a virtual PicoPak to create custom homebrews.

Drag and drop beer making is really cool, but unlocking custom beer brewing with the Pico required much more than simply creating a web-based configuration tool. The vast majority of the work was on the back-end manufacturing and assembly of the new custom PicoPaks, where the company has created the ability for a PicoPak to move down the assembly line and get a one-off custom mix of grains tailored by the home brewer through the BrewCrafter tool. This is a significant departure from traditional assembly line production where there’s an emphasis on high degrees of repeatability. PicoBrew CEO Bill Mitchell told me they’ve had some observers who work with automated food production visit their production plant in Seattle and have said they’ve never seen anything like it.

As a Pico owner, I’m pretty excited about FreeStyle PicoPaks. However, I am slightly worried I’ll go overboard with certain ingredients like when I would frequent those Mongolian-style BBQ restaurants where you tell the cook all the ingredients you want on your food, but soon realize three handfuls of hot peppers might not have been such a good idea. It looks like Pico will try to steer amateur brewers like me away from overloading certain flavors as the BrewCrafter will gently nudge you back towards sanity with mix-balances to “ensure creation of a delicious beer recipe.”

For the Pico user, FreeStyle PicoPaks are available now. The BrewCrafter guide holds your hand along the way by provided “know-good” baseline beer recipes for you to tweak with a personal flourish by adjusting grains and hops to change the flavor, alcohol content and more. Admittedly, creating a custom brew in a browser might not satisfy those hard-core home brew types that want to measure grains and hops the old fashioned way to achieve their beer masterwork, but it’s likely those folks probably wouldn’t have bought a Pico in the first place.

And anyway, if you do own a Pico and want greater control over your home brew, you can always buy a Zymatic.

The Year In Smart Bar

Ah, 2016, the year we all needed to take a big ol’ drink. Fortunately a flurry of innovation in gadgets, apps, and platforms has helped make that easier in more ways than one. Here are the most notable happenings and advancements in the past 12 months.

Make It From Scratch

People have been home-brewing for decades, but in the past few years it’s reached a fever pitch, with every wannabe hipster (sorry, Mike) fermenting in their basement. The Pico simplifies this process with a plug-and-play model, including ready-to-brew PicoPak ingredient kits and the ability to brew five liters of craft beer in about two hours. Meanwhile Hopsy premiered its HomeTap so you can enjoy the mouthfeel of a freshly poured pint out of a tap, even if you didn’t brew the beer yourself. And just in case there’s not enough foam, get yourself the Sonic beer foamer device to add the perfect amount.

Even big players like Whirlpool entered this space in 2016: In July its crowdfunding project reached over 220 percent of its goal, and soon you’ll be able to buy the Vessi beer fermentor and dispenser for $1,800. (In other words, crowdfunding is finally legit, with Wired even profiling one of the first companies to run a successful crowdfunding campaign — for 3D-printed cocktail ice.) And foodie inventor Dave Arnold launched a crowdfunding campaign for his Spinzall, a small centrifuge designed for restaurant and home use for under $1,000.

Robotic Bartenders

The ready-to-drink (RTD) market is somewhere around $3 billion, and the hottest thing in the smart bar this year was clearly robotic bartenders. There are a spate of different companies vying for space: Bartesian raised an undisclosed sum, reportedly in the “millions”; Somabar raised $1.5 million; and Monsieur raised $1.2 million. In less professional news, the Open Bar robot was submitted to the 2016 Hackaday Prize contest and is actually open source, so all you eager coders can help perfect it.

Expect the playing field to become even more crowded in the next year with lookalike companies proving our eternal interest in robots.

Pour Yourself the Perfect Drink

Apps for the perfect cocktail, beer, and so on abounded this year. Competing with the Perfect Drink smart bartending platform, the Bernooli device and app make it easy to make a balanced drink, and even Alexa can help you figure out how to make a cocktail or give you wine recommendations. And Spanish chemists have created an app that will tell you if your beer is, for lack of a better word, skunked.

Meanwhile Hooch doesn’t want you to drink at home, alone: The company raised $1.5 million to expand its subscription platform that gives you one drink for free at bars all over New York and Los Angeles.

Totally Unnecessary Technology

What kind of year would it be without some totally ridiculous, over-the-top technology that we don’t need? A boring one, that’s what.

Enter the data cocktail machine that makes cocktails from tweets. Yes, the Arduino-powered robot pulls the latest five tweets from around the world that mention ingredients and then mashes them into a cocktail. Surprisingly, there aren’t any plans to commercialize the machine.

But who knows: 2017 is a whole new year.