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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

homebrewing

Beer Made With a Beer Brewing Robot Wins Gold Medal

In July, a homebrewer using a BEERMKR home beer brewing appliance won gold at the National HomeBrew Competition.

According to a release from BEERMKR, a beer brewed by Christian Chandler of Phoenix, AZ, won the gold medal in the Porters & Stouts category, beating out 164 entries in the contest put on by the American HomeBrewers Association.

The win was an important milestone in that it’s the first time that a homebrewer used an automated beer brewing countertop appliance to help develop an award-winning recipe at the HomeBrew Competition.

So how did Chandler use the BEERMKR to develop his beer? From the release:

Chandler says that BEERMKR’s small batches and ease of use let him make multiple iterations of a recipe and “really tweak things on the fly.” Chandler was able to fine-tune his recipe into a national gold medal winner.  The repeatability of BEERMKRs process also helped him make consistently good beer as he advanced from the first to second rounds of the competition.

Chandler used the BEERMKR to do quick batches, which he later scaled up using a higher capacity brewing system called the Grainfather to increase batch size. While The Grainfather automates some parts of the brewing process, it still requires the user to monitor readings manually and transfer the wort to a separate container for fermentation after the brew. The BEERMKR, on the other hand, automates much more of the process of beer brewing. The brewer chooses the ingredients and builds a recipe, but from there the sensors and software of the BEERMKR monitor much of the process, from brewing through fermentation to carbonation.

In short, Chandler, an experienced brewer, integrated the BEERMKR as part of his recipe development process. He iterated recipes and brewed quick small batches with smaller portions of ingredients on the BEERMKR, and used his bigger machine to brew larger quantities once the recipe was dialed in.

So will it soon become commonplace for homebrewers to use brewbots like the BEERMKR to develop recipes for brewing competitions? I imagine so, in part because the machines essentially act as a tool for serious homebrewers to develop recipes faster. While purists might resent any use of technology when it comes to brewing up a batch, technology like the BEERMKR helps them get better at their craft by automating the boring parts like temperature control and leaving the creative parts up to them.

You can watch a video of Chandler below talking about developing his award winning recipe with the BEERMKR.

BEERMKR beer wins gold at National Homebrew Competition

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.

PicoBrew Unveils Its ‘Beer Publishing System’ For Aspiring Beer Entrepreneurs

When Bill Mitchell spoke at last year’s Smart Kitchen Summit, he discussed his company’s vision of creating a publishing system for beer makers to allow them to monetize their creations through what he called an “app store for beer”. Today PicoBrew unveiled the platform for making this happen: the PicoBrew Network. The announcement was made in conjunction with the launch of the new PicoBrew Z modular beer brewing system I wrote about last week.

So how does PicoBrew’s new beer publishing system work?

Aspiring publishers will use the PicoBrew Z or the PicoBrew Zymatic (the first generation appliance from PicoBrew) to create beer recipes using loose grains and hops. Unlike traditional home beer brewing gear, the PicoBrew gear allows beer brewers to craft recipes using software that connects directly to the brewing appliance and allows for precise recipe tweaks.

Once a brewer fine-tunes a recipe they want to submit, they can upload it to the PicoBrew Network (PBN) portal. PicoBrew will review the recipe and if things looks good, will create a test PicoPak (the “brewing pods” used by the PicoBrew Pico, the lower-cost, more automated brewing appliances for home users) to send to the recipe creator to verify whether the PicoPak-brewed-beer tastes like they intended.

Once the brewer and PicoBrew find the right mix of grains and hops to replicate the brewer’s recipe, PicoBrew will manufacture PicoPaks with this recipe and make them available to other PicoBrew appliance owners via the company’s BrewMarketplace. For each PicoPak sold, the crafter of the recipe of gets a royalty payment.

What’s interesting about PicoBrew’s new beer publishing system is it essentially offers a new way to monetize beer brewing that separates itself from the actual physical production of beer in the long run, making them not unlike a book author publishing their creation through a publishing house or on the Kindle bookstore.

While I think it’s an interesting new way for small beer makers to make money from their creations, some brewing traditionalists may not feel this way. Over on Reddit, one commenter wrote, “Selling recipes? For real? That goes against the very spirit of our hobby but I guess making an appliance for people who can’t brew is how you capture people that are willing to pay for app storeified brewing.”

My guess is that while some old-schoolers who paid the price and learned how to brew in their garage and embrace the DIY culture of traditional homebrewing may eschew digital approaches, others may see a new pathway to monetizing their love of beer-making. According to PicoBrew, they already have 800 home beer brewers who have applied to be a part of the PBN.

Mitchell believes the strong early interest in their beer publishing platform is partly because it allows the aspiring beer entrepreneur to sidestep the traditional costs of starting a craft beer brewery. “While we have all probably dreamed of quitting our day jobs and opening a brewery, startup costs and a competitive landscape make this option unworkable for most homebrewers,” Mitchell said in the announcement. “The PicoBrew Network (PBN) gives homebrewers the opportunity to distribute the beers they create and earn royalties, while PicoBrew does all the work of marketing, manufacturing and fulfilling the Paks.”

Part of the reason PicoBrew is launching the PBN now is they finally have the hardware for aspiring recipe creators to do both recipe crafting and PicoPak testing within one appliance. The original Zymatic allowed brewers to craft recipes, but because the appliance predates the creation of the Pico and its PicoPak brewing pods, a Zymatic owner needed to buy a separate Pico to try their creations out. The PicoBrew Z can brew beer from both PicoPaks as well as from loose grains and hops.

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.