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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

PicoBrew

After a Summer Hit by COVID-19, Home Brew Appliance Startup MiniBrew Secures Funding for 2021

MiniBrew, a Netherlands-based maker of home-brew appliances, announced last month they’ve secured funding to continue operations after a months-long struggle with COVID-19-related difficulties.

The company, which started shipping its home brew appliance last year in Europe, had big plans for expansion into the U.S. and other markets, but saw a number of strategic investors pull out in the midst of the pandemic.

The loss of investment back in June meant the company went into “suspension of payment” (meaning they couldn’t pay their creditors) and laid off members of the team. The resulting reduction in personnel and funding also meant MiniBrew had to put a halt on development of a 110-volt model of its machine for the U.S. market.

Despite the struggles due to COVID-related funding issues, the pullback came amidst an increase of usage of the appliances in the field as home brewers stuck indoors fired up their units to make beer. According to the company’s update, homebound MiniBrew users created three times more beer recipes compared to pre-COVID times.

Luckily for those MiniBrew users, the company announced they’ve reach an agreement with their creditors, secured funding and are once again adding new features for the MiniBrew such as recipe sharing.

MiniBrew’s struggles and small dedicated user base are reminiscent of PicoBrew’s here in the States, although unlike PicoBrew, the MiniBrew team was able to negotiate with its lenders to live another day.

Overall, home beer making automation remains a struggling category. In addition to PicoBrew and MiniBrew, we’ve watched startups like iGulu and HOPii struggle after big crowdfunding campaigns, while others, like LG’s much-hyped HomeBrew appliance, looks like it never got out the door.

Despite the category’s struggles, there are still companies like BEERMKR, INTHEKEG and Pinter rolling out products and an early and enthusiastic of early adopters buying them.

The challenge will be whether the category can ever break out beyond the small group of early adopters who are craving a tech-forward home brew solution.

PicoBrew’s Reluctant New Owner Puts Shuttered Startup’s Assets For Sale On Website

Ever since The Spoon first broke the story of home brew technology startup PicoBrew entering bankruptcy back in February, it’s been an open question about what would happen to all the company’s intellectual property once it ended up in the hands of a new owner.

Now we know. The new owners, a group called PB Funding Group, has launched a website and listed the company’s patents and product intellectual property for sale.

So who is PB Funding Group and how did they come to own all of the company’s assets?

As it turns out, PB Funding Group is the same group of former investors who became PicoBrew’s bridge lender in mid-2018 when the startup failed to secure a new round of financing. They gave the company until the end of last year and, after PicoBrew failed to lock in any potential buyers or investors in the midst of the emerging pandemic, PB Funding Group pushed the company into the receivership process.

It was a savvy move in retrospect since it allowed the group – after securing the winning bid – to emerge on the other side with all of the company’s assets but none of their debt. Since that time, the company put many of the operating assets such as PicoPak assembly machinery and warehouse gear up for auction to “arrest the massive warehousing and operational costs.”

And now, PB Funding Group new website lists off the various patents (and patents in process) and PicoBrew product line assets such as the Pico, Zymatic and PicoStill for sale or licensing.

From the group’s open letter on the website:

Efforts to find the right buyer, licensee, or partner are actively underway, however all operations had to be terminated to stop the losses. Many of the company’s assets were liquidated to arrest the massive warehousing and operational costs.

Conversations are ongoing with those interested in all or parts of the company, but nothing has been decided yet. We continue to search for buyers who are interested in some or all of the technology either in the form of a sale or potential licensing of the underlying technology.

Whether or not they ultimately find a home for the company’s patents or the product IP remains to be seen, but in the mean time PB Funding Group has promised to keep PicoBrew’s servers online for the foreseeable future.

That promise was a relief to a small but dedicated group of PicoBrew home brewers who are hoping to continue brewing with with their Picos. While they won’t be able to use PicoBrew-made PicoPaks, the community has been working on building self-sufficient alternatives such as 3D printed grain and hop baskets. And, anticipating the day that PicoBrew does shut off its servers, a Facebook group has developed a way to keep a Picos up and brewing without connecting to the company’s web servers.

Food Tech Intelligence Brief: The Lessons From PicoBrew (Spoon Plus)

Last week, an email went out to Picobrew customers informing them that PicoBrew had been sold through the bankruptcy process and had new owners (that won with a $7.5 million bid). The email also made clear the new owners weren’t all that interested in running the business.

And so as they sell off the pieces, I’ve been thinking about what lessons we can pull from the remains of a company that once had so much promise. There were many, in part because the company was trying to do so many things. They made hardware, had a consumables business, and sold into both consumer and professional markets. In a way, PicoBrew was as much a test lab for new ideas as it was a company, providing a fantastic case study for various food tech concepts and business models.

Of course, each company is its own unique combination of people, investors and ideas that ultimately results in a journey specific to them. That said, we can learn some truths from story of PicoBrew that are both instructive and broadly applicable to companies charting similar waters:

This Food Tech Intelligence Brief is available to Spoon Plus members. You can learn more about Spoon Plus here. 

Rest in Peace, PicoBrew

PicoBrew, the homebrewing appliance startup based in Seattle, is effectively shutting down the Spoon has learned today.

Back in February, the Spoon broke the story about PicoBrew entering the Washington State bankruptcy process in the form of court-managed receivership. Earlier this month, we uncovered news that the company had put up for sale via auction what looked to be most of the company’s warehouse and PicoPak assembly equipment.

And today we’ve learned that the company’s new owner, which our sources tell us is the former bridge lender who pushed the company into the receivership process, has won full ownership of the company as a result of submitting the winning bid.

According to sources, former company CEO Bill Mitchell sent a letter out this week that called PicoBrew and what happened a “noble failure.” And yesterday, the founder team (Bill Mitchell, his brother Jim Mitchell and Avi Geiger) was let go, along with the customer service team.

It’s unclear at this point what the company’s new management will do with PicoBrew. PicoBrew had assembled quite a decent patent portfolio around automated home brewing as well as in other areas such as home distilling. With the cap table effectively wiped clean, one can assume the assets (like the patents) are now fully owned by the winning bidder, so there’s a chance they’ll try to license the IP to future companies building products in home brewing. There’s also the chance they will try to sell the entire portfolio to the highest bidder.

As for continuing in the business under the PicoBrew brand, the chances for that are slim. The auction made it clear that the new owner is getting rid of all of the operational pieces of the business, something that wouldn’t make all that much sense if the plan was to continue on under the PicoBrew brand.

Finally, it remains to be seen what will happen to existing PicoBrew products. The servers that connect to the PicoBrew apps are still running for now, but it’s unclear if that will remain to be the case. Some PicoBrew users have suggested that the company open-source the software and allow the community to take over development, but it’s too soon to tell if the new owners would be open to such an idea.

We’ll keep an eye on this story and update you with any developments.

As It Auctions Assets and Lays Off Employees, It Appears Time May Have Run Out for PicoBrew

When I headed down to PicoBrew headquarters near the University of Washington in early February to talk to Bill Mitchell about his company’s recent entry into receivership, I had already heard of the fast-moving virus that had emerged out of the Wuhan area of China called coronavirus.

And still, despite the fact I was also aware that the first documented person in the US to contract COVID-19 was recovering just miles away from where we met that day, I had no idea just how much the virus would change our lives within the span of just a few weeks.

Fortunately for me, I didn’t have to find a buyer for my company. Mitchell, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. He had a company to sell, something I imagine in normal circumstances is probably pretty challenging. Add in a global pandemic, and it’s a task that seems practically impossible.

So now that it’s a couple months later and business has pretty much ground to a halt everywhere, I’ve been wondering just how far Mitchell and PicoBrew had gotten. While the company had announced it had shut down production and fulfillment facilities in the Seattle area due to COVID-19, there’s been no outward signs of an outcome for the company’s financial situation.

Unless, of course, you consider the curious development of one online auction for “surplus equipment no longer needed” by one PicoBrew, a sign of something potentially bigger.

While the auction describes what is up for bid as “surplus equipment”, many of the items look like equipment the company would need to operate their PicoPak production facility. For those of you not familiar with PicoBrew, PicoPaks are the ingredient pods needed to make beer with one of the company’s home beer brewing appliances and, at least originally, a core part of the company’s monetization business plan.

Some of the things included in the auction include two large industrial conveyors, a large industrial ingredient filler, four forklift machines (four!), and a bunch of other industrial gear. Throw in a bunch of actual products that PicoBrew sells to consumers like the Pico beer brewing appliances (over 100 of those), 200 or so PicoPaks and 150 brewing kegs and it looks like a liquidation.

The auction is not the only canary in the coal mine. Starting late last month, the company started to lay off key employees. Annie Johnnson, PicoBrew’s master brewer since the company’s early days, announced on Tuesday evening via Facebook that she had been abruptly laid off.

So what do auctions and abrupt layoffs mean for PicoBrew? While I can’t say with certainty the company is shutting down or just shuttering the PicoPak ingredient business, neither sign seems very encouraging.

I emailed Mitchell to ask about the auction and he responded saying he can’t comment on the record. Not a surprise, since ‘no comment’ seems like something an executive participating in a court-monitored receivership process should say.

So I guess we’ll have to wait and see whether PicoBrew has found a new strategic buyer or the lender has seized control of the company and is selling off parts (or shutting it down altogether). When we talked in February, Mitchell indicated that the lender had no intention at the time of shutting PicoBrew down. At the very least, the auction and departure of Johnson (who helps make the recipes for the PicoPaks) tells me there is a good chance they are getting out of the consumables business or, worse, the lender had a change of heart.

I suspect we should know soon. As for now though, if you own a PicoBrew and want to stock up on PicoPaks, you could always bid on them.

The Food Tech Show: What Do PicoBrew’s Struggles Mean for High Tech Beer Making?

The Spoon’s editor podcast is back and this week Jenn, Chris, Catherine and myself discuss the following stories:

As always, you can subscribe to the Food Tech Show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download this week’s episode direct to your device or just click play below.

The PicoBrew CaskForge is Like a Time Machine for Whiskey

When it comes to most types of food, the fresher the better.

Unless, of course, you’re talking whiskey or rum or any other type of spirit where aging is a key contributor to the flavor of the finished product. With the ‘good stuff’, the older the drink, generally the more valuable and desirable the product.

This business of aging spirits works well for established distillers who already have lots of their aged brew sitting in barrels and on store shelves, but for a new craft distiller of a spirit like whiskey or rum, chances are pretty good they’ll need to sell some of their non-aged white dog (also known as moonshine) spirit just to pay the bills.

But what if a distiller had a machine that could create many of the same flavor effects that come from putting your distillate into an oak barrel for years and years? Would they take it?

That’s the question PicoBrew is posing with their new CaskForge spirits aging technology. The company, which as I wrote last week is up for sale, has developed a technology that they claim can mimic esterification and other effects that result from the aging process a spirit undergoes and essentially produce basically the same magic elixir overnight.

Of course, there’s no doubt most master distillers and spirits snobs would turn up their ester-sniffing noses up at the very idea that a good bottle of scotch or whiskey could cheat time. But, over the past few years there has been a number of new entrants into the accelerated-aging market and PicoBrew’s CaskForge is just the latest.

Approaches to spirits aging run the gamut. One company called Terrassentia uses machines called “Rosies” to pump ultrasonic waves that they claim enhances the flavor profile.

Another company with aging-acceleration technology is Lost Spirits. Lost Spirits exposes spirits to varying light and heat within bioreactors to create simulated aged spirits in a matter of days.

Then there’s Cleveland, which uses a combination of exposure to wood staves and varying levels of pressure and oxygenation.

And Hudson makes bourbon by putting their distillate into small barrels (to get a better ratio of wood to liquid) and literally serenades the liquid with music to agitate the molecules as a way to accelerate the aging.

Jim and Bill Mitchell

So how does PicoBrew’s CaskForge do it? While the cofounder brothers of PicoBrew Bill and Jim Mitchell wouldn’t disclose the exact specifics (patents are still pending), they explained how they approached spirits aging in much the same way they did to creating their beer brewing appliance: they broke down every part of the process and used technology to simulate the various aging effects.

“It’s very similar to the way we invented the Zymatic and the whole process where we were able to shrink down the elements of a brewery,” said Bill Mitchell. “We took each element, asked how can we create that separately, and systemize it and see how we can sequence it in program steps.”

Ultimately it will be up to the market – and spirits experts with much more refined palates than myself – to decide if the CaskForge works to create a desirable facsimile of true aging effects, but a quick tasting tour at PicoBrew headquarters of rapid-aged spirits created by Jim Mitchell (PicoBrew’s chief science officer) showed promise.

Mitchell had me taste a mix of spirits, ranging from white dog (non-aged spirits bottled straight from the still) to a variety of rapid-aged whiskey and rum.

On the rum side, they had me taste a “flight” of Bacardi rum, going all the way from straight Bacardi Superior (the rum giant’s low-end, unaged white rum) up to the rapid-aged Bacardi equivalent of Bacardi 8.

Overall, the more “aged” the rum, the more complex the drink’s flavor characteristics. With all the the rapid-aged drinks they had me sample, it seemed the trademarks of aged spirits – heavier mouthfeel, flavor notes like vanilla, smokiness of peat when tasting accelerated whiskey/scotch – were all there. Granted, I’m no spirits sommelier, but the CaskForge-aged spirits seemed similar in taste and characteristics with beverages that sat in a barrel for years.

Ultimately the Mitchell brothers will need to convince master distillers, not a occasional sipper of whiskey like myself, that rapid aging really works. To do so, they’ve been reaching out to a number of craft distillers to talk about and show off the abilities of the CaskForge and some have begun to experiment with the technology.

The CaskForge system comes in both a professional version and a mini version meant for home cocktail enthusiasts or craft bartenders looking to take their creations next-level. In fact, PicoBrew believes craft cocktail makers themselves are a big potential market as they see drink artisans embracing the idea of creating specialty drinks with their own uniquely created base alcohol.

The CaskForge Mini

Of course, before all that happens, the company needs to navigate the process of receivership. As I wrote last week, PicoBrew has been put up for sale as an action forced by their bridge lending group, who hopes to take full ownership of the company through an open bidding process. It remains to be seen ultimately who will take ownership of PicoBrew and what they choose to invest in. Spirits aging is a growing business, but it’s a vastly different business than coffee or homebrew gear.

Bill and Jim both think they’ll get some takers, in part because of the smaller form factor and portability of their technology. Unlike other spirits-aging technologies, they believe their product is unique in part because it can go into smaller craft distilleries or even bars themselves rather than a centralized aging facility outfitted with bioreactors or spirits-aging robots.

I myself can envision craft cocktail nerds getting excited about aging their own liquor with specialty woods and flavors (Jim also had me taste a whiskey aged with coffee beans). If CaskForge or similar technology takes off, I can see an “aging” machine as another tool of the trade just like a strainer or even a centrifuge.

Let’s just hope the Mitchell brothers get their chance to get the CaskForge into the world and your favorite bartender a chance at making his or her own base liquor.

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.

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.

Market Map: Booze Tech in 2019

From countertop devices used in the home kitchen to delivery services, the number of avenues in which companies can get booze to customers has expanded in recent years. And since it’s still the time of year when drinking on patios is a popular sport, we decided to focus our latest market map on all the tech out there currently changing the alcohol space.

In the U.S., alcohol consumption has actually stagnated, according to IWSR, but part of this is due to consumers now seeking quality over quantity when it comes to their drinking. Which might explain the rise in the number of companies offering recommendations apps that rate beers, wines, and spirits as well as at-home devices for the kitchen countertop that give the user a little more control over the quality of their drinks.

For The Spoon’s Booze Tech in 2019 market map, we divvied the market up into several categories where technology is making the biggest impact on the way people get, create, and consume beer, wine, and spirits. That’s everything from apps that update you on the best craft beers available to at-home bartending devices that let you release your inner mixologist to the many ways in which companies are making it possible to get the booze delivered right to your doorstep. We’ve narrowed the companies down to a collection of startups and major corporations alike. As with any post that outlines a market, this list isn’t exhaustive. So if you have thoughts and tips for who else you’d like to see here, feel free to drop us a line.

While we’re on the subject of maps, be sure to check out our 2019 Food Robotics market map and our Food Waste Innovation in 2019 map.

Booze Tech in 2019

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.