Picobrew...Thoughts

another appliance meant to make life easier and instead manages to complicate what does not need to be fixed.

craft beer has been about tradition and innovation. I don't see how this gizmo solves any problems.

besides, this is clearly aimed at homebrewers. or rather, people who might like the idea of beer made at home but are not willing to read 10 pages in a book. can't say if the beer is any good. but I can take a guess...

this thing does seem to be a lot better than most of the other bullshit kickstarter beer related junk of late.

 

We have a nice 5 pages worth of thoughts (posted link in your other thread as well)

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...matic-beer-brewing-appliance-thoughts.119643/

 

The other thread says about all of it, but to answer your original posting, I think this has zero implications on the craft brew industry. It looks like a nicely engineered appliance with no real market to me. Time will tell.

 

<== wonders why Members can't be bothered SEARCH-ing to see "how many of you have seen this ..." before starting a new thread.

 

I don't think it will take over the market. Most brewers enjoy the full process! I know I do

 

More on that.... I have a site that has basic home brewing supplies for noobs... I won't be putting it on there EVER

 

Figured I'd bring this thread back as technology has gotten a little better & new models have been released. I'm specifically interested in the models that allow you to add your own ingredients rather than branded kits.

 

Still sounds boring to me, but I guess if you have cash to burn and don't really want to do the brewing it's kinda cool.

 

I like the idea of the old zymatic or new pico z. I just don't like it enough to drop that kind of cash. I prefer smaller batches and personally I am more interested in the recipe design, tasting, then refining the recipe than I am the process on brewday. If I had a more automated option then I would brew more often and be able to revisit recipes a little easier.

 

I'm sure that it will make beer, and that's a good thing. Having said that, everyone one has different lifestyle's, living situations, and many many reasons they might want a more automated brewing system. I recently invested in a KS automated brewing system (not from pico), and I did so so I could brew smaller batches of new beer styles that I may like and want too brew a larger amount of. I've been brewing for 20+ years and I welcome a new and easier way to skin a cat!

 

Just bought a Pico C (~$200 on eBay after the BOGO Black Friday deal). I presumed others were interested in essentially 50% cost.

For $200 it's slick. ($400 is a bit steep). The caveat is the Pico C PicoPaks are mediocre at best. The Pico C FreeStyle Paks you can create online are almost worse as your malts, hops, and yeast are even more limited.

On the OTHER hand.... if you have 1 large muslin bag and 4 smaller muslin bags for hop additions, you don't need to buy ANY kit at all and you can use loose ingredients all you want without having to order anything from Pico ever. One downside is you're still limited to about 8% ABV or so unless you add extract. You're also limited to 50% efficiency on the grain by my math.

The MANUAL brew session is nearly identical to BIAB with sous vide if you're familiar with that. Set the step temperature and the amount of time to hold temp. Then an alarm goes off. You set the next step & time... repeat. Set the boil temp & time... next hop addition... you get the point. it's not as self-automated as the kits, but gives you a TON of control over the brewing process vs. the kits, if you're already a seasoned homebrewer.

I'm glad I bought it as it'll be fun to brew small 5L (1.3gal) batches to put into a mini-keg to take over to friends houses or to have to experiment with small batches.

 

Pico FreeStyle Pak (create your own pack) options:
https://www.picobrew.com/BrewCrafter/index

Grains:
Maris Otter
Pilsner
Two-Row Pale
CaraPils
Chocolate Malt
Crystal 20L
Crystal 60L
Crystal 80L
Crystal 120L
Flaked Oats
Roasted Barley
Rye
Vienna Malt
Wheat Malt (White)

Hops:
Cascade
Centennial
Citra
Saaz
Summit
Simcoe
Northern Brewer
Amarillo

Yeast:
Automatically selected for you based on your base recipe.

Again, I'd highly recommend just buying your own muslin bags and going the MANUAL brew route.

If you're into coffee, it'll do cold brew coffee too.

 

I had time to do their Atomic Amber Z recipe about a week ago ... should be done fermenting soon and then off to bottling. I'll post the updates soon.

I'll be doing two English Bitter recipes from when I used to homebrew back in the 1990's - early 2000's. I'm talking 4% or under EKG or Fuggles ... opting to use a London Ale strain rather than dried yeast for those batches.

 

While I know the fate of these machines is unknown I'm still brewing on the Picobrew Z that was loaned to me from a PR company. The Atomic Amber Z recipe was decent but offering up dried yeast didn't help much as I could pick up those traits right away. I've brewed three different Ordinary Bitters over the past couple of weeks using Wyeast London Ale 1028 and I'll be tasting batch #1 tomorrow. Looking to brew and ESB before switching to a California Ale Yeast to do some old school PWN & West Coast recipes.

 

There's nothing wrong with dry yeast, imo.

 

What is it about dry yeast that might cause one to think, "This beer was definitely made with dry yeast"?
Honest question there.....I've only used dry yeast.

 

Keep your doors locked. The company that is liquidating Picobrew's assets may try to repossess that machine since it is a 'loaner' to you.

 

Too late to edit........
My first question should have been about whether you were referring to dry yeast in general, or the dry yeast offered (presumably by PicoBrew) with the recipe.