Looks expensive
Looks boring.
Yeah. I can see folks who have loads of dispensable income who want to get into homebrewing that will buy this machine just for the pure simplicity. At first I was giving it the “what the hell” face but after checking it out I cannot judge. If I had the money I might cause if it makes good beer than who the heck are we to judge.
At least it is not the mio beer crud.
Some knuckle head came up with the idea of making 1 gallon beer in a 1 gallon container. Why not this contraption?
This to me reminds me of a bread maker. Sure I could toss some ingredients in there and it will make me a loaf of bread but I’d much rather get my hands dirty.
You still end up having to clean and sanitize everything before using. IMO, that is the most tedious “work” and the actual mashing and boiling is the fun part. Why remove the fun part of brewing?
Where’s the fun in that?
Its funny, between this board and some of my local clubs, I’ve seen some serious vitriol toward this thing and its inventors.
Personally, the ‘fun’ in homebrewing for me is making a beer that I want that I can’t get in the store. I want to see what vienna malt and citra only tastes like, and so on. If I had a bunch of cash to blow (I am thinking these things are probably around $1k), and not a lot of time, I don’t have a problem with this device.
Frankly, most of us have probably spent a ton of dough over the years on gear, maybe even more than this thing.
I don’t know, I find the “I have to have my banjo burner fired up and scrap-metal-made wort chiller running to be a REAL homebrewer” position rather tiresome and machismo.
My reality is, with my BIAB setup, I can knock out a 5 gallon batch in about 3.5 hours, from pulling my stuff out to wort in the can and me on the couch. However, with our 1/2bbl system, we are more like glorified janitors than anything else.
If any board members know me by now they are expecting about four pages of text out of me.
Not today silly wabbit only one! Although I have some very strong thoughts about people/ things like this thread speaks to but I think Nighthawk sums things up very clearly in one sentence. I’m wit you night, couldn’t agree more. Common sense is in very limited use lately…
And to the last poster, would you rather use regular everyday acquirable goods to make beer like is routine today or do you wish everything is in a mail order only world now?
I see only three things here regarding this device or others similar to it in regards to the last post.
A. Me or other “regular” home brewers can go the the local mom and pop hardware store and rig up any replacement item we need or re engineer a new device/ part on the fly. See this might actually require more thought than plug and play. I know bummer dude.
B. This device will always need parts that are special order only or will need a source store far and away from most peoples homes other than a simple tube or other…So when it breaks down in the middle of a brewday come back and tell us how lovely it all is when you have to wait 4 business days to get the right part to finish your operation.
C. I know, I know your hipster rich style and can throw everything away and buy a new one tomorrow anyway. So cool, so very cool.
I think the fun is in the process of being a brewer, not just drinking homemade beer.
It’s not macho to take pride in a finished product that you designed and oversaw every step of the way, there’s something very human about it.
Nicely put worts.
I couldn’t agree more I do a full fly sparge and it takes me 6 hours flat for a 5.5 gallon batch.
Do I dread the hour of cleaning stuff sure its not the favorite part of the process, but like all the rest of the hands on process and looking at the fementer like a new born child is a thing of joy each and every time as I draw my first pint and relax. Now after the years everything is so clockwork I could literally do the hour of cleanup in my sleep. So that old hangup is completely mute also.
Right, but this is merely is an automation of that process. I don’t see homebrewers getting all hot and bothered over an electric board that automates a RIMS system (?).
Its interesting to me that a lot of people who got into homebrewing in the 80’s/90’s (like Garrett Oliver, Ken Grossman) started doing it because they COULDN’T GET THE BEER THEY WANTED. Now people do it because its an excuse to tinker around with stuff (again, both noble objectives with a hobby)…
Ask any pro brewer, and they will tell you, the “process” of brewing is largely devoted to cleaning stuff up (or in some cases, hitting a button for a caustic scrub of all equipment), so I just don’t buy the fact that you need some jury-rigged setup that most of us have to make great beer OR BE A GREAT BREWER. BMC brewers hit their targets better and more routinely than any brewers in the world, perhaps aside from Ze Germans. Do you think those companies spend all the cash on automated equipment because they want to be nice to their brewers? No, they want repeatable results. Which, don’t get me wrong, you CAN get from a pieced-together system. To me, this is no different than a SABCO.
BTW, I absolutely agree with the sentiment about seeing a batch happily bubbling away. However, brewing (and beer) is about different things to different people. This invention will allow people who aren’t particularly interested in tinkering around with stuff to be creative and design their own beers.
[quote=“Worts_Worth”]
It’s not macho to take pride in a finished product that you designed and oversaw every step of the way, there’s something very human about it.[/quote]
I also agree with this, and I do have a ton of pride in my beers, but its not very neighborly of us homebrewers to turn our nose up at people that simply enjoy being creative and want to apply this to beer. It really is akin to a breadmaker (“it has three speeds!”). Sometimes, people just want to make their own bread, and don’t care about putting their hands in it. Still better than Wonder Bread if you ask me.
[quote=“ITsPossible”]
C. I know, I know your hipster rich style and can throw everything away and buy a new one tomorrow anyway. So cool, so very cool.[/quote]
Love. This.
I think this is like a Kureg, for wort instead of coffee. Personally, I think Kureg’s are a complete waste of money; but I have friends that swear by them. To each their own; I drink about a pot every day, so the cost per cup just never makes sense to me.
Ever talk to really intense coffee lovers? and not like, “I love coffee” people, but the people who are like coffee stalkers. The ones who say, French Press is the only way to make Real Coffee, and you haven’t had Real Coffee until you have the coffee that’s made from the beans that have been eaten and pooped-out by monkeys. Let’s not risk sounding so full of ourselves and snobby.
Personally, I think an extract beer kit would be more fun than watching this thing run, but to each their own. I just think it’s cool someone is trying to open new gateways into this hobby.
I’m not much of a tinkerer, but I do enjoy the brewing process. Probably the same reason why I like to roast my own coffee beans. Plus, I’d always choose my homemade beer and coffee over just about anything similar I can buy- it just tastes better.
