Hey Sneezles61!
Thanks for your response. From my understanding you can create recipes or use existing ones using beerxml through the Pico platform. The initial brewing process takes about 4 hours and adds hops automatically (up to 4, but more can be added manually) at pre programmed times and is 10-14 days “grains to glass”. If I’m not mistaken the fermenting happens right in the 5g keg, there is no self chilling so it needs to be put in a climate controlled area, I already have a kegerator so I don’t think this should be an issue for me. Below is what I found on both the Picobrew Z1 (2.5 gallon model) from the website and then below that, the process of brewing with the Zymatic. The Zymatic process should be pretty similar to the Z I imagine as it’s the Z’s predecessor. I find it to be exciting, but I love new tech too so I can understand that some traditional brewers may not like using a semi automated process. The Zymatic Brews up to 1.090 gravity beers without adjuncts so I assume the Z1 will as well. I’m not knowledgeable on this element of the brew process yet so I’m not sure what limitation that puts on the different beers I can brew. I mostly am looking to brew IPA’s / Hop heavy beers. Let me know your thoughts, thanks!
Brew
Creates all BJCP styles, kombucha, and cold-brewed coffee
Brew Time
4 Hours
Ingredients
PicoPaks, or loose malt & hops
Recipes
100+ PicoPaks, 500 community recipes, or make your own
Tools
Online predictive BrewCrafter tool
Compatibility
PicoFerm, PicoStill, KegSmarts
WiFi
802.11 b/g
Z1
Heat/Power
1500W
What’s the whole process, from grain to glass?
Decide what you want to brew (select, import, or create your own recipe), adjust the recipe to your liking or leave as-is, load the ingredients, fill a keg with the specified amount of water, turn on the Zymatic®, let it synchronize to the internet and load your recipe, select it by name and the brewing begins.
While it brews, the Zymatic® logs brewing session data to the internet so you can keep track of it on your computer, tablet or smartphone.
At the end of the brew cycle, chill the beer or disconnect the keg to cool, pitch (add) yeast, attach an airlock, and place it somewhere cool to ferment.
Remove the ingredients containers, dump the waste into your compost bin, rinse the main container and replace it in the machine.
Attach a keg of water or other water source and run the rinse cycle on the machine to keep it clean for the next brew. Every few batches you’ll want to run a full cleaning cycle which is as simple as attaching a keg of water and adding a dishwasher tab. This deep clean takes longer but is an unattended process just like the brew cycle.
The ingredient containers can be easily cleaned in the dishwasher.
Wait for nature to do its magic with the fermenting beer. This can take anywhere from seven days to three weeks depending on the beer style you have brewed, fermentation temperatures, and a number of other factors.
Transfer your beer from the fermenting keg to a clean serving keg, carbonate, and put it on tap in your refrigerator, KegSmarts, kegerator or bottle as you prefer.
I do 5 gallon batches but I’m thinking about the 2.5 gallon setup for development that can be scaled.
