This small batch brewing device brews a one gallon batch of beer using pre-made packets that you drop into the machine similar to the Brewie. The packets are purchased on the PicoBrew online “app store.” There you can choose from various recipes and kits from very well respected breweries like Dogfish Head, Rogue and 21st Amendment. This is the one of the major departures from the Brewie, PicoBrew has partnered with big name breweries to offer kits of already famous beer.
The device works very similar to the Brewie, with some key differences. The tray to insert your ingredients is removable, making clean up easier. The secondary water tank is a small keg that comes along with the device and acts as the water storage, fermentor and kegging vessel, which rounds out this device and makes it a truly all in one package, unlike the Brewie.
Its small size does lend itself well to counter top storage, albeit not as attractive as the Brewie and weighing in at 31.5 pounds makes it semi-portable. It has an attractive price tag of $500 which brings this within reach of average consumers and potentially as a holiday gift idea.
Concerns:
- The user interface seems dated and simplistic to a fault.
- Ordering custom ingredients through the marketplace. While the site states you can customize recipes already on the site it doesn’t specifically say you can create your own.
- Monitoring of gravity, fermentation temperatures and IBUs. With a fully automated process I would like to know that I am actually hitting my target numbers if I’m putting together my own recipe.
- It only brews one gallon of beer at a time. This could be a plus and minus, less beer means more beer to brew.
The MiniBrew cont.