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Hmmm, don't think so. 6-8 hours to brew? Shouldn't take anyone that long unless you're doing a triple decoction every brew. And besides, I can spare 4-6 hours now and then to brew. Brewing is a priority not just a thing I do now and then when I can fit it into my hectically busy schedule. :rolleyes:
 
I spent a fraction of that amount for a far more versatile setup that makes bigger batches. But, if someone wants to spend $1,500 on a shiny gadget that allows them to brew without getting their hands dirty, hey, go for it.
 
Well, they got one part right -- there's no art in scrubbing out a kettle. When they come out with a robot which will wash up and put away all my brewing equipment at the end of the brew day, I've got a $1,500 check waiting.
 
I could be wrong, but it looks like kegs, regulator, CO2 tank, lines and taps are not included. So $1,500 plus another couple hundred?
 
I agree brewing is a work of art and a labor of love (sometimes) and I would miss the hands on parts of the brew day. Already sold 80 to some people that have the spare change.

The end seems optimistic to me:
"When your beer has fermented you can either rack it (transfer the beer to another clean keg) or connect it directly to your kegerator pouring off the first several pints of trub. After carbonating overnight (we set ours to 20psi for this, but your mileage may vary) your beer is cold and ready to drink."
 
Things came to mind when I first saw this.

1) It is a couple of ex Microsoft employees. I find it hard to believe they really need $150,000 or they cannot produce these things.
2) No provisions for cooling the wort.
3) You still have to clean up afterward. That is my least favorite part of home brewing.
4) This does nothing post boil for controlling fermentation temperatures which seems would be much more useful.
5) You will need more kegs, including one to use only for transfers, unless you really want to draw off several pints each time to remove the trub. I doubt this can be done without losing a significant amount of beer.
 
Dumbest idea ever. Just go buy beer from the grocery store if you're not into homebrewing... Cuz this is not homebrewing...
 
Dumbest idea ever. Just go buy beer from the grocery store if you're not into homebrewing... Cuz this is not homebrewing...

As of right now 167 people and $115,387 do not agree with you.

I do though. The thing just does not address the parts of brewing where I want more automation, mostly fermentation.
 
Did anyone else notice that it doesn't actually boil? It holds temps at 208 F. I don't find anything particularly exciting about holding mash temps and so forth, I'd rather focus on recipe formulation. But all of these "set it and forget it" systems seem to have glaring weaknesses that a serious brewer wouldn't look twice at.
 
Well, they got one part right -- there's no art in scrubbing out a kettle. When they come out with a robot which will wash up and put away all my brewing equipment at the end of the brew day, I've got a $1,500 check waiting.

Now THAT would be a worthwhile Kickstarter campaign!

And another robot that will clean and remove labels from bottles.
 
Did anyone else notice that it doesn't actually boil? It holds temps at 208 F. I don't find anything particularly exciting about holding mash temps and so forth, I'd rather focus on recipe formulation. But all of these "set it and forget it" systems seem to have glaring weaknesses that a serious brewer wouldn't look twice at.

This is obviously not for serious brewers. This is for the "more money than brains" crowd.
 
It's funny how they make you pay for shipping and taxes in my 5 or so kickstarters that I've been in this has never happened. Ever.
 
If they need money, they should put those cornies from the picture on the used keg market.
 
Like a lot of others, I fail to see the point. You would only buy one of these if you didn't enjoy the process of homebrewing. And if that's the case, then why bother at all? It's not like you're saving money either way.

Plus, this looks like it takes the fun out of brewing - the actual brewing process - and leaves you with all the cleanup and other stuff that most of us find the least rewarding part.

No thanks.
 
And let's not forget the joy of cobbling together plumbing parts and repurposing parts from all sorts of other machinery to make a beautifully efficient whole, not to mention those eureka! moments where you realize that "My gosh, this spaghetti strainer would be PERFECT to diffuse my sparge water!"

Because of that, I think my system far cooler looking than a shiny steel box.
 
I generally agree with everyone's comments....in that the work is the fun part......however, the idea that you can tweak a recipe four or five times without putting that many days of work is interesting to me.
 
Wow. Everyone in this thread cooks every one of their meals from scratch also?
I enjoy the brewing process as much as the next home brewer, but you guys need to lighten up. If I'm running out of homebrew and don't have an afternoon to spare, I'd rather do this than spend $10/6-pack on micro.

Apparently every thinks that as soon as this arrives at your door, all your other homebrew equipment vanishes.

It doesn't look like a bad product. Brewbot on the other hand, that was a bad product.
 
This will be a stunning and quite spectacular failure. $1500 to "brew" 2.5 gallon batches?

Not a chance.
 
evrose said:
This will be a stunning and quite spectacular failure. $1500 to "brew" 2.5 gallon batches? Not a chance.
It's not a failure when he sends out a 67 products and makes $115k . Sounds like a business to me
 
m_stodd said:
Wow. Everyone in this thread cooks every one of their meals from scratch also?.

Wow good thought for now on instead of smoking ribs why not just buy them that's makes so much more sense. The first thing I thought about when I read this was also a bread maker. However a bread maker cost like 40 bucks and once I get sick of it who cares. Yet a 1500 dollar brew machine that only produces around a case of beer? This is a hopped up mr beer kit that only the stupid rich would buy. I could do a entire brewery renovation for 1500 bucks. I agree this is not for real brewers. Also apply a cost analysis of this item vs buying stuff from Kroger and it's a no brainier which is cheaper. I'm glad that the guys are going to make a a$$ load of money from the kick start but once this goes regular commercial I don't see this doing awesome.
 
As was said earlier, don't you think several former Microsoft higher ups working together could come up with that kind of money fairly easily??

My question is: unless I'm missing something, it seems that the water is held in that one fish tank for the whole "brew." Since the grains don't go anywhere, doesn't this result in boiling your mash (spent grains and all) for an hour? How could this possibly be any good?

--edit--
I guess I should've read the FAQ first:
"The near boiling occurs in the heat exchanger, adjunct compartments and keg... Also in home brew systems, a vigorous boil ensures mixing of the brew kettle. In the Zymatic™, this mixing is done by circulating the wort."

Well, however it works, I'll still never be one of those (now 217) people who are throwing their money down a black hole...

This is not homebrewing; this is being a lazy scenester ********* with too much disposable income.
 
It's not a failure when he sends out a 67 products and makes $115k . Sounds like a business to me

really? How much did it cost to develop the product? What are the costs to make a unit? How many can he sell in a month? A year? $115k is his gross revenue from the fundraising round. It's not a net after costs. That's a tiny amount for a project like this... they will blow through that in seconds.

Getting a few people to throw some money at it on kickstarter doesn't make it a viable business. Not even close.
 
Great idea for breweries to test small batches. That is exactly what the video mentioned. $1500 is cheap for laboratory equipment for a commercial brewery to test a new recipe. Home brewers, not so much.

Excellent idea for commercial use.
 
Epimetheus said:
Great idea for breweries to test small batches. That is exactly what the video mentioned. $1500 is cheap for laboratory equipment for a commercial brewery to test a new recipe. Home brewers, not so much. Excellent idea for commercial use.


Disagree you could make a bada$$ all grain setup for commercial use for less
 
they're at $250k with another month to go?!?! Normally i'd say i want to see the business plan because this look like a slam dunk to lose lots of money. Then it occurred to me that this could be exit plan, get a bunch of suckers to pony up then bail.

But if they're just looking to make a few units, break even, have a few pints, and dink around in a lab... heck, it's time for me to start a kickstarter campaign.
 
Hi all,

Can we get a list of pros and cons, unbiased? I am fascinated by brewery automation. Saw a 'how do they do it' on the Guinness brewery where a guy sits at a desk with a pc and controls the entire brewery operation with a mouse, brewing something like a million barrels a day.

On one hand, who wouldn't want to be the one to invent an awesome totally automated brewery - isn't that why so many homebrewers tinker with our systems? To make them better, easier to use?

There's nothing wrong with wanting to automated your brewery. Yes, you may find you actually miss the tedious aspects of brewing.But when you get older and have a family and kids, you may not have the time you once had to devote 6-8 hours on a brew day.

While the brewing process could be made shorter with an instant temp type water heater and good processes, setup and cleanup for anyone brewing indoors is usually a pain.

The real question is: Is there anything on the market that is truly a fully automated home brewery? That reproduces the standard brewing process and can produce excellent beer?

The machine would need to be able to do everything:

Mill the Grain
Calculate precise temps for dough in
Heat Water
Mix Grain and water
Sparge
Boil
Hop additions
Chill the wort
Pitch yeast
Dump grain and spent hops into trashcan
Self clean

Unfortunately, no system exists for homebrewers that can do all of that.
Also, I wouldn't want to be brewing with any plastic components...stainless would be ideal.
 
You forgot to add:

- control and monitor ferm temps
- keg, carbonate, and bottle

Like was already said. As a commercial tool for test batches, great. But it would need to be all stainless to be really viable in that market.

Gimmick. . .
 
The program is over $400K now. Wow...as P.T. Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute!"

@funtourist -- I don't think there is anything wrong with automating your part of your brewing process or using computers to keep tabs on your homebrew system, but it is my OPINION (isn't that why we are all here?) that too much of a disconnect from your brew is a bad thing. If I'm not wrong, it is called "craft brewing"...where is the "craft" in a "set it and forget it" machine? My firm makes hand crafted furniture, and yes, we use power tools, but they don't release me from the duties of actually working with the materials. They do make it slightly more efficient and accurate.

While looking at this thing, I started thinking. Have you ever tried cleaning anything with a perfectly square corner? Good luck with all that. I'll take the $1500 and put it into a regular homebrew setup and ingredients.

Not to state the obvious, but isn't BIAB much cheaper than this?
 

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