Igulu has Updated thier website....

[brew-in]

perhaps the machine is getting closer to reality. Particularly interesting to read the FAQ. If it works, it is a very versatile machine.

Control of entire brew process (temps, times, etc.), ferm temp control, Use your own ingredients, etc.

hope it comes to fruition...

http://www.igulu.com/igulu/

 

[bford]

I hope it works well. Competition is great. It will drive prices down and spur more innovation. Plus customer service will need to be good to keep up with what Picobrew has started.

 

[brew-in]

I hope it works well. Competition is great. It will drive prices down and spur more innovation. Plus customer service will need to be good to keep up with what Picobrew has started.

Yeap Picobrew has certainly set a high bar for any newcomers. Igulu development has dragged on WAY past projections....many worry it will never see the marketplace.

While not the Star Ship Enterprise, these are moderately complex machines. I worry some of these Kickstarters did not fully understand how tuff design, prototype, test, production, distribution, customer service, etc. really is...

 

[Pelikan11]

I think this one will have some tough sledding. The batch size is the same as Pico and that one has a tremendous head start, good backing and great customer service behind it. It's a cool looking machine though and I agree competition is good but I'm not sure how big the space is for multiple players.

I'm still hoping for a bigger batch option other then the Z. I don't like the lack of cooling on the Z. Brewie sounds like a mess in its current iteration and I know first hand how bad their CS is. May opt for a grainfather soon

 

[brew-in]

At the Kickstarter price of $499, I find it an interesting addition to a Pico. Allows one to experiment with adjusting of all brew parameters and includes ferm temp control. So for the person who wants to 'dabble", depending on final price, I think it has a place.

Plus perhaps they will scale it up to 2.5 to 5 gallons via a followup kickstarter.

 

[BrunDog]

The 2.5 gal vs 5 gal decision for the makers of these is a tough one. For a kitchen appliance, and to capture new brewers, it needs to be the smaller size. New brewers will think 5 gal is too much (until they learn it's never enough!).

At the 5 gal level, now you are competing with the existing world of home brewers and their respective equipment. It's a whole other animal to handle 5+ gallons (bottling, kegging, etc) so this population who does it will not likely switch out their brewing hardware.

 

[Pelikan11]

I don't know man. I would gladly part with some of my all grain equipment at this point. It's taking up a whole room almost!!

I have a Pico and love it. After tweaking the process I have been able to produce some stellar beers. My only problem is there isn't enough.

I've been AG brewing for nearly 20 years and I'll likely never stop but a good automated solution which could readily produce 5 gal would be tempting for me at this point.

 

[Oleary]

If I read it correctly, it looks more like a 1 gallon Z? You can use your own ingredients and create recipes in the app?

 

[brew-in]

If I read it correctly, it looks more like a 1 gallon Z? You can use your own ingredients and create recipes in the app?

...with app and touch screen control as well as internal wort cooling and ferm temp control....

 

[brew-in]

Latest update on the Kickstarter site shows they have gotten delivery of 3000 of the main control boards. so seems to be progressing....