Anybody Seen This?!? (Williamswarn System)

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yeah that seems like a load of crap. I mean, sure it will work, but for the price? And how "personal" and "home made" can you call the final product? It's like a kid's parents saying "All you have to do is put the (pre-made by mom/dad) lasagne in the oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees, and it will be all done," and having the kid say they made it all by themself.
 
"5. Too much work. Multiple vessels and transfers required. Bottling homebrew takes many hours." Riiiiight...
 
# Poor temperature control during fermentation leads to yeast making off-flavours or headache-causing compounds.
# Poor cleaning and poor sterilisation which leads to many infected beers.
# Chronic beer oxidation due to transfers between vessels and into bottles and kegs.
# Bottled homebrew has a dead yeast layer at the bottom which contributes off-flavours.
# Old extract is been kept warm for many months on the shelf, which contributes greatly to the homebrew flavour.
# Old yeast is stored warm under the can lid which ensures a huge loss of vitality and viability, resulting in more homebrew flavours.

"Good sir, I would like your oldest can of malt extract and a yeast packet preferably shipped from Indonesia in 1956 via paddleboat. I would be best if both items have been lost at sea for past the 20 years."
 
$5600 to brew extract beer? I'm in the wrong business.


$5600 Kiwi dollars. That's $4382.01 US at today's exchange rate. Probably going to cost a bit more with shipping as they are made in New Zealand.

Maybe open up a distributorship here in the US. Now's the time to get in on the ground floor!
 
# Old extract is been kept warm for many months on the shelf, which contributes greatly to the homebrew flavour.
# Old yeast is stored warm under the can lid which ensures a huge loss of vitality and viability, resulting in more homebrew flavours.

they use the term "homebrew flavor" as a perjorative description.... that is kind of insulting to every "home brewer" out there. i happen to love the flavor of my beer.
 
The irony is that the "non-homebrew flavour" (ie: the lack of flavour as found in Bud/Miller/Coors) isn't available with their 7-day setup since they don't sell lager kits. They only have 3 no-boil extract ale kits at the moment.

I guess I went about this all wrong. Why build my all-grain 100% electric setup that I've documented when for the same price you can make beer easier from pre-hopped extract in a can for ~$45 for 5 gallons? Who would have thunk it?

Kal
 
I didn't read everything on there, but if they are fermenting under pressure they could ferment a lager at warmer temps in a shorter amount of time. Not agreeing with it, and was quite amused at the uncles horrid homebrew, but oh well. Some people are rich and really lazy I guess. Reminds me of the fancy chestnut roaster commercial...
 
Bollocks....why would you spend that much just to get something that tastes like a commercial beer? If you like commercial beer, why not just buy commercial beer? $5700 just to say 'I made it?'

I don't think putting down homebrew will help them either. The reason why we homebrew is because it DOESN'T taste like commercial beer. IDK about you guys, but i really enjoy the process. I think the extra effort and time is what makes the beer special, gives it a soul and makes it rewarding.

Interesting process and good looking though. We'll see how they do
 
I don't want people to buy these and start thinking homebrew flavor is a negative thing.
 
Bollocks....why would you spend that much just to get something that tastes like a commercial beer? If you like commercial beer, why not just buy commercial beer? $5700 just to say 'I made it?'

I don't think putting down homebrew will help them either. The reason why we homebrew is because it DOESN'T taste like commercial beer. IDK about you guys, but i really enjoy the process. I think the extra effort and time is what makes the beer special, gives it a soul and makes it rewarding.

Interesting process and good looking though. We'll see how they do

Yep, $5700 buys a lot of beer! I only see 2 types of people actually looking at this seriously; 1. those new to homebrewing & 2. Experienced homebrewers looking to expand their brewery. Number 1 won't want to drop $5700 on a new hobby they might not like and number 2 would know better! I wonder how many they are expecting to sell?
 
The irony is that the "non-homebrew flavour" (ie: the lack of flavour as found in Bud/Miller/Coors) isn't available with their 7-day setup since they don't sell lager kits. They only have 3 no-boil extract ale kits at the moment.

I guess I went about this all wrong. Why build my all-grain 100% electric setup that I've documented when for the same price you can make beer easier from pre-hopped extract in a can for ~$45 for 5 gallons? Who would have thunk it?

Kal

Kal,

I feel like I'm responding to a celebrity... just listened to the BN show the other day. Great stuff, man! Your set-up is awesome. I'm seriously considering an AE set-up in the near future.
 
Mr Beer on steroids.

This looks like something from The Sharper Image.

These were exactly my thoughts when I was watching that video. For that amount of money you can BUY an already assembled and completely flexible system from morebeer or many of the vendors on here. With that system you get to make the beer equivalent of Ovaltine.

Yeah it's easy to make "beer" with it but it's also just as easy to go buy a case considering those costs. ----- irritated :mad:
 
I just did the math, and for $5700, the average US citizen would have 15 years worth of beer. (and this is not cheap canned crap). I assumed $10 for a 6 pack. Cool idea, but I don't think they'll sell many units.
 
I just did the math, and for $5700, the average US citizen would have 15 years worth of beer. (and this is not cheap canned crap). I assumed $10 for a 6 pack. Cool idea, but I don't think they'll sell many units.

I tried to figure out what your numbers meant there, and could not. You have to assume a rate of consumption to get to 15 years worth of beer, and you didn't mention that. So I tried to calculate your rate, and it is under a beer a day - but not a round number in any way. So, I don't think you did the math correctly, but let me know if I am misunderstanding you.
 
If it's any consolation, it's only 4500 us dollars, it's a company from new Zealand.

The state of home brewing in nz might be dramatically different than it is here in the us. I know it's not nearly as popular.
 
Looks pretty cool. Kind of reminds of the that coffee brew thing that makes one cup of custom coffee at a time. It probably works but jees' they're taking all the personality, character building and fun out of it....Sometimes the anticipation and risk of a good thing is part of the appreciation of it. Wonder what the manual looks like...Maybe I'm just getting old!! :)
 
I tried to figure out what your numbers meant there, and could not. You have to assume a rate of consumption to get to 15 years worth of beer, and you didn't mention that. So I tried to calculate your rate, and it is under a beer a day - but not a round number in any way. So, I don't think you did the math correctly, but let me know if I am misunderstanding you.

I found somewhere online that the average american drinks 234 12-ounce bottles of beer per year. 234/6= 39 6-packs a year. 39*$10= $390 dollars per year spent on beer. $5700/$390=14.61 years (I rounded up).
 
The irony is that the "non-homebrew flavour" (ie: the lack of flavour as found in Bud/Miller/Coors) isn't available with their 7-day setup since they don't sell lager kits. They only have 3 no-boil extract ale kits at the moment.

I guess I went about this all wrong. Why build my all-grain 100% electric setup that I've documented when for the same price you can make beer easier from pre-hopped extract in a can for ~$45 for 5 gallons? Who would have thunk it?

Kal

Kal , If I had 5 grand to plunk down on a system....I'd be certainly getting your electric brew system, I mean it's no contest.This guy gives a bad name to homebrew unless your using his system.I dont have any of the problems he lists in his " problems with homebrew" section on his website.This is a gimmick / novelty for people who just want to say " I made beer myself " and don't really care about creativity or quality.
 
I found somewhere online that the average american drinks 234 12-ounce bottles of beer per year. 234/6= 39 6-packs a year. 39*$10= $390 dollars per year spent on beer. $5700/$390=14.61 years (I rounded up).

Ah, fair enough. I did that math backwards and got 228 beers per year, and was very confused as it isn't a round number per day. In any case, I think we need to go with what the average homebrewer drinks per day - I think its higher than the national average! :mug::mug:
 
Ah, fair enough. I did that math backwards and got 228 beers per year, and was very confused as it isn't a round number per day. In any case, I think we need to go with what the average homebrewer drinks per day - I think its higher than the national average! :mug::mug:

Lol quite a bit higher. :mug:
 
Kal , If I had 5 grand to plunk down on a system....I'd be certainly getting your electric brew system, I mean it's no contest.This guy gives a bad name to homebrew unless your using his system.I dont have any of the problems he lists in his " problems with homebrew" section on his website.This is a gimmick / novelty for people who just want to say " I made beer myself " and don't really care about creativity or quality.
Yup. But is it really that gimmicky? The target audience is NZ and other countries with very high costs of beer, not the United States.

The wow factor on their unit is pretty high for someone who's not a brewer but likes the idea of having their own "beer making machine" at home.

They do mention that a large percentage of males in NZ have tried homebrewing at one time or another. The general concensus from anyone who's tried and stopped is that (a) it's a lot of work, and (b) it tastes like crap. They're fixing both of those problems they say.

The tastes like crap problem is because most people who first try homebrewing only know Bud/Miller/Coors (BMC) so that's what they're trying to make and they buy a "Blonde Lager" extract kit with high hopes. We all know how that worked out. Then coupled with the fact that most extract kits have the exact problems they list (crap yeast, old extract, not properly fermented, etc), you don't even make a good Blonde Ale, let alone a "Blonde Lager".

While they don't have any lager kits yet from what I've read, I don't see why they couldn't. It would simply contain more yeast and the right yeast. The system would maintain the right fermentation temp, it could do a diacetytl rest at the end and then drop the temp for lagering. It's basically just a fancy temp controlled conical fermenter with trub control and then a tap for serving.

Their setup is most definitely not for existing homebrewers. At about $35 USD per 23L of product, you're paying around 50 cents/beer. NZ has high beer prices so this works. Make enough and the $4000 USD equipment cost isn't all that bad. Consider that a MoreBeer.com heated/cooled 7.5 gallon conical fermenter is almost $2000 USD. For $2000 more they add in a bunch of controls, a tap, etc, and turn it in to an all-in-one [extract] beer making device. I think the price is reasonable for what it is. I think if they get a good BMC type clone beer that takes ~3-4 weeks to make from start to finish and tastes reasonable, they could sell some units.

Would I ever use one? Of course not, but I'm not the target audience. Most people don't want to learn to brew let alone do the work required, regardless of if it's extract or all-grain.

Kal
 
I'll say for the record there is definitely a "homebrew flavor" if you use extract, especially liquid. I push my friends to use dry extract and liquid yeast to improve the quality of their beer. Really, until you go all grain a lot of times it DOES taste like homebrew.

As for the oxidation, if Kiwi's drink like Aussies I don't see 2 cases of home brew lasting long enough to oxidize. Cool system though, I wonder how much it would cost to build it yourself? I know my system of chest freezers, heat wraps, kegs and kegerator puts me over $1000 without the ease of use. As mentioned above a conical gets pretty pricey.
 
I'd like to see them build nice temperature controlled conical fermenters that look as nice for serious AG brewers.

Kal
 
Its as if they have created this gizmo simply to squeeze the joy from life......the sad part is someone will buy it.
 
I'd like to see them build nice temperature controlled conical fermenters that look as nice for serious AG brewers.

Kal

In essence, that is all this unit is, a 5 gallon conical. We go through beer faster than that little thing can produce! No way, even if I had a million dollars would I consider that overpriced temp controlled conical. I wouldn't drink beer out of my conical anyway, there is still a bunch of crap on the walls and the cone when I clean it out afterwards. I would still transfer to a keg and age there.
 
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