beer machine?!?

[woozy]

http://youtu.be/_hjrpyygKgE

The beer machine may be the greatest invention in human history and civilization without it might be doomed to an eternal dark age, but any product with a promotional video *that* cheesy deserves to fail, burn, and be erased and scoured from the memories of all living things.

If Edward Jenner had made a promotional video like that, we'd be better off with smallpox.

It's going to take a *lot* of bashing my head with a brick to get that CBS reporters obnoxious voice out of my head. Here I go ... *ow* ... *ow*... *ow*... there goes my ability to conjugate german verbs ... but "here's a bag of pretzels, ed" still remains ... *ow*

 

[Clonefan94]

I received the beer machine for Christmas back in the mid 90s. I actually brewed on it quite a few times. I never had any pressure issues though, as it seems the old style pressure relief valve might have been better at holding in just enough pressure during fermentation to also carb up the beer. The beer wasn't great and so as more micro-brewed beer entered retailers around my area, the beer machine got tucked away, never to be used again. My wife sold it a few years ago in a garage sale.

Knowing what I know now, the beer was definitely not the best, but I really thought the little keg system worked well. I wish I had kept it around though. I'd love to scale down a recipe now to 2.5 gallons and see how it would turn out fermenting then serving in the Beer machine.

I think their biggest problem is with the instructions. They promote being able to start tasting after 7 days. That's just bad. I understand they want to sell units on "Quick Craft Beer" But, I think they'd be doing a better service to move that back to 21 days.

I actually enjoyed messing around with the thing while I had it, but as I said, the beer, meh. Pre-hopped extract beer kits just don't do it for me. I think you could do a lot more with it, just brewing 2.5 gallon batches from all grain or extract recipes. Would probably be a good candidate for BIAB.

 

[RhodySeth]

So a few weeks back I primed the remaining beer in the Beer Machine and bottled into 22oz bombers. After chilling in the fridge, I cracked one open last night and heard the SHHHHH of a carbonated beverage. Now carbonated, this stuff ain't too bad. I won't be making another official Beer Machine kit but I will be brewing some beer at my friend's house this weekend so I guess this machine did its job and got me hooked.

 

[RhodySeth]

Oh boy, I've got the bug now. I assembled some ingredients and as soon as I had the house to myself I brewed up a batch of beer and stuck it in the Beer Machine. I blogged about it of course. I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

 

[Yooper]

Oh boy, I've got the bug now. I assembled some ingredients and as soon as I had the house to myself I brewed up a batch of beer and stuck it in the Beer Machine. I blogged about it of course. I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

I started brewing the same way! I got a Beer Machine 2000, and the beer was pretty bad. Still, it gave me ideas that I really good make beer and after a few years I started with a "real" kit and ingredients and brewed up a batch. That effort turned out very good, with beer I was happy to share, and that is what created this monster.

I went from a Beer Machine 2000- to an all-electric indoor HERMS with a tippy dump, little by little. I didn't think my husband would notice the "little tweaks" but apparently he has.

 

[RhodySeth]

I went from a Beer Machine 2000- to an all-electric indoor HERMS with a tippy dump, little by little. I didn't think my husband would notice the "little tweaks" but apparently he has.

Haha, that's why I'm continuing to use el Beer Machine. My darling wife isn't exactly thrilled that I've added homebrewing to my ever growing list of hobbies/enjoyments. But the Beer Machine was a gift so she can't complain too much about me using it. I figure if I continue to make use of the BM instead of introducing secondaries and such into the mix, I'll avoid drawing her ire (at least in theory.)

 

[RhodySeth]

Haha, that's why I'm continuing to use el Beer Machine. My darling wife isn't exactly thrilled that I've added homebrewing to my ever growing list of hobbies/enjoyments. But the Beer Machine was a gift so she can't complain too much about me using it. I figure if I continue to make use of the BM instead of introducing secondaries and such into the mix, I'll avoid drawing her ire (at least in theory.)

Haha, theory has been disproven. After bringing home my buddy's Better Bottle, bottling bucket and such she has now expressed her displeasure at so much beer being made in our house. "Don't worry honey," I said. "I'll be giving a lot of it away."

Anywho, my second Beer Machine batch is complete. I made the NB Chinook IPA recipe but instead of bottling using the spigot (since I was out of CO2 cartridges) I decided to just rack to a bottling bucket. Worked okay except that it foamed over when I opened the cap at the top of the BM (opened it too quickly. Or maybe it sloshed around too much when I brought it up to the kitchen.) After that mess, bottling went smoothly and I'm looking forward to sampling in a couple weeks.

Now that I've got some real equipment, I have a feeling the Beer Machine's days might be numbered. With all the components to clean and assemble, it's just so much easier to use a fermenting bucket instead. I'll still do 2.5 gallon batches but I already made a stout that's in the bucket. I may however use the BM to brew a batch of EdWort's famous Apfelwein since I can just tuck it away somewhere for a few months. Or I could use the BM as a secondary if I want to cold crash something before bottling (since it fits in the fridge more readily than a bucket.) Still that would mean my wife had signed off on me taking up a good amount of fridge space to cold crash more beer - that is supremely unlikely at best.