Picobrew Z

[Trevor Mack]

When I asked support for details on who early backers have received any update regarding their early December deliveries (second or third postponed date) these were some response quotes I got. Figured I'd share as it isn't likely to see an update until after Christmas from the PicoBrew marketing team (guessing that is who is in charge of emailed updates thus the disconnect of information between them and the overwhelmed support staff).

Updates have slowed as we've been in 'all hands on deck' mode the entire month to complete all remaining PicoStill orders by the end of the year with the goal of having most if not all done and delivered by the 24th.

...at the moment as each Z unit is being built by hand here at Pico Brew headquarters.

We have been transparent about what was rightly called out as our over reach and ambitious fulfillment dates. We realized this during our Pico U campaign and cancelled it so we could focus on our PicoStill and Z orders. Right now, there's no news to report. We're diligently at work trying to get orders to people before the Christmas holiday while dealing with the logistics of third party suppliers delaying essential materials and components.

 

[Trevor Mack]

Personally I'm using this time to relocate my brewery equipment to a more ideal location ultimately to have a more streamlined setup for when the Z1 arrives along with upgrading some components on my kegerator setup to get better consistent pours.

 

[chupalt]

chupalt, any word on your system or a new expected ship date? I'm now worried about a few weeks of radio silence and them rushing past another set of expectations. Was about to cancel prior to the big Thanksgiving update and now I'm really on the fence for canceling my Z2.

Yeah, I contacted support and they were unwilling to provide a new target ship date. They said that they had received a late sheet metal delivery on 12/14 and were still setting up the production line.

My personal opinion is that the target ship dates provided were bogus to begin with. How could they be > 2 weeks late so close to when the dates were provided. That or they need to hire a project manager that actually knows how to plan. I’m not hopeful of receiving my unit this year, but would love to be surprised.

 

[Trevor Mack]

Ah so support actually told you the "third party supplier" or at least the material they were waiting on. That is more than they told me... Why wouldn't they just post that in an update :shrug:?

From my short conversation with them seems like yeah supplies are limited and delayed while still hand preparing orders at Picobrew headquarters... That takes some time I'd imagine and definitely isn't optimized (both potentially a good and bad thing). Though the language used by my support agent looks like the production line is optimized for delivery of PicoStill by end of December (last cloud funded campaign still shipping from Picobrew) which totally makes sense to me... but I'd guess a different team is working on that project or that is how I'd do it as to not cause additional delays in several projects. Though part of the response was also apologizing again about being distracted over the summer for the Pico U fiasco which would have been a distraction that caused undue delays to both PicoStill fulfillment and Pico Z development and "prototyping".

 

[Mike Howard]

...the blame game...

 

[danbass]

Running my 10 gallon Kal's system through a cleaning run now. Going to brew this afternoon on it and put some thought into if I want to cancel my picobrew z2 or not.

 

[Brewsyourdaddy]

I’ve been brewing with mine since June I make a batch ever 2 weeks or so and it has performed flawlessly, my only suggestion is to do a full clean before and after each brew.

 

[Mike Howard]

First post?

 

[Thorrak]

I’ve been brewing with mine since June I make a batch ever 2 weeks or so and it has performed flawlessly, my only suggestion is to do a full clean before and after each brew.

On a Z or Zymatic?

 

[Trevor Mack]

Given that first customer was shipped in October... This individual is either a) an employee of PicoBrew (and thus review to me doesn't matter...) or b) not referring to a Z* unit but rather another PicoBrew device

 

[Trevor Mack]

This job listing seems interestingly aligned with the change from weekly to monthly newsletters... Still waiting on my December newsletter post.

https://www.brewbound.com/jobs/28427-Marketing-Manger-PicoBrew-Inc

Wondering if related or not... But we all know marketing at Pico has been lacking for sometime.

 

[Mike Howard]

ha ha ha...that posting

 

[danbass]

Another email went out with "revised" ship dates and another promise of weekly updates.

Chupalt, did they say yours will ship next week?

Yeah, I contacted support and they were unwilling to provide a new target ship date. They said that they had received a late sheet metal delivery on 12/14 and were still setting up the production line.

 

[Trevor Mack]

Here are the public details to the blame game. Was all non production / design related delays... Meaning people, vacations etc were causing the delay. All orders are pushed out by 1 month as the small number of machines in December weren't finished in time.

Apparently now that PicoStills are finished they are now all hands on deck for Z production. Also looks like lack of transparency has pushed to have weekly emails again ... That monthly update lasted what 2 months?

Details can be found here https://us11.campaign-archive.com/?u=007d0e755e5300f5291fa2a6e&id=120c844264

Revised ship date for me moved from 4/1/19 to 4/19/19... So not exactly 1 month delay for everyone.

Guessing in the next 3-4 updates we will hear that suppliers in China are going to slip dates due to Chinese New year... This isn't my first rodeo trying to get products shipped around Chinese New Year (never expect to ship around Chinese New Year just like don't expect to ship around Christmas in the US... Or anywhere really).

 

[Thorrak]

Mine got delayed from 1/7 (so...next week) to 2/8. The delay doesn’t bother me all that much as I probably wasn’t going to be able to use it until the end of the month anyways, but more frequent updates would have been nice. Hopefully the return to weekly mailings helps with that regard.

 

[Mike Howard]

I hate to say I told you so....I'll believe the ship dates when folks on here start posting pics....until then...brew on.

 

[Lax coach]

Mine got delayed from 1/7 (so...next week) to 2/8. The delay doesn’t bother me all that much as I probably wasn’t going to be able to use it until the end of the month anyways, but more frequent updates would have been nice. Hopefully the return to weekly mailings helps with that regard.

It will help, until they start missing them again. My money's on they'll get 3 in a row, with one of the three late but still basically on a weekly cadence, and then they'll become more and more sparse.

 

[chupalt]

Another email went out with "revised" ship dates and another promise of weekly updates.

Chupalt, did they say yours will ship next week?

Yeah, mine was updated to the week of 1/11. I’ll let you know when it ships.

 

[Thorrak]

Yeah, mine was updated to the week of 1/11. I’ll let you know when it ships.

Fingers crossed!

 

[Trevor Mack]

Let's hope it arrives at some point this month for you @chupalt

 

[doublea]

Has anyone received a unit yet? I'd love to see a real review. My date got pushed from Feb to March, but I'm happy to stick with it assuming the unit delivers a polished, reliable experience.

 

[chupalt]

Has anyone received a unit yet? I'd love to see a real review. My date got pushed from Feb to March, but I'm happy to stick with it assuming the unit delivers a polished, reliable experience.

Mine is supposed to ship this week. I’ve got ingredients for 2 beers and will post pics and impressions as soon as I get it.

 

[Mutant]

With PicoBrew's failure to support resolving Fatal Error #1 on Zymatic, I'm ready to cancel order for Z. Customer support is a big part of wanting their product(s).

 

[chupalt]

I just received notification that my Z1 shipped. I’ll keep you guys posted

 

[Goblism]

I did see the update today and no further delays on my z2, hoping that stays true. My z2 is scheduled for 2/22

 

[Still Brewn]

I did see the update today and no further delays on my z2, hoping that stays true. My z2 is scheduled for 2/22

When did you order yours? I'm just curious... I waited until the last few days of the half price pre order to order a Z2 and was curious how much longer I would have been waiting to brew anything. I already canceled mine and ordered the brewie+ and got it around thanksgiving and have brewed 3 times. Not that the first north american version of it hasn't had its own issues but It is a far better machine for me due to water hookups and automatic cooling to temperature that takes less than 10 minutes.

 

[wh4tig0t]

I just received notification that my Z1 shipped. I’ll keep you guys posted

Ok so now that people should be getting their Z1's in the next week, how do we build recipes? is the new software released? Do you use the old version? Is there a way to get into the software without a serial number and mess with it before mine comes in April?

 

[Trevor Mack]

New updated posted so far kinda on schedule for weekly updates. https://mailchi.mp/picobrew/z-update_23_2019-0112?e=4cf04d8de7

Production set 1/11 is ready for shipment so hopefully @chupalt will have a review for us next week!

 

[Trevor Mack]

Ok so now that people should be getting their Z1's in the next week, how do we build recipes? is the new software released? Do you use the old version? Is there a way to get into the software without a serial number and mess with it before mine comes in April?

If like the Zymatic (if my memory serves me well) you need to have a serial number attached to your account at PicoBrew.com to play around with it.

 

[Trevor Mack]

I did see the update today and no further delays on my z2, hoping that stays true. My z2 is scheduled for 2/22

Interesting that the z2 hasn't been mentioned in any update yet... No details how it works. Though from my emails with support it essentially is just two Z1 configurations stacked together with a different head control unit. That head control unit then attached to both Z1 base configurations and the higher voltage power while each base unit connects to their own kegs allowing you to do 2 different brews at the same time or just 2 of the same (wish the 2 of the same would all connect together, but not the design here).