The brewnanny

[dhelegda]

So has anyone used this?

http://www.brewnanny.com

 

[day_trippr]

Apparently, no. Not one soul has used it.
Check out the threads listed at the bottom of the page...

Cheers!

 

[unionrdr]

Nobody's gotten one yet, even though they say there shipping & all that. They're still advertising to get more sales with no known shipping, thus no reviews anywhere. The thread on here talks about for some months now.

 

[C-Rider]

Sounds way to complicated for me. Plug in air lock and let it sit in the fermenting freezer for 3-4 weeks and bottle.

 

[aprichman]

Sounds way to complicated for me. Plug in air lock and let it sit in the fermenting freezer for 3-4 weeks and bottle.

Yeah, it seems like an over complicated solution to a non-existent problem. Instruments that can accurately measure flow are not trivial to make. The drop counters in my university's chem lab are notoriously inaccurate and expensive. Keep in mind that these measure liquid - gas has got to be even harder.

My take on the Brew Nanny is that Gary Lyons over promised and can't deliver. His bio reveals that he went to school for photography and not any type of engineering - that's a big red flag for me. Some people are capable of being able to transition this stuff from a hobby to an actual product, but these people are the exceptions and not the rules.

Ultimately the worst part is how shady Gary has been handling the situation. My take on it is he's going to string along the project as much as possible so he doesn't have to deliver any refunds. I have a hard time believing any of his updates. I predict that this will ultimately end up with him defending himself in a court of law. Right now the Brew Nanny looks like a scheme to con people out of money, hiding behind the Kickstarter terms to keep people's money and never send them anything in return.

 

[watermelon83]

No affiliation and I don't own one, but this simliar product seems to be less shady.

http://www.morebeer.com/products/beer-bug.html

 

[unionrdr]

That one does seem to be pretty decent. & since some have been using them, I think it's safe to say it's no scam, unlike this one.

 

[C-Rider]

Spending $250 to tell me my beer is done?? I know I can wait 3 weeks and it's done. LOL i don't even care to watch the ferment one of the reasons I use plastic buckets inside a freezer. LOL

 

[unionrdr]

True enough, but tech-heads will love it.

 

[day_trippr]

Brewnanny, Beer Bug, whatever, I've yet to see any of these devices that get me interested.
And one could do more interesting things with the price of either, imo...

Cheers!

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah, I could think of a few things to do with $250. Temp controlled fermenting cabinet, 7 gallon SS conical,...

 

[day_trippr]

Yup, at that price the alternate possibilities are substantial - and frankly, more meaningful...

Cheers!

 

[unionrdr]

Or maybe put it towards this?
http://bit.ly/1paeJHO

 

[day_trippr]

Somehow that looks like a little more than $250

But you could build quite a few BrewPi fermentation controllers for that money and run them all from a single web host. I have four BrewPi Arduino "minions" under control of one Raspberry Pi (that also runs the metered Raspberry Pints taplist on my keezer), and all up that would barely exceed $250...

Cheers!

 

[Roadliner]

I don't think it's a matter of a solution to a problem or a need anyway. No one needs even half of the fancy stuff some use to brew. Its an ease of use/coolness factor sometimes. This has a coolness factor, but does seem really shady.. and absurdly overpriced. I'd get a brew bug before I got one of these.. even if it does look cooler.

I hate that people seemingly got hosed by the Kickstarter, cause I've done a few of them and always been happy with how it turned out.

 

[day_trippr]

I agree with all of ^that^, except that both of those devices are clearly offered as solutions to a need.
One person's "need" is another's "meh", and I'm definitely in the "meh" camp on these...

Cheers!

 

[Roadliner]

lol fair enough on the "meh"

 

[brewbama]

+1. Meh.

 

[Homercidal]

These definitely solve a no problem. They are straight up bling.

But, if you really want to know your beer's temp and gravity easily, and have a bunch of extra money sitting around, it's a cool device.

OTOH for about $30 you can buy a 1-wire temp sensor and wire it up to send your beer's temp to the web if you have it plugged into a computer. And there are other devices you can use for a few dollars more that do it without a computer. There are all kinds of options that are much less than $100.

 

[TexasHopHead]

This is a scam. I ignored all the warning signs and did it anyway. I am a techno-geek and thought it was just too cool. After I signed up to his "let me know when it's available link" I get an email that someone canceled and I can have theirs. I ask questions, look at the website and google for reviews (there are none). I buy it anyway. I know.

After a week I sent an email and am told that it's just been completed and in testing. All follow ups after that were ignored. Just filed my claim with Paypal.

If you register to see the forum, there have not been any posts in months, except for one asking for a refund, and that one's probably gone by now.
Anyway, in case anyone else wanted to consider, just wanted to put out there

 

[treacheroustexan]

Yeah the only posts on the forum are from the admin and one guy asking for a refund haha.