Zymatic Picobrew: your thoughts

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Gledison

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hi everyone.
did you ever tried or tasted the beer from such "Nespresso" machine ?:p
for me personaly, I found quite boring for the fact that you basically don't have to do much.
Still interesting thou to get people to jump into homebrewing
Cheers
 
At the prices they want, it's quite a big jump. I personally think it's the next bread machine.
 
My friend has the big Zymatic. He loves it. Hardly ever uses his 3 kettle 10 gallon system. Loves the ability to brew often and experiment.
 
I don’t see anything wrong with automating a process at the home level. How many housewives would like a Press-Button-Make-Dinner machine? You have all the ingredients you like in there.
 
No disagreement; however, how many bread machines are seeing routine use today? My thought is if it's that easy, the new will wear off pretty quickly. Case in point: We have a bread machine. I hand knead our homemade bread. The bread machine gets pulled out once or so a year when SWAMBO makes stollen. Scenario number two: A batch goes wrong - my first thought would be sanitation after a few batches' worth of bugs find their hiding places. Armed with the knowledge of how to dump the ingredients in a bin, how will the brewer ever figure out what's going wrong? I'm sure it's a good unit and will make good beer. I'm not sure it has staying power. My personal recommendation will always be learn to do it by hand correctly, then when you add the automation you will be more ready to use it to its potential.

A couple years from now, I'll buy one on E-Bay for a hundred bucks.
 
I get you. I like your point that it’s tough to diagnose a problem when you don’t understand the process.
 
its just like buying a boat, it gets used like crazy for a couple of years, then the novelty wears off then gets tucked away and only use for family trips
 
I’ve heard the same thing said about RVs. Ours never sat idle. The entire time we had one, we’d use it at least a couple weekends a month, plus one or two weeks a year. Everything is like that, though. Here in this forum, there are die hard homebrewers. It’s their favorite passion. Even their Facebook profile pic is homebrew oriented. I used to belong to an RC model forum. Same thing there. Some people were passionate about RC, and you couldn’t get them to talk about anything else. Nothing wrong with that, if that’s who you are. Some people will buy this Picobrew and use it for years. Others will buy it and brew once. Just another product in the vast superstore we call life.
 
Nosybear said:
No disagreement; however, how many bread machines are seeing routine use today? My thought is if it's that easy, the new will wear off pretty quickly. Case in point: We have a bread machine. I hand knead our homemade bread. The bread machine gets pulled out once or so a year when SWAMBO makes stollen. Scenario number two: A batch goes wrong - my first thought would be sanitation after a few batches' worth of bugs find their hiding places. Armed with the knowledge of how to dump the ingredients in a bin, how will the brewer ever figure out what's going wrong? I'm sure it's a good unit and will make good beer. I'm not sure it has staying power. My personal recommendation will always be learn to do it by hand correctly, then when you add the automation you will be more ready to use it to its potential.

A couple years from now, I'll buy one on E-Bay for a hundred bucks.
Click to expand...
+1 on that!
But I would get the one which you can add your own grains and hops.
I really didn't like the new one which you have to buy from their site and it comes like Nespresso caps.:p. However I totally get the business idea, people will be locked to buy the Bill on their website. I saw a comment from a guy that was sort of scared of all the homebrew gears and learnings and was happy of having a machine where he can just press a button. Sanitation is indeed the biggest issue I see for this machine. Personaly I really enjoy the whole work of measuring pH, adjusting it, gravity values, etc.. I believe we have much more control and ability of correct issues while they show up.
 
From January 1972 through December 1975 I brewed nine batches of extract beer. Then I quit due to difficulty in getting ingredients and the time required. In January 2016 I got my Zymatic and since then I have brewed 29 batches. For me the Pros are quite simple: 1 case of 12 oz bottles at a time just right for me and few guests; I can reproduce a brew almost exactly like the time before; I can brew any recipe or modify any recipe; most of all--It does not require my full attention. I can measure, grind and insert the ingredients, start the machine and pretty much leave it alone. In addition to picking the ingredients, I still have to ferment the wort the way I see fit and then bottle or keg the beer. I just do not have to waste my time watching a pot of wort boil. It is no more expensive than most electric or gas systems, often times cheaper. For me, it has been the best choice I could have made.
 
Simply put I couldn’t brew without my Zymatic (or perhaps another largely automated machine). Reason? Family time.

I can brew during the day in the house and while I work from home. It no longer consumes a whole day of boiling liquids in the garage (I’m also in Texas so that’s rough no matter what). It’s not perfect but it doesn’t prevent me from crafting my beers and it’s actually easier to be consistent with it. My beers have improved and I enjoy it more.

It’s certainly not for everyone but with a young family I with limited spare time I can’t imagine 6 hour brew sessions in the garage. Plus no open burners for kids safety.
 
Certainly a great alternative in your situation.
 
The guy working my LHBS today had theirs fired up. No wait for me while he tends to his brew session!
 
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