Do you consider this Home Brewing?

[darkbright]

This.

Me: "Here's some homebrew I made"
Recipient: "Is it safe or am I going to go blind? Bet I get a massive hangover from this.

I totally agree with this. I am over trying to convince people to drink my beer. Beer that I paid for, ruminated over, spent 5 hours making the wort, spent 2 weeks waiting for, spent hours bottling and waiting to carb.

If you don’t want to try it (for free) - bog off!

 

[-Bezza-]

I totally agree with this. I am over trying to convince people to drink my beer. Beer that I paid for, ruminated over, spent 5 hours making the wort, spent 2 weeks waiting for, spent hours bottling and waiting to carb.

If you don’t want to try it (for free) - bog off!

Exactly. I'm normally at the end of my tether when it's followed up with "Oh, this is surprisingly good". I often make the point about how home cooked food is better than a ready meal, or artisan cheese is more interesting than supermarket cheddar, so why would you expect beer to be anything different.

Edit: I'm going to get found out when the poor bugger I'm sending my Xmas bottle swap beer to tastes my efforts!!

 

[Braufather]

Exactly. I'm normally at the end of my tether when it's followed up with "Oh, this is surprisingly good". I often make the point about how home cooked food is better than a ready meal.

Edit: I'm going to get found out when the poor bugger I'm sending my Xmas bottle swap beer to tastes my efforts!!

hmm, you havent tried my mrs cooking.

 

[Braufather]

The Grainfather is much more than “insert a capsule and wait 2 weeks” though. You have to bring together your ingredients, set and monitor the mash, add your hop additions, chill, clean, properly aerate your wort, pitch the yeast, monitor fermentation temps, package your beer at the end, carbonate it etc etc. It’s completely different.

I’d even argue that machines like the Peco Brew are also home brewing because there’s the programming, bringing together the ingredients, aeration, yeast pitching etc.

100% agree all in one systems like the BM and GF are essentially shiny brew in the bag systems. The brewer has as much control over the process and ingredients as with any other all grain brewing.

its less so with peco but still enough creativity there to qualify it as home brewing.

this however, crosses the line id say.

 

[Kenneth Harvey]

I reckon the cost of the machine + the cost of the pods will mean brewing 250 times before you break even and since it is nothing more than a coffee pod system that makes possibly ok beer, I don't really see it as a hobbyist tool.

That being said, if some smarty pants hacks the beer pod, I can see this being an awesome gadget.

 

[TheQuokka]

I totally agree with this. I am over trying to convince people to drink my beer. Beer that I paid for, ruminated over, spent 5 hours making the wort, spent 2 weeks waiting for, spent hours bottling and waiting to carb.

If you don’t want to try it (for free) - bog off!

Ruminated? You don't use a grain mill?

 

[AdeDunn]

I reckon the cost of the machine + the cost of the pods will mean brewing 250 times before you break even and since it is nothing more than a coffee pod system that makes possibly ok beer, I don't really see it as a hobbyist tool.

That being said, if some smarty pants hacks the beer pod, I can see this being an awesome gadget.

I read an article written my a self professed hipster on the LG machine, he reckoned it missed the mark for hipsters too. He compared it to hipster coffee making, where they carefully select their coffee, grind it themselves, then carefully brew it using carefully selected equipment using methods refined and perfected by coffee fans to give a perfect cup... So much like brewing hobbyists really...

Which leaves you wondering, just who is this machine aimed at? It's unlikely to produce cheap beer, so missed the cheaper beer market. Misses the hipster and hobbyist markets. That just leaves the gadget fan market, who will use it a few times, then put it in a cupboard probably. I doubt that the gadget fan market is all that large though these days, when it comes to expensive gadgets anyway.

I've seen it compared to the equivalent of a Tassimo machine, we own and use one regularly as I can't stand instant or filter coffee (we tried, and returned, a Dolce Gusta machine too, but we're not fans of luke warm watery drinks...). We used to use an espresso machine, but my wife doesn't like her American made with actual Espresso, and finds that too much faff just for a couple of cups of coffee.. But this is beer we're talking about here, not a couple of cups of coffee in the morning... Beer you can brew long before you want to drink it, and have it ready for when you do. You can't really do that with coffee. I'm just not convinced that there will be a long term market for a machine like this, even amongst kit brewers who want to brew all grain without the faff. The "pods" would have to be seriously cheap for it to work maybe? Price it to compete with extract kit brewing, THEN it would stand a chance.

 

[darkbright]

Ruminated? You don't use a grain mill?

It adds to the enzyme action....better conversion.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Bump.

 

[AdeDunn]

When they say capsules, they kind of give the impression of a single capsule... Looks like it's a bit more complex than that, and look at the size of the malt one! Can you imagine the response of the environmentalists to those entering the landfills after launch?

https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/06/lgs-capsule-based-beer-maker-will-test-your-patience/

All for 5 litres of beer (I'm not going to pre-judge it's quality, when the tiny volume from such a wasteful approach is such low hanging fruit....).

That article isn't even written by a brewer, but may as well of been! The author hits the nail on the head! The machine is tied up for the whole time, just for 5 litres, meaning you're going to be running out of beer a LOT, and end up needing more than one machine if you don't want to run out constantly.

It's really difficult to figure out the target demographic for these machines.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

It's really difficult to figure out the target demographic for these machines

Designed for people with too much money and who don't like to drink too much too often.

 

[GerritT]

"And here are the results of the jury..."

Quite clear results, lots of info and opinions, I thank you all and I'm glad we could keep it very civilised!

 

[stevey]

5 litres in 2 weeks (minimum) I'd have to buy at least 4 of them to keep up with my son's visits.

 

[stevey]

Also how big are the pods going to be? They've got to contain a kilo of grain, and hops, and do the hops go into the mash? and what about the yeast? Is that part of the pod or do you have to add it after the boil? Is there a boil involved? Is there a go fund page for this somewhere?
It just all sounds like BS to me.

 

[GerritT]

Also how big are the pods going to be? They've got to contain a kilo of grain, and hops, and do the hops go into the mash? and what about the yeast? Is that part of the pod or do you have to add it after the boil? Is there a boil involved? Is there a go fund page for this somewhere?
It just all sounds like BS to me.

http://www.lgnewsroom.com/2018/12/lg-to-unveil-capsule-based-craft-beer-system-at-ces-2019/

It's an existing concept, but there aren't many details yet.

 

[Drunkula]

Anyone actually got any faith in this selling and being supported? LG are huge compared to random start ups.

I looked at the minibrew site and it's £1,100 for the base model that's a bit picante. This makes me wonder how much the LG will cost, and the price of the refills. I was guessing from £18.99 up to £31. I'd forgotten it's only 5 litres, too. I wonder if the pods have chips in them like printer cartridges to keep track of things and stop you from reusing them.

I only just found out about the Juicero while looking for info on the LG. Wow.

 

[MickDundee]

I only just found out about the Juicero while looking for info on the LG. Wow.

I just googled this. No idea how that would even get off the ground. Started at a cost of $699 then quickly dropped to $399, single serving juice pouches cost at least $5. My favourite part of the Wikipedia page:

In 2017, Juicero was the target of widespread criticism when Bloomberg News published a story suggesting that the company's produce packs could be squeezed by hand easily and effectively, and that hand-squeezing produced juice that was nearly indistinguishable in quantity and quality from the output of the company's expensive Press device.[9]

 

[Darenn]

A video is available here


The pods and capsules are produced by Muntons for LG

 

[Drunkula]

So it uses extract and hop oils. What a piece of junk. At least that minibrew thing can make real beer. I'm actually disappointed. I wanted it to be more. That really isn't home brewing. I had a bottle of non-alcoholic wine for my mum and one glass got drunk and wild yeast got in and fermented it, genuinely - that's more homebrewing than this travesty.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Has this guy ever brewed anything?

"Have you ever tried it yourself [home brew] A lot of equipment and a chance of having a lot of beer go bad"

"Less chance of things going wrong as you talked about happens a lot"

This guy would make a great second hand car salesman.