PINTER beer system

[Ezza]

Hello just came across the PINTER beer system on YouTube and wondered if anyone had bought one and how good it is ?.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Pinter review -

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Facebook group here - Facebook Groups

The Pinter - Welcome to a new world of fresh beer.
A group for users, the 789 and potential users of The Pinter. Share your thoughts, questions, information and whatsoever on The Pinter. The 789 are the early adopters who backed the Pinter on Kickstarter.

 

[Drunkula]

Ezza, what's your goal with buying something like this? My first reaction to attend like this is "Are you making this ill-informed purchase for yourself, blighting someone else's existence with it?"

If you want to start brewing we can help. If you know someone that likes beer and think this might be a great gift then chances are it's a huge white elephant and a colossal waste of money that'll keep costing someone else money. £1.50 a pint for an extract brew that you have to wait for when you can buy bottled beer ready to go, professionally made for the same price.... no. And systems like this have gone bust or stopped supporting models and their range of beers is pitiful.

Quick search i saw people saying their beer tasted medicinal. Here we know that's a thing to deal with.

You can avoid the disappointment and possibly the driving of a wedge between someone if you're buying this as a gift just by browsing the forum more.

We can help you, starting by avoiding this abysmal toy.

 

[Ezza]

Not thinking of buying one ,just interested in how others have found them.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

It would be interesting to see what people in the group are saying.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Dark matter stout review -

 

[Ezza]

It would suit my brother he's a lazy git TBH.

 

[user 18729]

Skip to 4:21 for the tasting -

I bet its horrendous...

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I bet its horrendous...

The OP wondered if anyone had bought one and how good it is no one here has one but already members are telling him it cannot make decent beer, obviously its not going to be as good as what members here make but that doesn't mean it cannot make drinkable beer.

The guy in this video is impressed with the stout.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

 

[user 18729]

The OP wondered if anyone had bought one and how good it is no one here has one but already members are telling him it cannot make decent beer, obviously its not going to be as good as what members here make but that doesn't mean it cannot make drinkable beer.

I didn’t say it couldn’t make decent beer I was simply saying that in my humble opinion the beer it makes is probably horrendous (I’m not speaking from experience though and happy to be corrected)

 

[stubrewworx]

I have one. A gift. Just finished (drank) the first of their kits. I'll review shortly.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

in my humble opinion the beer it makes is probably horrendous

I haven't found a review video yet where the person reviewing this system says the beer it makes is horrendous and the owners in the videos I have posted especially the stout one were impressed.

 

[DavidT]

I have one. A gift. Just finished (drank) the first of their kits. I'll review shortly.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts Quite a few people have asked me about these and I only know what the internet says about them (a lot of it from people who were given them for free to review initially)

If it works well, it would be a cost effective halfway house and who knows, some of those people might become home brewers :small

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Hello just came across the PINTER beer system on YouTube and wondered if anyone had bought one and how good it is ?.

Seems to be essentially a modern take on the old Boots kits, brought up to date and aimed more at people in small flats etc.

I may be missing something but £75 seems to be buying you a 10-pint pressure barrel in a range of pretty colours and 2x10-pint kits. Subsequent kits are £14 for 10 pints, in boxes shaped to go through letterboxes, they're keen to sign you up to a monthly subscription at £12/month or £66 for 6 months.

They'll be buying the ingredients for their kits from the same places as everyone else, so the kits will be much of a muchness with any other kits based on liquid malt extract (LME). Which is not the preferred option, not least because LME stales more quickly if it hangs around, so I'd worry about their throughput, but when the kits are fresh the beer should be OK.

All these things have tradeoffs - in this case you're paying a fairly significant premium for the cutesy fermenter and the perceived convenience. "Normal" kits in the outside world are £15-20 for 40 pints, so you pays you money and takes your choice.

 

[Drunkula]

So if you make a lager in it do you need to keep it at 10c for 3 weeks then condition for another 10? Then drink it all in 4 days because that's how long it lasts once tapped.

I've been looking at the videos and forums and the best beers seem to be "Post-Purchase Rationalisation", "Cognitive Dissonance" and "Thank God This Was Free".

 

[stubrewworx]

I was bought one of these from the in-laws at Christmas. I like beer and I have made beer, albeit around 6 years ago, but I always plan to dust off the kettle and get back to it, so The Greater Good Fresh Brewing Co - Pinter! was a well thought present on their part.

My first impression, after a little research into what it is and how it works was; this seems like an over-priced bit of kit which will be used once (actually twice because 2 presses were also provided) and then stored away.

However, use it I had to and actually wanted to because I started to think how I could incorporate it into my current set-up.

A Quick How-To
The Pinter! basically comes with just 2 parts, The actual vessel (with integrated but removable tap) and a docking station.
The Fresh Beer packs come with ‘Fresh Press’, ‘Purifier’ and yeast.

• Firstly you set the carbonation dial to ‘carbonate’, which basically closes the adjustable pressure release valve to stop any leakage.

• Mix the ‘purifier’ (sodium percarbonate) with warm water via the screw-off lid. Screw lid back on, shake it about, attach to the docking station, attach tap handle, run some through the tap, remove from docking station (empty this), empty the vessel. No need to rinse.

• Fill vessel with water to the fill level mark (5.6l), add bottle of ‘Fresh Press’ (700ml), add supplied yeast (I don’t think the marketing team thought of a name for yeast), attach lid, shake, attach to docking station and let ferment for specified time or your own desired time.

• After fermentation, move the Pinter! to the sink and detach from the docking station. You can now move the Pinter! to the fridge to condition for specified or desired time. Also, empty the docking station of yeast and trub (approx. 400ml, so that leaved roughly 5.9l in the Pinter!, clean docking station.

• To dispense, turn carbonation dial to off, which opens the valve to allow oxygen in, attach tap handle and pour. Re-set dial if you don’t plan to drink all 10 pints.

• To clean, they say to rinse and purify when you make the next brew, but I soaked with some PBW.

I chose the Public House IPA to try first, which is somewhat their flagship beer. I fermented for 10 days and conditioned for 10 days, because from experience I knew longer the better.

The first pour was cloudy as it’s basically the sediment like the bottom of a bottle conditioned beer. This is due to the vessel sloping down towards the tap for dispensing purposes. Still went down the neck though.

The second pour was much better. Clarity was ok and a decent head.

The beer itself? Meh. I’ve had worse. A definite homebrew twang. I’d struggle to call it an IPA, or at least my opinion of what an IPA is. Not a lot of hop character. I did serve very cold, so perhaps removing from the fridge may have help some flavours? I don't feel it required longer conditioning time, so a 20 day turn-around was quite good.

But I wasn’t expecting great beer.

I spread the 10ish pints over 2 consecutive nights, towards the end carbonation was diminishing and no head at all. The last glass, with a tip of the unit was cloudy again.

I’ve now just set the Craftwerk Pilsner pack on the go, but I blended a hop tea of Northdown, EKG and Bram X with it.

Do I recommend the Pinter!?

Not really, not as the supplier intend you to use it. £15 to make 10 pints of not very good beer. You could enhance the kit with yeast, dry etc but it isn’t cost effective.

I suspect many of the Christmas recipients will soon move these into the loft once the supplied packs are consumed.

However, I do think the Pinter! has a place beyond being used with their kits. Especially for small batch brewers or test batches.

• It’s an enclosed fermenter (I live in a studio with a dog and have a fruit fly problem at the moment, which are not related to brewing so this is a plus for me).
• I think it actually looks ok and fits most places in the home.
• It ferments under pressure, so all the benefits of that.
• You can harvest yeast from the docking station.
• You could potentially use the docking station to introduce additional flavourings (hop teas, coffee/cocoa elixirs etc) after initial fermentation and dumping the yeast/trub. – I need to test if the docking station is one-way.
• You don’t need to bottle or re-keg and it fits in the fridge (side-ways for me but I do have the slimmest built-in fridge).
• You have the option to ferment without pressure. The dial allows to adjust desired carbonation but I’m unsure how effective it is.
• You can buy an additional vessel without the docking station for £35, this would allow you have a rotation of brews. One conditioning whilst other is fermenting.

Sure it has some disadvantages:

• Build quality. If the tap goes, beer is everywhere. Especially when fermenting as the tap is at the bottom. Carbonation dial feel flimsy (I read it blew off for one user, so yeast choice could be limited!).
• You can’t bottle. Well, if you ferment without pressure and the tap doesn’t aerate the beer too much, it could be a possibility?
• Once tapped, I’d say 2 days worth of drinking (which actually suits me).
• You can’t check how the fermentation is going, but a tilt / ispindel could sort that?

I have a few of my own brews planned to go in the Pinter! over the coming months, so I’ll update accordingly.

 

[stubrewworx]

So if you make a lager in it do you need to keep it at 10c for 3 weeks then condition for another 10? Then drink it all in 4 days because that's how long it lasts once tapped.

Can the process of making lagers be expedited through fermenting under pressure, which you can do with the Pinter?

Also, it might not be lager yeast as no indication of strain is mentioned.