Santa Came Early

[tony b]

One of my Kickstarter projects that I backed was finally delivered on Friday. It's called the BeerMkr and it's a similar brewing machine to the PICOBREW system. Here's an early video of the machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xkaKPHz758

There were further refinements during beta testing, especially with the tap unit, from the one in the above video. There's a whole YouTube channel with all their "how to" videos, if you're curious to check it out. Or go to their website:

https://beermkr.com/

The machine has a WiFi connection and runs by an app. This part was a bit of a struggle for me to set up, not being super IT savvy. My home WiFi has both 2.4 and 5 GHz signals. The BeerMkr can only run via 2.4, so I had to temporarily disable the 5 GHz signal in my home system, which took me a very frustrating day to figure out. But, I finally got the BeerMkr to synch up with the app (they call it "commissioning") yesterday. So, this morning, I started my first batch of beer in it - a Kolsch. After about 24 hours, the machine will tell me when it's done steeping the grains and it's ready for the yeast and hops tomorrow. They use "steam hops" which get around not boiling the wort. While you can use their pre-fab kits, one of the things that attracted me to this machine was that you can do your own recipes in it. So, I thought it would be good for doing "trial runs" of new recipe ideas (the machine makes about 1 gal of finished beer) before experimenting with full 5 gal batches.

So, after over 25+ years of homebrewing, I'm FINALLY doing an all grain brew! Fingers crossed!

[andrewmaixner]

Neat, keep up updated! I read through that website a month ago or so, interested how it goes for you

[tony b]

Well, the first beer is finished! It's a Kolsch. The maker finished with the cold crash yesterday. I transferred the beer bag to the tap box, injected the CO2 cartridge and into the fridge for 24 hours. Just tapped it. Nicely carbonated and a very tasty beer - on style: malty and a bit spicy. Only knock is that it's a bit cloudy, but that might be because it was the first pour out of the bag.

So, now it's official - I'm an all-grain brewer!

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