Over the years we’ve reviewed a number of countertop brewing doodads that promise great beer at the push of a button—just dump in the ingredients and let ’er rip. While they’re fun to test, the results are often predictably underwhelming. Has the tech improved? We asked our review coordinator, Paul Hutchings, to take two newer devices for a spin...
There’s an allure to brewing beer at home—the intricate process of designing a recipe, filling my house with intense aromas as malt and hops come together in a cohesive yet intricate dance, and—finally—being able to enjoy the fruits of my labor with the inviting pull of a tap handle.
That romanticized view of homebrewing brings back a flood of visceral memories, each with tantalizing promises of future success and satisfaction. However, what is not appealing, and is often forgotten in this idealistic cascade of recollections, is all the time spent brewing and creating this theoretical beverage. As most of you know, a typical brew day at home might take six to eight hours or more, including buying the ingredients, milling, monitoring, and ushering along the production, waiting for that all-important vigorous boil, and—most importantly—the repetitive process of cleaning and sanitizing the multiple pieces of equipment.
Therein lies the appeal of devices such as the iGulu and Pinter, two recent forays into the all-in-one, brewing-made-easy industry. With these machines and their ingredient kits, you can get a small batch going in minutes—and then, if you like the beer, you could essentially have homebrew on tap year-round. Each machine offers everyone the same efficient and enticing result: Fresh beer, ready for consumption, without the stress of a prolonged or complicated brew day.
We tested both machines here at the Craft Beer & Brewing office, and both produced drinkable beers—not world-beaters, by any stretch, but clean and competent homebrews. However, there are notable differences in setup, size, the conditioning step, and especially in price.
iGulu F1 All-in-One Automated Home Craft Beer Brewer
igulu.com, $699
We tested the iGulu first. Despite being slightly cumbersome—13.5 x 14.5 x 20.5 inches (34.3 x 36.8 x 52 cm) in size, weighing nearly 30 pounds (13.6 kg) empty—the machine is aesthetically pleasing; it looks pretty cool. Advertised as a fully automated system, the iGulu is beautifully designed—interactive touch screen, indicator lights, wifi and Bluetooth capability, an internal cooling system, and a matching rubber mat for that occasional spill.
The initial setup was straightforward; the pieces of equipment were clearly labeled in the instruction booklet, there was a QR code to download the required iGulu app, and the included recipe for a Bavarian-style weissbier came in an accompanying packet. The packet included an RFID smart card, dry malt extract, dry yeast packet, and hop extract. I found the written instructions to be as cumbersome as the machine itself and soon went to the iGulu website, which provides links to numerous videos.
Once I’d cleaned the one-gallon (3.8-liter) fermentation vessel and smaller pieces of equipment, I poured all the ingredients and a gallon of water into the vessel, secured the lid, and attached the CO2 line and serving tube. This entire process took about 15 minutes from start to finish. I hit a button on the touchscreen, and the iGulu took over from there. After 14 days—during which I was able to track each stage of brewing, fermenting, and cooling via the app, wherever I happened to be—I received an alert that the beer was done and ready to serve.
Pinter
pinter.com, $149
If the iGulu is the all-new electric BMW with leather trim and upgraded performance tires, the Pinter is the more affordable and accessible Honda Accord.
Simple, functional, portable, and compact, the Pinter is roughly a fifth the cost of the iGulu. Bundled tightly in a form-fitting cardboard box, the Pinter is sleek and lightweight, designed for smaller spaces—13.9 x 9.2 x 9.5 inches (35.3 x 23.4 x 24 cm), weighing 5.8 pounds (2.6 kg) empty. There’s a reason for the difference in bulk: Unlike the iGulu, the Pinter has no internal cooling unit; at some point, you’ll need to make space in the fridge.
Despite its petite frame, the internal brewing cavity holds 1.5 gallons (5.7 liters) of beer. There’s an app for the Pinter, too, and the step-by-step instructions and colorful animations are easy to follow. The Pinter has no wifi or Bluetooth, but the app can still tell you when each step of the brewing process is complete. The provided beer kit was Dark Matter, an oatmeal stout. The packet included cleaner, liquid malt extract, dry yeast, and hop extract. After a thorough cleaning, I added the water and all ingredients. As with the iGulu, this took about 15 minutes total.
After five days, the app notified me that primary fermentation was complete, and it was time for the conditioning stage. That prompted some manual effort—I had to remove and clean the brewing dock and place the Pinter in the refrigerator for the next nine days. Tapping the stout was easy enough—although, until the beer is gone, the device is taking up potentially valuable real estate in the fridge.
Overall, both systems offer the satisfaction of fresh homebrew without losing most of a day to a typical five- or 10-gallon (19- or 38-liter) batch. What you gain in time, you lose in control—and therefore, perhaps, quality and character. While neither beer was excellent, both were decently drinkable.
While the vehicles are different, both are well-designed. They make great conversation pieces to be discussed and debated among friends and family over a pint (or two) of perfectly acceptable homebrew. —Paul Hutchings