Automated brewing

[SomeGuyBrewing]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/170 ... ing-applia

Came across this today and thought I would throw it out there to see if anyone has an opinion on it (strictly for coversational reasons, not for investing/purchasing). Especially you guys doing more advanced brewing.

I just barely started brewing straight mr. beer extract batches so I have no opinion on the matter.

[Beer-lord]

Great idea but for me, I like the 4 hour process and the little tweaks I can make while I brew. Technology isn't for me for some things in life.

[JimH]

It definitely looks interesting. But, I don't think it's for me, either. Just like The Hat's article, for me, brewing is my escape. I focus for a couple hours on my beer, and making it my way, and sometimes learning a new technique.

[SomeGuyBrewing]

That is one of the things that popped into my mind when reading about it. I imagine it would take away some of the satisfaction of all the hard work many all-grain brewers put into thier beers. Sure you can still create original recipes but it takes away the adventure and experience of it all.

[duff]

A big part of brewing for me is the social aspect. Even though most of what I have done was extract with steeping just having people sit around and have couple of beers while basking in the smell was a large part of the fun. The complete automatic machines wold take a lot of that away.

[mashani]

Look at their faq. Specifically "Where does the boil happen?" and "What about controlling off flavors such as DMS".

They both run counter to "what homebrewers know is true". As in there appears to be no viperous boil to drive off DMS.

We do (or at least should) by now know that much of what we "know" or learned back in the day is often just stuff folks did that seemed to solve some problem for them, and not really based on real science. But still I find that fascinating.

[FedoraDave]

It definitely looks interesting. But, I don't think it's for me, either. Just like The Hat's article, for me, brewing is my escape. I focus for a couple hours on my beer, and making it my way, and sometimes learning a new technique.

Hey, someone actually read my blog entry!

But yeah, it should be obvious how I feel about it. If pressed for time, I'll do an extract batch, but my AG days, while taking four or six hours, are four or six hours I'm doing what I want to do, purely for myself. It's hours spent being completely self-centered, and everyone needs a little bit of that, I believe.

I also like the tweaks and challenges and little triumphs throughout the process. That's part of the satisfaction. If all I wanted was the end result of drinkable beer, then this apparatus would be worth it. But there's more satisfaction to be had by working through the whole process, IMO.