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PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 5:11 pm
by Banjo-guy
My wife bought me a Picobrew! Its my semi retirement present and is her way of helping me want to stay in out present house.
I'm very excited. She has watched my frustration in moving my brewing equipment upstairs and then back down, cleaning in the downstairs bathroom, fermenting in the garage,bottling in the kitchen and drinking everywhere.

There is no place in my small 1950s ranch house for a dedicated brew area but I can carve a space out in the garage for the Pico. It doesn't require a water supply and uses 110 voltage.

It comes tomorrow. I'll post pictures of my learning curve. It looks really cool and some very good brewers are saying great things about it. I can't wait to try this thing out!

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 5:16 pm
by RickBeer
Wow! That's a $2,000 piece of equipment! Is she available to marry other Borg members? :jumpy:

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 5:24 pm
by BlackDuck
Thats aweome. I can't wait to hear all about it. Please keep us posted on what you think after you've made some beer in it.

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 5:55 pm
by Beer-lord
I recently listened to a podcast about this awesome piece of funness and seems like the only negative is it only does 2 or 2 1/2 gallons but I understand the ability to make the exact same recipe each time is amazing.
I'm envious.
They've got a ton of how to videos and a great forum so you best keep us updated.
And like the saying goes, 'Pics are it didn't happen'. :)

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 6:52 pm
by Dawg LB Steve
Nice Banjo! Keep us posted!

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 7:19 pm
by Banjo-guy
Yeah it's a pretty amazing present. I'll ask her if she is interested in remarrying!
My normal batch size is 2.5 gallons so that's no downside for me.
What Podcast did you listen to Beer-lord?

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:59 pm
by Beer-lord
It was actually discussed on a number of podcasts and a guy on one of the Brewing Network shows have one. Listen to to this one.
But, this one was the one I first heard.

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 9:09 pm
by Kealia
Congrats. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it, too.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 9:36 pm
by Inkleg
Dude, cudos to your awesome wife.
You're going to be like a kid on Christmas morning when that gets there. :jumpy:

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 9:47 pm
by Rebel_B
Very cool! My LHBS is selling these now; compact, convienant, and it really works. I talked to one of the salespersons there & she brewed up some batches with the display unit & it really works.

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 10:00 pm
by Banjo-guy
Rebel_B wrote:Very cool! My LHBS is selling these now; compact, convienant, and it really works. I talked to one of the salespersons there & she brewed up some batches with the display unit & it really works.
Someone on another forum refers to it as his "wort maker".
I keep reading that it produces very repeatable , easily tweaked, low effort batches. The cleanup and sanitation are supposed to be much easier.
It's such a luxury item. I'm actually a little embarrassed by how much it costs.
I'm really happy because I can put all of brewing gear in one place with this machine.
I'll take pics and post them.

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 10:13 pm
by Beer-lord
On one of the podcasts one guy stated that he was glad he didn't get rid of his brewing hardware because every now and then he still likes to brew the "old" way. He said he felt like it was cheating using PicoBrew so he has to brew the old way once in a while to remember where he started.
It's perfect for small apartments and those who just don't have the time. Heck, as I get older, I'll not be able to carry all the hardware around but the price will have to be much lower for me to afford one.

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:47 pm
by Foothiller
Banjo-guy, you have a keeper for sure. As for the 2.5 gallon size, the PicoBrew finishes its automatic brewing cycle in something like 3.5 hours and has a self-cleaning mode, so then you can brew the second half of a 5-gallon batch within the time of some brew days, if 5 gallons is what you want. I would consider getting one if I had $2K to spare. For me, one of the biggest joys in brewing is recipe design, not spending hours brewing.

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:08 am
by D_Rabbit
Thats awesome! Reading up on it now and watching some vids. Amazing piece of equipment!

Re: PicoBrew present

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 12:36 pm
by Beer-lord
Since I'm a techie geek nerd and build my own computers, I read a few PC magazines and saw this video from PC World magazine. It's an interesting view of technology and craft beer.
Give it a look-see.
http://www.pcworld.com/video/52903/pico ... -easy.html