Ever dreamt of brewing your own professional-quality craft beer? Ever tried and failed miserably? Then Picobrew’s latest Kickstarter project, the Pico C, could be just what you’ve always wanted. Little bigger than a standard espresso machine, the stylish-looking Pico C promises to do for beer brewing what Nespresso did for coffee.
Picobrew is no stranger to the concept of home brewing. While its family started with the $2,000 Zymatic – a laboratory-class appliance designed to help craft beer pros hone and perfect their brews – the company soon set its sights on making a product suitable for the home. Building on the success of the kitchen-friendly Pico, the Pico C wants to make brewing professional-quality beer at home easier than ever.
The secret is in the so-called “PicoPaks”, which are the home brewing equivalent of a Nespresso capsules. Each PicoPak contains the ingredients required to make five litres of perfectly brewed beer, and the recipes are concocted by experienced craft breweries from all around the world – well-known US brewery Rogue has even created a PicoPak for its much-loved Dead Guy Ale, which is something of a coup.
If the idea of relying on existing brews just isn’t interesting enough for you, then it’s also possible to create your own custom PicoPaks. Pick the type of beer you want to brew and you can use PicoBrew’s online portal to tailor their professionally balanced recipes to your own tastes.
In an age where the cost of a pint is ever-increasing, the ability to have freshly brewed craft beer in your home is pretty alluring. And at around €30 per five-litre PicoPak, that works out at roughly €3.40 per pint. Given that a decent pint of craft beer routinely costs the best part of a tenner, that doesn’t sound too bad at all. Well, as long as you don’t mind stumping up €799 Euro for a Pico C in the first place.
It seems the idea is already going down a treat, with more than $1.7 million pledged at the time of writing – almost five times the $350,000 target. However, PicoBrew is also aiming to hit the $1.812 million mark, which would hand the Pico C the all-time record for a food-related Kickstarter project. The reward? Everyone who stumps up for a Pico C gets a free PicoFerm, a gadget that allows you to monitor the fermentation process. And who wouldn’t want one of those?
The Kickstarter ends at 8am UK time on Saturday, so if you want to pick up a Pico C for a bargain €300, then now’s your chance. Bottoms up.
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