UPDATE MARK II - We have tried on a few occasions to get hold of a machine for review to update you on the Minibrew and whether they fixed the fermentation issue. Unfortunately we have not been offered the opportunity. So we cannot currently recommend buying it beyond the features we saw when we tested it. We'd love to hear if anyone has one and can inform any new viewers if it is working as they promised it would after the beta version we tried! Hit us up below!
Hi Jonny, we are not sure which channels you tried to contact us through, but we are sorry that we did not manage to help you earlier. We obviously are more than happy to ship our latest hardware to you for a new review! In the meantime we have made serious progress and recent hardware revisions have solved the issue you experienced. We will get in touch and try to organize this with you as soon as is convenient.
As a thermomix enthusiast, I can see this as the beer brewing equivalent; automating most of the labour and allowing for tweaking of recipes and precision that I couldn't hope to achieve without the gadget. Has the thermomix taken the soul out of cooking meals from scratch? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I use it to cut corners and make things happen faster, but I can also use it for experimentation or more part of more ambitious projects - in other words I can use it to be lazy or more inventive depending on my own mood and motivation. Disclaimer - All of the beer I've brewed has been starting from a can + warm water then add dextrose and yeast. I've never gone the extra step towards starting with water, barley and hops. That puts me squarely in the entry level category, so my perspective may not match those of a more advanced brewer.
AN UPDATE! Hey everyone, thanks so much for all the views on this video, Unfortunately due to a loose seal (Arrested Development fans, WHERE YOU AT?!) the beer failed to carbonate and we're brewing a new batch. Tasting video WILL come soon, as well as honest feedback on what caused the issue. Still investigating.
As a relatively newbie brewer I am learning a lot from going through the manual process over-and-over again. Everything I do is old-school analog: form measurements to cooling to fermentation. I can, however, see where the Minibrew would be a welcome addition as way to have a batch of something 'stable' going while still learning with the more hands-on approach. Example: I could see having a batch of Pliny going in the Minibrew while working on some other recipe that I don't know for sure will turn out. As others have said in the comments, I wouldn't hand over the result from the Minibrew to my friends and declare myself "the brewer".
What if you had friends for dinner and you cooked steak using a sous vide, would you still say you cooked dinner even if the machine did 95% of the work? I'm not sure calling yourself a brewer is correct even if you use a 3 vessel system. I can cook really well at home but I'm not really a chef.
The Craft Beer Channel Heady Topper, Julius, and Congress Street just because I’m probably never going to get the chance to try them. Although for £1000+ for the machine maybe I should try and persuade the wife & kids to let me spend that cash on a trip to Cali & East coast to pick up the real things!
Honestly my initial thought was a good eye roll in seeing another automated system, but this one actually looks pretty good. It seems like there much more control and seems rather simple compared to the other systems. It’s not for me though, having a full brew day and brewing 20l batches is all part of the fun. I’m rather priced out with the budget too, but I’ll definitely keep this in mind. Main gripe being that the BK/FV/keg looks to have a rather large footprint which will take up the entire space in my fridge which usually has space for two 19l cornys. Question: What’s the cooling process for fermentation?
I agree with comments below that this seems to take the 'soul' out of brewing, and you wouldn't really learn good technique from it, but it still looks fun if I had that sort of expendable cash lying around. My main issue is that brewing at that small quantity means using very small amounts of hops. Most homebrew shops/sites only sell hops in multiples of 100g, so it means either wasting a lot of hops or keeping a lot of half-open bags of hops in the freezer, still not ideal.
Indeed it's not such a soulful experient akin to most brewing systems or cooking from scratch etc - but it is brilliant for experimenting with new recipes and a great second space in the brewing market. As for the hops, this is definitely an issue, though 50g ones are often available. We used just under 25g of each hop in this brew.
The packs that you need to use cost more than just buying 5 liters of beer in the store and then you need to buy the incredibly expensive device as well. This device will take about a month to produce a meager 5 liters of beer and probably to a substandard quality. If you want to make your own recipes you need to sign up for a paid yearly subscription and order all ingredients from Minibrew, at a significant premium. Gee, what a great deal this machine is!
Totally understand all these points but there is no obligation to buy ingredients from minibrew and we didnt for this experiment. Charging the subscription isnt right to us though.
can you do fruitty beers and mead with this machine? i understand mead does not need temperature beyond roomtemperature but it needs time and generates gases that need to go or it might explode
It depends! You can pick a recipe and buy ingredients from a homebrew store or minibrew. If you want to make your own recipes with your own ingredients you can too but i think you have to buy the full editable programme - which is about £100. Really i think it should come as standard.
The Craft Beer Channel yeah obviously! what a stupid decision from them to charge for something like that. Hope they change their mind because the unit is already pretty expensive and they dont mention this info anywhere. It’s gonna do more bad than good. The whole point of brewing yourself is to come up with exciting and special new recipes. If I want someone elses brew I’ll buy a bottle.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel that is a serious limitation at that price considering the rest of the setup. brilliant video by the way thank you, i was looking around for more info on this unit and you've provided more than their own videos and websites! cheers
Unfortunately the machine failed on this attempt, and we were unable to arrange a new unit until...lockdown happened. Our recommendation is to not buy the machine at this point.
I feel like there's a new trend lately, a trend of expensive reinventing the wheel. Between things like this, Hopsey, and (now failed) juciero. Are we really getting that lazy, we can't BIAB this volume at a hundreth of the cost? I won't nitpick the system itself because the tech behind it is neat, but I would imagine at that small batch volume it would be very hard to keep consistency because of the greater impact of little variations due to small volume?
You have picked up on the one thing that worries me about this kit - small variations will have larger impact at 5l but i havent brewed on it enough times to tell and i think the automation will go a long way to help that. As for reinventing the wheel, i dont think Minibrew is that. No other kit gives you the flexibility that this does thanks to the hop chambers, temp control and cloud data
Hey, just letting you know, if this is a sponsered video / advert, you need to go into the video settings and make sure it's listed as an ad. It will come up with "#ad" below the video if it is. If you don't, you might be in breech of terms of service. Just letting you know! It's easy to miss :)
Oh okay, sorry I'm just being stupid then! I only mentioned it because I recently forgot to do so on a sponsored video and it almost bit me in the ass :P My bad! Onto the product itself, do you find it makes brewing a bit... boring? Like, just sitting there and waiting. Conveniant, sure, but there's no risk for catastrophic failure; i.e, no fun!
My Pliny clone didn't taste great until I learned about water treatment additions and de-chlorinated the water (Scottish water is too soft for making hoppy IPAs) so I'd be interested to know if the system has the ability to do that. I haven't had any issues with temp control because the house is kept at 20C but I could see how in other parts of the world temp control could become a priority over water treatment and perhaps even a necessity.
Indeed, though most fermentations benefit from a warmer diac rest and cold crashing at the end which having temp control allows! And if you wanna make a lager... You can certainly tweak the water chemistry. We did so for this brew.
I would say because it looks like only a 5 litre system for a typical homebrewer its not worth the cost. It would really only appeal to those who want to try homebrewing but have no real urge to learn the process. If they could scale it up to 20 litre like some other completely controlled systems they might attract more interest. Also Pliny as far as I am aware also has a dextrose (or some other sugar) addition
Indeed - i think it is great for beginners but also those looking to experiment. Pliny does indeed have dextrose in which we added but didnt show in the video. It is how it gets to the abv without the heavy malt flavour.
UPDATE from Minibrew - no further aeration is necessary if using dry yeast, but if using wet you can swill the keg to help, and also when you add the yeast trub dish this introduces more oxygen. Doesn't sound like much, but in the four years of testing the fermentations have been healthy with these steps.
Important step? Maybe not in this case. Aeration is necessary for ensuring yeast have what they need, namely O2. If you under aerate you potentially stress the yeast out causing esters to be formed. One drawback to aeration is potential to go overboard and oxidize those precious hop compounds in the finished beer. All said and done, they were probably better off under aerating due to this being a VERY hoppy beer.
Ben Timmons I only learned in the last month, like TCBC says, you don't need to aerate dried yeast, or actually even rehydrate it, especially at home brew scales. Dried 4 Lyfe
Interesting technology but I feel like this takes the fun out of the entire brew process because you're just pushing buttons and using an app instead of learning what brewing actually is and how it works.
Thank you so much for your amazing video. If I buy the MiniBrew device and take it to my home country, what happens after I ran out of the Brew Packs? Is there any way to bypass/replace the Brew Packs? Or can I make them myself if I know what the ingredients are? They do not ship anything outside the Europe. If this device is not a good option due to my shipping issue, is there any alternative device that you can suggest me? Something that you just buy the device and make all the ingredients yourself, from grain to Brew Packs?
You can indeed get a version of the software to brew whatever you like using your own ingredients as we did here (pliny was not a pack). However, right now we are not recommending buying one as this beer failed and we recently received a new unit to test. We'll update!
A fault with a seal meant the beer oxidised and failed to carbonate. We have a new machine and are going to test it as soon as we can! Will have an updated video this year.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Aha! Thanx for the reply. I will wait for your updates. The machine is intresting as tool for making experiments ona small scale (given that one can easily try his own recepies)
You dont! In all but pasteurized beer (what the big brewers make) the yeast is never killed but most is cropped off or filtered out. Here the sediment is cropped off but nothing else.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel thank you very much for the quick respond. I have one more question it is a harder question. Do you think if it is possible to let the smartkeg brew the beer and then put it in another fermetation keg that you control your own temperature so you can use the smart keg again for another type of beer? :)
It is a five litre keg so 8-10 pints. Cost would depend on the recipe but Pliny is pretty expensive for home brewing due to the amount of hops and malts. Homebrews are rarely cost effective - it is all about the adventure and the experimenting.
Homebrewing is definitely cost effective. When I can brew 20 litres for about $25. That same $25 would only get me 12 355ml bottles of macro crap around here. Or about 6 cans of craft.
So, did you never get the production version to test? At over £1000 for a 5 litre brew it would take you about 150 brews to make it cost effective as a homebrewer lol. Okay for the commercial for recipe development and for the hipster who wants to be hip I suppose. Still it does show what is possible and I imagine a few years down the line there may be cheaper alternatives available.
Hey Steve! We have one and will be brewing with it in a few weeks. Lockdown meant we couldnt film but we will have a video by september. It is an expensive kit but has a lot of cool features... we just need to see of they actually work now!
I believe it's gonna retail around £1000, so it's totally down to your budget. It's a fantastic system for trying new things, dialling in recipes and ensuring great fermentation but there are cheaper and more hands-on options too if you don't wanna go all in at the start. Regarding fruit, you can add whatever you want to those hop capsules on the top, so fruits, herbs, coffee etc are all good!
@@TheCraftBeerChannel cheers, thanks for the speedy reply. Say you wanted to test the boundaries exclusively, what would be the most cost effective way to do so??
What do you mean by a good place to start? To start home brewing? If so, I'd recommend what my homebrew supply store told me the first time I went there asking similar questions about diving into something expensive. They said first buy a extract kit, see if you enjoy it first before investing alot of money and figuring out you hate it. Personally I love homebrewing, it really sucks you in, great people, great beer! Also if you are interested in homebrewing start by buying the book "how to brew" by John Palmer, great read, cheers
Also what do you mean by boundaries? Different ingredients to see what works what doesn't? Look up SMaSH brewing method, all about embracing the KISS method "keep it simple stupid" lol
Hi there craft beer channel! Interesting system indeed. I have one question though, are hop-stands/whirlpool hopping possible with the minibrew? It is a game changer step for NE IPAs ..
How so? Most craft beer is brewed on an automated system - got to alchemist or russian river, or the great lager breweries of germany and czech. And when it comes to homebrew, the temp control makes homebrewing more flexible and consistent than ever. This machine isnt for everyone, maybe not for us even, but it is exciting for ambitious homebrewers
It's an honest preference based on an old school mentality. What makes craft brew great (at times), for homebrewers is the journey of learning from mistakes. Even to say those mistakes can turn into something fantastic.
Those breweries you mention are well established and have a proper foundation. An automated system for larger scale and popular breweries makes sense for consistency sake, and frankly for those who want automated consistency.
I totally agree - someone who brews on this would never be able to go pro. But as an avid homebrewer with limited time, I think it's a cool halfway house - and a great way to experiment with flavour. In a dream world, I'll have a Grainfather and a Minibrew....currently I have the first one.
Looks and sounds like an Incredible machine. now I wonder, I’ve been looking around and saving for a homebrew system to start experimenting a bit with recipe ideas and I repeatedly ended up with “grainfather” being the system I needed. Would you reckon that this system would be better due to the “all in one mechanism” which makes infections much more easily avoidable? Or is the grainfather still the better system? (Keeping in mind i have 0 experience with home brewing on any type of system)
Risk of infection will be fairly similar on either system to be honest. With minibrew you will get more reliable results because fermentation temps are controlled, the brew day will be easier and you will get lots of recipes to try out. The grainfather you will have to a lot more research and calculations as well as manual labour on the day - but there is fun in that too! Depends what you want from your machine - to make great beer but let the tech sort the issues to be a bit more hands on and learn by getting deep into the recipes. Having brewed on both, I want both!
Alright thanks definatly looking forward to seeing the results from your brew experience in a few weeks. i think just the fact that its an all in one machine and that the fermentation has temp controlling built in is a major plus for me personally. also the fact that these are tiny 5L brews is great as it allows for much more experementation with different recepies. I wonder if you could make sours in this system .. or have one of their Kegs fully devoted to sour beers as to not risk infecting other brews
Dan O thanks for the Input! I definetly don’t have much space so thats why this system is so interesting so that i don’t have to buy anything extra ( grainfather + fermentor + fridge + temp controller). But what they pride themselves on with all of it being automated I find sad that I’ll miss out on a true “Brew-Day experience”.
Looks like a cool product for trying out new recipes if it were a bit cheaper. but then I read €89,95 (100 USD) a year for the app... THE APP! nah, no, nope, yesn't, hell naw.
I know nothing about brewing (but I do like my beer) and am mainly watching this hoping that, at least, YOU GUYS would know how to pronounce "Pliny"! 🙄 (Just google "pliny pronunciation"!)
So after all that effort and expense you got nothing. I like buying beer. It's good for the economy and someone else did all the work and worried about the problems and details. Of course, I reap the benefit. I drink about 2 cases a year of Founders Breakfast Stout and would never try to make my own version. At $52 a case I feel it's worth it.
Thanks foe commenting! But by that logic you only eat out in restaurants? There is a lot to be gained in life by making your own stuff, learning process and growing as a person. On another note in case you are unaware we would recommend not buying from a company like Founders due ti their appalling record on race.
standing around bored out of your skull, while the machine does every single thing for you isnt brewing. these machines are designed for people who cant be arsed to learn and enjoy the whole process and art of brewing. Popping the grains in and then having to do nothing until you pour "beer" out in a few weeks, that isnt something you can tell your friends that you brewed, when you had so little input to it. no feeling of achievement of what you have produced when you drink it, compared to cracking open a properly brewed beer and being proud of what you have made. Im not denying the thought and technology, but these virtually hands off brewing glorified teas maids really bug me !! as you can tell lol. Anyone wanting to get into brewing should get a system like a grainfather, bulldog etc, build a cheap 3 vessel system, do boil in a bag, or partial mash on the stove top, learn how to make recipes, get stuck in, hands on and MAKE beer, make mistakes, have success's. Enjoy a great hobby, and a great online community. All the things you wont get with these things. Phew ! Rant over
Sure you need to start from doing hands-on brewing but if you are already advanced brewer and do like 3-4 recepies in a month then this machine is pretty good and will save you lots of time and you can do other stuff meanwhile. Also I usually dont need like 21L of beer when I brew with my braumeister.
if i want small batches, then i simply do 5 litre biab all grain brews, theres no need to spend £1000 on a system thats fully automated, when around £50 would kit you out to start small batch brewing. Like I say, these machines are targeted towards people who want to "brew" beer but dont want the fuss of learning or actually spending the time on a brewday, fermenting, bottling etc. The company are kidding themselves if they think an advanced brewer would show much serious interest. Also, if you want to do a few brews a month on it, your looking at even more expense of buying more kegs !
I totally get this rant. When we first spoke to Minibrew that was my reaction, as an avid and long-term Grainfather user. But what I learned (and obviously I am now biased) was that it offers a very different form of experimenting, which is what all the brewers have picked up on and why they want to work with Minibrew. It is brilliant for working out new recipes, testing untested ingredients, playing around with fermentation temperatures and dry hopping techniques. I think this machine appeals to two people - those who want no fuss homebrewing so will pay for it, and those who have done it for years and want more control and experimentation.
I think there are plenty of people out there who want to make better beer than Coopers from kits and this offers that, as well as lots of scope for experimenting.
UPDATE MARK II - We have tried on a few occasions to get hold of a machine for review to update you on the Minibrew and whether they fixed the fermentation issue. Unfortunately we have not been offered the opportunity. So we cannot currently recommend buying it beyond the features we saw when we tested it. We'd love to hear if anyone has one and can inform any new viewers if it is working as they promised it would after the beta version we tried! Hit us up below!
Hi Jonny, we are not sure which channels you tried to contact us through, but we are sorry that we did not manage to help you earlier. We obviously are more than happy to ship our latest hardware to you for a new review! In the meantime we have made serious progress and recent hardware revisions have solved the issue you experienced. We will get in touch and try to organize this with you as soon as is convenient.
Thanks! We will get in touch again to sort!
The Craft Beer Channel Do you have an update? 🍺😁👍
@@MysticDonBlair we have received a new machine! Gonna do some quick tests them film a sequel!
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Looking forward to it
As a thermomix enthusiast, I can see this as the beer brewing equivalent; automating most of the labour and allowing for tweaking of recipes and precision that I couldn't hope to achieve without the gadget.
Has the thermomix taken the soul out of cooking meals from scratch? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I use it to cut corners and make things happen faster, but I can also use it for experimentation or more part of more ambitious projects - in other words I can use it to be lazy or more inventive depending on my own mood and motivation.
Disclaimer -
All of the beer I've brewed has been starting from a can + warm water then add dextrose and yeast. I've never gone the extra step towards starting with water, barley and hops. That puts me squarely in the entry level category, so my perspective may not match those of a more advanced brewer.
if it works out, nothing less than impressive.
AN UPDATE! Hey everyone, thanks so much for all the views on this video, Unfortunately due to a loose seal (Arrested Development fans, WHERE YOU AT?!) the beer failed to carbonate and we're brewing a new batch. Tasting video WILL come soon, as well as honest feedback on what caused the issue. Still investigating.
Yikes
Well, what's the progress?
When can we expect the honest review and issue feedback?
@ I am still waiting to try it out with the fixed seal - apologies all!
How much longer?
I'm impressed by the timed hops release chamber...although it actually looks like you're packing fireworks to celebrate an epic brew session :D
I had never heard an English speaker mention Pliny the Elder - I was not expecting 'pligh-nee' but plinny..... As in, Plinius. Am I alone in this?
You are not.
@@BillCarrIpswich good to hear.
Es realmente impresionante ver todos esos equipos cerveceros allá atrás y terminar haciendo cerveza con un equipo automatizado.
Great video! Nice way to make an advert gentleman. Now I want one of these top $$$$ machines while I barely touch the kits available to me
Wow - The machine's are taking over.
very very clever piece of kit, great video
As a relatively newbie brewer I am learning a lot from going through the manual process over-and-over again. Everything I do is old-school analog: form measurements to cooling to fermentation. I can, however, see where the Minibrew would be a welcome addition as way to have a batch of something 'stable' going while still learning with the more hands-on approach. Example: I could see having a batch of Pliny going in the Minibrew while working on some other recipe that I don't know for sure will turn out. As others have said in the comments, I wouldn't hand over the result from the Minibrew to my friends and declare myself "the brewer".
What if you had friends for dinner and you cooked steak using a sous vide, would you still say you cooked dinner even if the machine did 95% of the work? I'm not sure calling yourself a brewer is correct even if you use a 3 vessel system. I can cook really well at home but I'm not really a chef.
the dry hop ball is the classical one for tea? Thanks a lot for the video!
wow what a neet little invention
Does this support hop additions at sub boiling temperatures for hopstands?
So very cool. Cheers, -J.O.
So what breweries and recipes would you like to see on the Minibrew platform?
The Craft Beer Channel Heady Topper, Julius, and Congress Street just because I’m probably never going to get the chance to try them. Although for £1000+ for the machine maybe I should try and persuade the wife & kids to let me spend that cash on a trip to Cali & East coast to pick up the real things!
Oh and Anna from Hill farmstead brewery - a top rated saison that I would love to try
Dogfish Head 120 min IPA
haha, that is an even better option!
I expect many of these beers will be on the platform, either created by users or direct from the brewer. Hopefully the latter in time!
Best way to drink IPA is to throw it out and grab a stout or porter!
Serving straight from primary is an interesting idea. Hopefully you can do something to get rid of a bunch of trub first.
Indeed! There is a yeast trub box you remove, clean and co2 purge at various points during fermentation and after cold crashing
Thats impressive, ive tried the beer your replicating and it was a good beer, but im so excited to see how this turns out. Nice one guys.
Honestly my initial thought was a good eye roll in seeing another automated system, but this one actually looks pretty good. It seems like there much more control and seems rather simple compared to the other systems.
It’s not for me though, having a full brew day and brewing 20l batches is all part of the fun. I’m rather priced out with the budget too, but I’ll definitely keep this in mind.
Main gripe being that the BK/FV/keg looks to have a rather large footprint which will take up the entire space in my fridge which usually has space for two 19l cornys.
Question: What’s the cooling process for fermentation?
There is no need to keep it on a fridge - the fermenter cools itself with what i can only describe as a mini internal air conditioning unit
So @beerchannel , where is the second part? It should be about time for that.
Video with honest assessment should come soon. Still trying to get a pliny for comparison.
Apparently we've spent to much time down in our basement brewery and missed the intro of this machine... Time to do some research!
Hey Glen.. once you are done with KFC series.., how about you try brewing some IPAs.? 😀
I have almost no love for alcohol, but *DAMN* i need this machine
I can drink all that at one go
I agree with comments below that this seems to take the 'soul' out of brewing, and you wouldn't really learn good technique from it, but it still looks fun if I had that sort of expendable cash lying around. My main issue is that brewing at that small quantity means using very small amounts of hops. Most homebrew shops/sites only sell hops in multiples of 100g, so it means either wasting a lot of hops or keeping a lot of half-open bags of hops in the freezer, still not ideal.
Indeed it's not such a soulful experient akin to most brewing systems or cooking from scratch etc - but it is brilliant for experimenting with new recipes and a great second space in the brewing market.
As for the hops, this is definitely an issue, though 50g ones are often available. We used just under 25g of each hop in this brew.
The packs that you need to use cost more than just buying 5 liters of beer in the store and then you need to buy the incredibly expensive device as well. This device will take about a month to produce a meager 5 liters of beer and probably to a substandard quality.
If you want to make your own recipes you need to sign up for a paid yearly subscription and order all ingredients from Minibrew, at a significant premium.
Gee, what a great deal this machine is!
Totally understand all these points but there is no obligation to buy ingredients from minibrew and we didnt for this experiment. Charging the subscription isnt right to us though.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Did they change that (buying from them)? It used to be the case
Cheers! 🍻
Is mini brew something to buy? It cost alot of money but it looks good.
You just said danke
It's very cool an clearly minimize the required space, but I can almost build a complete brew-kitchen for that price
I want this machine
Can you control fermantation temperature from 5 to 25degree? Great vid by the way thank you!
can you do fruitty beers and mead with this machine? i understand mead does not need temperature beyond roomtemperature but it needs time and generates gases that need to go or it might explode
Hmm so can I make my own custom recipe and use it on this machine or do I have to choose from their selection and order the ingredients from them?
It depends! You can pick a recipe and buy ingredients from a homebrew store or minibrew. If you want to make your own recipes with your own ingredients you can too but i think you have to buy the full editable programme - which is about £100. Really i think it should come as standard.
The Craft Beer Channel yeah obviously! what a stupid decision from them to charge for something like that. Hope they change their mind because the unit is already pretty expensive and they dont mention this info anywhere. It’s gonna do more bad than good. The whole point of brewing yourself is to come up with exciting and special new recipes. If I want someone elses brew I’ll buy a bottle.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel that is a serious limitation at that price considering the rest of the setup. brilliant video by the way thank you, i was looking around for more info on this unit and you've provided more than their own videos and websites! cheers
How did this turn out? I couldn’t find the follow up where they try the beer.
Unfortunately the machine failed on this attempt, and we were unable to arrange a new unit until...lockdown happened. Our recommendation is to not buy the machine at this point.
I feel like there's a new trend lately, a trend of expensive reinventing the wheel. Between things like this, Hopsey, and (now failed) juciero. Are we really getting that lazy, we can't BIAB this volume at a hundreth of the cost? I won't nitpick the system itself because the tech behind it is neat, but I would imagine at that small batch volume it would be very hard to keep consistency because of the greater impact of little variations due to small volume?
You have picked up on the one thing that worries me about this kit - small variations will have larger impact at 5l but i havent brewed on it enough times to tell and i think the automation will go a long way to help that.
As for reinventing the wheel, i dont think Minibrew is that. No other kit gives you the flexibility that this does thanks to the hop chambers, temp control and cloud data
Yeah its really cool but if I was going to spend that money I'd just get a full brewing set up and be careful with heat mats..
Hey, just letting you know, if this is a sponsered video / advert, you need to go into the video settings and make sure it's listed as an ad. It will come up with "#ad" below the video if it is.
If you don't, you might be in breech of terms of service.
Just letting you know! It's easy to miss :)
We have selected that option, how it displays depends on advertising rules in your region.
Oh okay, sorry I'm just being stupid then! I only mentioned it because I recently forgot to do so on a sponsored video and it almost bit me in the ass :P
My bad!
Onto the product itself, do you find it makes brewing a bit... boring? Like, just sitting there and waiting. Conveniant, sure, but there's no risk for catastrophic failure; i.e, no fun!
Haha don't apologise! Thanks for messaging!
No worries! Lovely to find a brewing channel based in the UK, most seem to be US based! Looking forward to reading your books!
Everytime I get one the store sells 2 per person. Gotta love this beer. 🔥🍻
My Pliny clone didn't taste great until I learned about water treatment additions and de-chlorinated the water (Scottish water is too soft for making hoppy IPAs) so I'd be interested to know if the system has the ability to do that. I haven't had any issues with temp control because the house is kept at 20C but I could see how in other parts of the world temp control could become a priority over water treatment and perhaps even a necessity.
Indeed, though most fermentations benefit from a warmer diac rest and cold crashing at the end which having temp control allows! And if you wanna make a lager...
You can certainly tweak the water chemistry. We did so for this brew.
I would say because it looks like only a 5 litre system for a typical homebrewer its not worth the cost. It would really only appeal to those who want to try homebrewing but have no real urge to learn the process. If they could scale it up to 20 litre like some other completely controlled systems they might attract more interest. Also Pliny as far as I am aware also has a dextrose (or some other sugar) addition
Indeed - i think it is great for beginners but also those looking to experiment.
Pliny does indeed have dextrose in which we added but didnt show in the video. It is how it gets to the abv without the heavy malt flavour.
🍺🍕🍷 Interesting little brew machine! ! I see it's not available for the United States... Cheers 🍻🍷🍷
Unless I missed something, how did the wort get aerated? Seems like it missed an important step
It definitely gets aerated - i believe by creating turbulence in the pipes as it cools
UPDATE from Minibrew - no further aeration is necessary if using dry yeast, but if using wet you can swill the keg to help, and also when you add the yeast trub dish this introduces more oxygen. Doesn't sound like much, but in the four years of testing the fermentations have been healthy with these steps.
Important step? Maybe not in this case.
Aeration is necessary for ensuring yeast have what they need, namely O2. If you under aerate you potentially stress the yeast out causing esters to be formed. One drawback to aeration is potential to go overboard and oxidize those precious hop compounds in the finished beer.
All said and done, they were probably better off under aerating due to this being a VERY hoppy beer.
@@bentimmons3363 I would say, proper fermentation is a pretty important step.
Ben Timmons I only learned in the last month, like TCBC says, you don't need to aerate dried yeast, or actually even rehydrate it, especially at home brew scales. Dried 4 Lyfe
$1500 yea right
Where is the follow up comparison to the real Pliny?
How to order product in India
Two cable that goes in minibrew 1:14 one is for power and the other one is for? Tnx for answer.
Water! It is tap water to cool after the boil.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel is it neceserry to be attacheg or??
Interesting technology but I feel like this takes the fun out of the entire brew process because you're just pushing buttons and using an app instead of learning what brewing actually is and how it works.
Came to say this. Half the fun is the process. I do like the self-cleaning though hahaha!
$400 to ship to the US. I don't think so!
Thank you so much for your amazing video. If I buy the MiniBrew device and take it to my home country, what happens after I ran out of the Brew Packs? Is there any way to bypass/replace the Brew Packs? Or can I make them myself if I know what the ingredients are? They do not ship anything outside the Europe.
If this device is not a good option due to my shipping issue, is there any alternative device that you can suggest me? Something that you just buy the device and make all the ingredients yourself, from grain to Brew Packs?
You can indeed get a version of the software to brew whatever you like using your own ingredients as we did here (pliny was not a pack). However, right now we are not recommending buying one as this beer failed and we recently received a new unit to test. We'll update!
Hello! I read about a "fermentation problem" in the comments. What kind of problem was that?
A fault with a seal meant the beer oxidised and failed to carbonate. We have a new machine and are going to test it as soon as we can! Will have an updated video this year.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Aha! Thanx for the reply. I will wait for your updates. The machine is intresting as tool for making experiments ona small scale (given that one can easily try his own recepies)
Check out the Brewie B20+, it's much easier and cleaner to use. I'd recommend it 👍🏼
We own a Grainfather and love it too - this is a different kinda thing!
Are they available in Mumbai?
without any milling????
Absolutely AFTER milling.
With this setup, is there any concern for DMS since it’s a covered boil?
I checked that with them but there is an outlet through the middle so no risks.
I thought that Prancing Pony Indian Red Pale Ale was the best?
Will there be any update, now that the machine has hit the market?
Really sad to say it is unlikely as we don't have access to a machine anymore. We have asked on multiple occasions but now answer yet!
@@TheCraftBeerChannel ok - thanks anyway :-)
I'd buy a grainfather over this
Can yo control the fermentation temp? Is it possible to do lagering?
You sure can. It can lager, sour, cold crash and do diac rests.
how do you kill the yeast after done?
You dont! In all but pasteurized beer (what the big brewers make) the yeast is never killed but most is cropped off or filtered out. Here the sediment is cropped off but nothing else.
can you bottle the beer after it is done. to save it for later?
You totally can, this is how it's done in professional breweries. You'd just need to purge the bottles of O2
@@TheCraftBeerChannel thank you very much for the quick respond. I have one more question it is a harder question. Do you think if it is possible to let the smartkeg brew the beer and then put it in another fermetation keg that you control your own temperature so you can use the smart keg again for another type of beer? :)
Hello my friend, how much that machine?
Buenas noches, la quiero comprar, la busque en amazon y walmart no la consigo, por donde la puedo comprar ? gracias
It can currently only be bought direct from their website
Maybe I missed it but does the trüb stay in the fermenter?
No - you can remove from a tub at the bottom whenever required (just gotta purge that tub when you do)
My Request to your company to supply such mini brewing units to my place Bhubaneswar city in Odisha state in India
Can you make small batch Imperial Stouts with this machine?
You can indeed! I am planning a coffee imp stout for my next experiment.
Id like this to be on a bigger scale.. you know 20l
I thin there might be plans.
For ten times less money I can brew 4 times more beer at once. It's like putting a ready meal in the microwave and calling it cooking.
How much is it! Can you make it a cask conditioned ale?
It's just over £1,000 I so not cheap. We are doing some more videos on it soon so stay tuned.
how many bottles will you produced and what would be the cost per bottle?
It is a five litre keg so 8-10 pints. Cost would depend on the recipe but Pliny is pretty expensive for home brewing due to the amount of hops and malts. Homebrews are rarely cost effective - it is all about the adventure and the experimenting.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel
Homebrewing is definitely cost effective if you live in Norway, as I'm sure you know! 😄
Homebrewing is definitely cost effective. When I can brew 20 litres for about $25. That same $25 would only get me 12 355ml bottles of macro crap around here. Or about 6 cans of craft.
$1500 for a 5L brewery... no doubt I would put in the extra money to get a Brewie+
Garage project has issues
So, did you never get the production version to test?
At over £1000 for a 5 litre brew it would take you about 150 brews to make it cost effective as a homebrewer lol. Okay for the commercial for recipe development and for the hipster who wants to be hip I suppose. Still it does show what is possible and I imagine a few years down the line there may be cheaper alternatives available.
Hey Steve! We have one and will be brewing with it in a few weeks. Lockdown meant we couldnt film but we will have a video by september. It is an expensive kit but has a lot of cool features... we just need to see of they actually work now!
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Cheers, I look forward to seeing the review
Soooo….did it ever worked?
Many time to finish?
Around 4 hours.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Including fermentation?
Unfortunately it doesn't work in Android devices and this is a huge disadvantage for the system. It's worth to mention it in the advertising.
Check out Brewart
How much does a mini brew system cost??
Do you think its a good place to start??
Is there an option to add fruit??
I believe it's gonna retail around £1000, so it's totally down to your budget. It's a fantastic system for trying new things, dialling in recipes and ensuring great fermentation but there are cheaper and more hands-on options too if you don't wanna go all in at the start.
Regarding fruit, you can add whatever you want to those hop capsules on the top, so fruits, herbs, coffee etc are all good!
@@TheCraftBeerChannel cheers, thanks for the speedy reply.
Say you wanted to test the boundaries exclusively, what would be the most cost effective way to do so??
@@nothica6811 probably the Minibrew! Gives you huge control and flexibility.
What do you mean by a good place to start? To start home brewing? If so, I'd recommend what my homebrew supply store told me the first time I went there asking similar questions about diving into something expensive. They said first buy a extract kit, see if you enjoy it first before investing alot of money and figuring out you hate it. Personally I love homebrewing, it really sucks you in, great people, great beer! Also if you are interested in homebrewing start by buying the book "how to brew" by John Palmer, great read, cheers
Also what do you mean by boundaries? Different ingredients to see what works what doesn't? Look up SMaSH brewing method, all about embracing the KISS method "keep it simple stupid" lol
Smoking beer "hops"
Can you buy this in the usa
They are currently crowdfunding but i believe you will soon.
No thanks. I like brewing beer. I don't want a machine doing it for me.
Fair enough! I kinda want both types at home.
Hi there craft beer channel! Interesting system indeed. I have one question though, are hop-stands/whirlpool hopping possible with the minibrew? It is a game changer step for NE IPAs ..
Interesting question - I will ask them!
Make an abbey ale!
noted!
The best California ipa is stone enjoy by.
Doesn't seem alot of room for the grains to move.
It's pretty compact in there but it's an 8% beer so bound to be lots of malt.
Mini brew? What is that?
Dunno
An automated brew system is the worst threat to homebrewers and craft beer.
How so? Most craft beer is brewed on an automated system - got to alchemist or russian river, or the great lager breweries of germany and czech. And when it comes to homebrew, the temp control makes homebrewing more flexible and consistent than ever. This machine isnt for everyone, maybe not for us even, but it is exciting for ambitious homebrewers
Ah unless you mean people might auto brew beer at home and not buy from breweries?
It's an honest preference based on an old school mentality. What makes craft brew great (at times), for homebrewers is the journey of learning from mistakes. Even to say those mistakes can turn into something fantastic.
Those breweries you mention are well established and have a proper foundation. An automated system for larger scale and popular breweries makes sense for consistency sake, and frankly for those who want automated consistency.
I totally agree - someone who brews on this would never be able to go pro. But as an avid homebrewer with limited time, I think it's a cool halfway house - and a great way to experiment with flavour. In a dream world, I'll have a Grainfather and a Minibrew....currently I have the first one.
Looks and sounds like an Incredible machine. now I wonder, I’ve been looking around and saving for a homebrew system to start experimenting a bit with recipe ideas and I repeatedly ended up with “grainfather” being the system I needed. Would you reckon that this system would be better due to the “all in one mechanism” which makes infections much more easily avoidable? Or is the grainfather still the better system? (Keeping in mind i have 0 experience with home brewing on any type of system)
The grain father is a great place to start. It's also very hands off and you get 20l of beer and not just 5l...
Risk of infection will be fairly similar on either system to be honest. With minibrew you will get more reliable results because fermentation temps are controlled, the brew day will be easier and you will get lots of recipes to try out. The grainfather you will have to a lot more research and calculations as well as manual labour on the day - but there is fun in that too! Depends what you want from your machine - to make great beer but let the tech sort the issues to be a bit more hands on and learn by getting deep into the recipes.
Having brewed on both, I want both!
Alright thanks definatly looking forward to seeing the results from your brew experience in a few weeks. i think just the fact that its an all in one machine and that the fermentation has temp controlling built in is a major plus for me personally. also the fact that these are tiny 5L brews is great as it allows for much more experementation with different recepies. I wonder if you could make sours in this system .. or have one of their Kegs fully devoted to sour beers as to not risk infecting other brews
@@zephiros1010 they have done sours with it for sure. But yes extra kegs might be a good idea!
Dan O thanks for the Input! I definetly don’t have much space so thats why this system is so interesting so that i don’t have to buy anything extra ( grainfather + fermentor + fridge + temp controller).
But what they pride themselves on with all of it being automated I find sad that I’ll miss out on a true “Brew-Day experience”.
Min 02:10 using ring and watch ?... it is not GMP at all !!
Haha. My apologies, poor form. Hot side though, wont matter!
Looks like a cool product for trying out new recipes if it were a bit cheaper. but then I read €89,95 (100 USD) a year for the app... THE APP! nah, no, nope, yesn't, hell naw.
Somgd you didn't sanitize,the tank and the equipment, mmmm. That its not going to taste good.
Oh we absolutely did - there is a big cleaning cycle at the start of the brewing process, but we didn't show it because it is very unexciting.
I know nothing about brewing (but I do like my beer) and am mainly watching this hoping that, at least, YOU GUYS would know how to pronounce "Pliny"! 🙄 (Just google "pliny pronunciation"!)
Do not buy theyRIP YOU OFF. I have been waiting for 9 months and out 1500 dollars
Best IPA in the world? You're making Two-Hearted? Oh...nevermind.
it's allllll subjective.
So after all that effort and expense you got nothing. I like buying beer. It's good for the economy and someone else did all the work and worried about the problems and details. Of course, I reap the benefit. I drink about 2 cases a year of Founders Breakfast Stout and would never try to make my own version. At $52 a case I feel it's worth it.
Thanks foe commenting! But by that logic you only eat out in restaurants? There is a lot to be gained in life by making your own stuff, learning process and growing as a person. On another note in case you are unaware we would recommend not buying from a company like Founders due ti their appalling record on race.
Pliny sounds like plinny
Tinny Plinny it is then.
There you go
He said Plinny when they first went to visit Russian River but after that he now says it the correct way the brewer named it which is Pliney
But why? Is it a pun I don't get or something? The Roman blokey is 'plinny'.
Because Russian River is an American brewery, you know, where they stay stuff different from us.
I hate it. Its not for me.
I wonder how many owners of these things get punched in the face by real home brewers?
Hopefully none. They would have to punch the majority of craft brewers who also have automated systems too...
standing around bored out of your skull, while the machine does every single thing for you isnt brewing. these machines are designed for people who cant be arsed to learn and enjoy the whole process and art of brewing. Popping the grains in and then having to do nothing until you pour "beer" out in a few weeks, that isnt something you can tell your friends that you brewed, when you had so little input to it. no feeling of achievement of what you have produced when you drink it, compared to cracking open a properly brewed beer and being proud of what you have made. Im not denying the thought and technology, but these virtually hands off brewing glorified teas maids really bug me !! as you can tell lol. Anyone wanting to get into brewing should get a system like a grainfather, bulldog etc, build a cheap 3 vessel system, do boil in a bag, or partial mash on the stove top, learn how to make recipes, get stuck in, hands on and MAKE beer, make mistakes, have success's. Enjoy a great hobby, and a great online community. All the things you wont get with these things. Phew ! Rant over
Sure you need to start from doing hands-on brewing but if you are already advanced brewer and do like 3-4 recepies in a month then this machine is pretty good and will save you lots of time and you can do other stuff meanwhile. Also I usually dont need like 21L of beer when I brew with my braumeister.
if i want small batches, then i simply do 5 litre biab all grain brews, theres no need to spend £1000 on a system thats fully automated, when around £50 would kit you out to start small batch brewing. Like I say, these machines are targeted towards people who want to "brew" beer but dont want the fuss of learning or actually spending the time on a brewday, fermenting, bottling etc. The company are kidding themselves if they think an advanced brewer would show much serious interest. Also, if you want to do a few brews a month on it, your looking at even more expense of buying more kegs !
I totally get this rant. When we first spoke to Minibrew that was my reaction, as an avid and long-term Grainfather user. But what I learned (and obviously I am now biased) was that it offers a very different form of experimenting, which is what all the brewers have picked up on and why they want to work with Minibrew. It is brilliant for working out new recipes, testing untested ingredients, playing around with fermentation temperatures and dry hopping techniques.
I think this machine appeals to two people - those who want no fuss homebrewing so will pay for it, and those who have done it for years and want more control and experimentation.
Jakes Craft Brewing Well said. People that don`t want to brew or learn how to should basicly buy coopers kit
I think there are plenty of people out there who want to make better beer than Coopers from kits and this offers that, as well as lots of scope for experimenting.
If your goal was to find the most annoying music possible, congrats!