Santa came to Tarn Aeluin with a Picobrew Pro brewing appliance. I’ve brewed beer the old fashioned way (pots, pans, carbuoy’s, etc), but let’s try it with the latest and greatest in home brewing technology and see how this machine compares to “old school”.

Background on PicoBrew Pro

I learned about Picobrew at CES in 2016. It was a top winner of best technology. Back then the machines were pretty expensive and larger. The original machine (the Zymatic) was targeted at small scale commercial brewers like Sam Adams or Dogfish Head, as a pilot plant for testing recipes

PicoBrew Pro is the same machine, but scaled down for use in the home. PicoBrew Pro also has “PicoPacks”, which are pre-made recipes from breweries all over. You buy them online, they arrive, and you slide the packs into the machine and hit “go”. Its like a Keurig for beer!

I got the PicoBrew Pro, which I highly recommend. Pico C is a lower cost option, but I think you’ll just end up buying all the stuff that comes with PicoBrew Pro anyway. So they will get you either way and its overall a more capable machine.

Getting Started with PicoBrew Pro

Setting the machine up is super simple. Stick it on any counter or table – it does not need a water connection (more about that later). It fits under standard cabinets with plenty of room. Plug it in and connect it to the internet. It will give you a code to register the machine on-line and you can setup a profile and then monitor your brews. You have to connect it to the internet so that when you slide a PicoPack in the programming can be downloaded to the machine for proper brewing.

24-hours after registering you will get a coupon code for CO2 canisters. I ordered some right away…figure I will use them. The PicoBrew Pro needs the 74g canisters.

In my case the unit will go in my beer grotto and bar area in Menegroth. In the pic above you will see a sink placed right where it needs to be. This will really make prep- and cleanup super easy. The cabinets will be used to store all the accessories. The fridge will be storing my yeast and when dry hopping – the hop satchels.

The manual is excellent and will walk you through the “First Rinse” process and then you are ready to brew. Took about 30 minutes and I was ready to start brewing up my first beer: Spinnaker Bay Brewing’s High Heel Imperial IPA. It is very straight-forward to use this device. The mini-kegs hold 3/4 of a gallon of liquid.

PicoBrew Pro’s First Brew – Spinnaker Bay Brewing’s High Heel Imperial IPA

With the first rinse done I am pretty much ready to go. You can use any type of water that you like in the machine, but the manufacturer recommends reverse-osmosis or distilled water. There are two reasons for this:

1. Most tap water (unless you have a well) is treated with chemicals, for example Fluoride and Chlorine. They will react with the ingredients in unpredictable ways to create “off flavors”.
2. Most tap water (city and wells) contains quite a bit of calcium. Because the PicoBrew Pro uses steam to heat everything, the heating elements will gunk up very quickly require descaling frequently if you use tap water.

Looks like a brewing day will require 2-3 gallons of distilled water so I am going with distilled (investing in a reverse-osmosis system seems a bit over the top right now…). Fill up the keg, hook it up to the lines, and then add water to the reservoir and you are good to go. Add the malt and hops to the Filter Tray, slide it in, Picobrew will recognize it, hit “brew”…sit back and relax foe 2.5 hours. Its that simple.

The brewing process lasted about 2.5 hours for this IPA. The machine communicates its status back up to the web so that if you want to do something while its going – no problem.  In my case that meant playing Mario Carts with my family on our new Nintendo Switch. No doubt the machine is pretty loud for a kitchen appliance – similar to a very loud dishwasher. You will also get quite a bit of brewing “aroma” so if you don’t like that it is something to be aware of.

Once this step is done you need to let the beer cool to room temp. So a plug goes into the keg and we’ll wait 24 hours and then pitch the yeast. In the mean time you can clean up the machine. Dump out the grains and run a rinse cycle ending with draining out any excess water in the reservoir and lines.

Pitching the Yeast and Fermenting

There are two different ways to ferment: traditional with a water trap and “fast fermenting”. The room temp for the latter needs to be higher. Since I’m doing this in the basement during the winter I’ll go with traditional fermenting. The kegs have some interesting openings Fast fermenting uses a metal lid that is clamped in place with a pressure relief valve. Traditional fermenting uses a rubber stopper with a traditional water/vodka trap.

In goes the yeast…tomorrow…will follow up and complete this post as the beer goes through the process.