[klickitat jim]

Geez for all that money, you could pay me to come brew for you, and HSA the F out of it.

I actually wondered if you could seal one of these up in a CO2 purged keezer before running it.

Chest freezer seal oxygen ingress study?

[Stevie]

I don’t get the way they scaled it either. The only advantage i see is using less bins if the mash isn’t too large.

Keep in mind that a lot of the focus of this product is restaurants and other commercial operations like that.

You keep saying that, but your not explaining the logic. What makes this design better for restaurants than another design? What are it’s primary benefits?

[tommymorris]

I don’t get the way they scaled it either. The only advantage i see is using less bins if the mash isn’t too large.

Keep in mind that a lot of the focus of this product is restaurants and other commercial operations like that.

You keep saying that, but your not explaining the logic. What makes this design better for restaurants than another design? What are it’s primary benefits?

I think the idea is, the Z is fully automated. Other brew systems can scale easily with bigger pots, but, those aren’t fully automated. Those other systems still need someone to mash, sparge, start the boil, add hops, etc. The Picobrew Z cuts a lot of that out. Crush grain, load the Z with ingredients, press a button and come back in 4 hours to cool, pitch yeast, and ferment. A few more buttons to cleanup. Presumably this is easier for a restaurant that wants craft beer without having to develop recipes and find a brewer. They can buy PicoPaks and assuming they manage the fermentation and kegging process correctly (which is not that hard) they get craft beer made on premises.

The stack ability keeps the cost down. Picobrew mass produces the same 2.5G unit and sells it in 4 batch size increments. It looks awkward to use because we all have one mash, but, it should work.

I think the main annoyance for a 10G brewer would be dividing all the ingredients in 4 parts.

[Stevie]

I’m not debating the desire for set it and forget it. I just don’t get the “parallel” brewing. Cheaper development costs could be it. The FAQ on the site is a little lacking.

[majorvices]

That's crazy to have to ill all those grain and hop bins. I was hoping they were going to come up with something completely different. I like my little Zymatic it's not hard to do a back to back batch to get a 5 gallon batch of beer. And you can do some neat things with it. Heck for lab work it is great at holding steady temps for stuff like forced diacetyl tests or sous vide!

But having to individually fill and clean each grain and hop bin would drive me crazy. The worst part of the Zymatic is the cleaning part. I'd hate to have to do multiple bins.

[ukbrewer]

I think the main annoyance for a 10G brewer would be dividing all the ingredients in 4 parts.

Right there, unless it has the ability to run multiple (different) recipes at the same time, that would be a nice feature.

[tommymorris]

I think the main annoyance for a 10G brewer would be dividing all the ingredients in 4 parts.

Right there, unless it has the ability to run multiple (different) recipes at the same time, that would be a nice feature.

It can do multiple recipes at once.

[Stevie]

I think the main annoyance for a 10G brewer would be dividing all the ingredients in 4 parts.

Right there, unless it has the ability to run multiple (different) recipes at the same time, that would be a nice feature.

It can do multiple recipes at once.

I didn’t see that in the marketing material. Honestly there shouldn’t be a reason it couldn’t considering it is just a bunch of units stacked.

[tommymorris]

This post (post #34 in the thread) on HBT has an email from PicoBrew support. The email says that each module can run different brew.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/picobrew-z.645332/

[majorvices]

This post (post #34 in the thread) on HBT has an email from PicoBrew support. The email says that each module can run different brew.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/picobrew-z.645332/

That's kinda neat but I still don't get why they didn't just make a larger unit with one grain bin, figure out a way to add the hops to the actual wort rather that recircing them in a loop and add chilling compacity. 5 gallon automated batches would have been great.

[Stevie]

It still doesn’t chill?

[tommymorris]

I don’t think it chills.  This blurb is from their FAQ under “What’s the whole process from grain to glass?”

“At the end of the brew cycle, chill the beer or disconnect the keg to cool, and then, pitch (add) yeast, attach an airlock, and place it somewhere cool to ferment. “

https://www.picobrew.com/About/FAQ_Z.cshtml

[tommymorris]

Another question, did the AHA endorse the Z or write an article about it? There is a banner on top of PicoBrew’s Z page with a bunch of blog and magazine names. In that list is “American Homebrewer’s Association”. I haven’t seen an article on the AHA site so I am curious why the AHA is mentioned in that group.

PS. I have no beef if AHA did write an article or get paid to endorse. I am just curious and would like to read the article if there is one.

https://www.picobrew.com/Store/products/z.cshtml

[denny]

I think the main annoyance for a 10G brewer would be dividing all the ingredients in 4 parts.

Right there, unless it has the ability to run multiple (different) recipes at the same time, that would be a nice feature.

It can do multiple recipes at once.

I didn’t see that in the marketing material. Honestly there shouldn’t be a reason it couldn’t considering it is just a bunch of units stacked.

It definitely does.

[denny]

It still doesn’t chill?

It does chill.