Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage in the United States — the billion-dollar industry produced 224 million hectoliters of beer last year and a poll from the Brewers Association found that the craft beer business is steadily growing. For beer hobbyists, brewing your own ale is a pleasurable endeavor and now, courtesy of The Pico, the average consumer can dabble in making fresh beer from their home.
Using the gadget is simple and automates the beer-making process: users purchase Pico Packs, load it into the device, and wait a few days for a fresh batch of beer.
“One of our goals was to produce reliable and repeatable results from technology infused appliances and then be able to share that with a worldwide community so that home brewers can get similar results,” said CEO and PicoBrew founder Bill Mitchell to iDigitalTimes.
Mitchell’s company’s first product was the PicoBrew Zymatic, which is used by breweries and homebrewers across the globe. The Pico that was showcased at CES 2016 in Las Vegas is a smaller version of the Zymatic model that can fit in the average kitchen.
“This is the product that will really achieve the brand mission of getting the world brewing,” said Mitchell. “It’ll get customers to experience craft beer the way it should be experienced: fresh.”
What separates this home brewing system apart from others in the market is the access the consumer will have to beer from over a hundred craft breweries in the world that have joined PicoBrew. What’s more, the device allows the creation of a customized product since users can control different dimensions like the mouth feel of the beer.
In addition to an automated and customized brewing process, this product expedites the process from weeks to days. The beer is brewed in the device and the user manually adds yeast prior to refrigerating to get the fermentation process started.
“This product is perfect for anyone that loves craft beer,” said Mitchell. “Our belief is that beer is the ultimate beverage and it should be treated with more respect.”
