# The Beer Machine



## Baulko Brewer (23/8/11)

My wife was at Target yesterday and picked up a brochure for the beer machine http://www.beermachine.com/

From what I can gather it ferments the beer and carbonates without changing vessels. CO2 is provided by natural ferment and Co2 cartridges. It only holds 10l batches but sits nicely in your fridge for easy pour.

Has anybody seen these?? Currently about $129 and includes a "just add water" throwaway beer mix, but i am sure you make your own in the fermenter.


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## Supra-Jim (23/8/11)

Similar item to this, which has been around for quite a while i think: http://www.partypig.com/

Cheers SJ


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## DU99 (23/8/11)

Packs about $32 for three and gas


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## fcmcg (23/8/11)

Baulko Brewer said:


> Has anybody seen these?? Currently about $129 and includes a "just add water" throwaway beer mix, but i am sure you make your own in the fermenter.


BB, Everythying is done in the machine AFAIK...
The machine is your fermenter....
Personally , you could google Nicks $30 AG thread and make a far better beer !
Don't let the Mrs buy you one lol....
Tell her to buy you a big pot and some swiss voile for that type of money !
This is of course my opinion !
Cheers
Ferg


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## manticle (23/8/11)

Supra-Jim said:


> Similar item to this, which has been around for quite a while i think: http://www.partypig.com/
> 
> Cheers SJ



Party pig is just a dispensing unit whereas this beer machine is an all in one unit- budget version of the williams warn brewery maybe. Mix, ferment, condition, dispense.

Might be useful to some. Takes all the fun out of brewing in my eyes.

I also love marketting bullshit. 'Most other methods of brewing require you to add a mountain of sugar'???? 'Nothing tastes better than beer served directly from the container it's made in'??

OK


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## Wolfy (23/8/11)

Baulko Brewer said:


> From what I can gather it ferments the beer and carbonates without changing vessels. CO2 is provided by natural ferment and Co2 cartridges. It only holds 10l batches but sits nicely in your fridge for easy pour.
> 
> Has anybody seen these?? Currently about $129 and includes a "just add water" throwaway beer mix, but i am sure you make your own in the fermenter.


That's exactly what it does, if you brewed a number of British Ale type beers it might be useful, however there does not appear to be any way to 'recharge' CO2 so you might have trouble with serving the last 1/2 batch, and the pickup tube looks very rudimentary so it seems you may pickup yeast very easily when pouring.

If it was about 15% of the price it is, I'd buy one just for the novelty factor, but just don't believe all the garbage on the website/literature that it makes beer better or quicker or different to a normal plastic fermentor, all it does is trap the CO2 during fermentation to carbonate the beer.


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## Florian (23/8/11)

I don't think it's targeted at home brewers. It's targeted at people who drink beer but have no idea how it's made and wife's who run out of ideas of what to give their husband for birthday/christmas/whatever. 
I have been asked by two wifes already who had seen it somewhere and wanted to know if I though it was a good present for their husband.

In my opinion it's a novelty gadget that wears of as soon as you realise that you have to wait a few weeks to get new beer once the 'barrel' is empty after the first run.


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## Malted (23/8/11)

Florian said:


> I don't think it's targeted at home brewers. It's targeted at people who drink beer but have no idea how it's made and wife's who run out of ideas of what to give their husband for birthday/christmas/whatever.
> I have been asked by two wifes already who had seen it somewhere and wanted to know if I though it was a good present for their husband.
> 
> In my opinion it's a novelty gadget that wears of as soon as you realise that you have to wait a few weeks to get new beer once the 'barrel' is empty after the first run drinking session



I did some editing above for you Florian.

When you said you've been asked by two wives already, I was thinking, crikey how many does he have? I thought polygamy isn't that common in Germany. But then you qualified it.


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## argon (23/8/11)

Or you could do it properly for another $50...

Bunnings 25L fermenter and tap $15
PVC Transfer hose $3
CO2 Keg Charger + Disconnect $43.50
CO2 Keg Charger Bulbs - 16GM (5 pack) $19.90
1 Keg - 19L Cornelius (Used) $70.00
Bronco Faucet & Hose $14.90
Quick Disconnect Barb (Beer) $13.50
Total: $179.80... 






(the above has been posted elsewhere... I just remembered how cheap kegging can be)


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## humulus (23/8/11)

The neighbour got one last Xmas,he brewed a ready to go in the bag pilsner,which came with the "Beermachine"
It tasted like shit!!!!
Money can be better spent else where.You might be able to score one on the footpath in the next council clean up next to the AB-DOER situp machine :icon_chickcheers:


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## Murcluf (23/8/11)

Seen the beer machine get crucified on a US forum a couple of years back. Those who had tried the beers said it was crap. There was an excellent example argument based around packet cake vs cake made from scratch at home or a bakery. End of the day its beer in a sachet what more can you expect, but then again there are people out there how think that fermenting a can of goo and a bag of sugar with 5g of dried yeast at 27c is the ducks nuts when it comes to brewing too.


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## poppa joe (23/8/11)

I bought one for $5.00 at a Garage Sale....
You need to replace things repeatedly. From America ..cant remember what...
I had alook at it and put it on a shelf where i cant get to it..
They are a pain..
Save your wife's money....
PJ


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## petesbrew (23/8/11)

Something a little more shite
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/dd60/


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## Florian (23/8/11)

petesbrew said:


> Something a little more shite
> http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/dd60/



Fortunately they can't ship this outside the US.


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## J Grimmer (23/8/11)

"The plants you grow today could become the beer you drink tomorrow" gold, I wonder if they also sell a yeast farm?

Jan


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## Baulko Brewer (23/8/11)

When the missus showed me the brochure I laughed it off as a gimmicky fathers day item. I assume that that is the market it is intended for. I thought it quite humerous, hence the post


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## dcx3 (23/8/11)

How dare those damn seppo's quote Henry Lawson to flog there crap!


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## Chooky88 (7/2/12)

Bought one. It's a trap! See my lengthy post in the pub re the de former discs.

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## thecentennial (15/9/12)

Resurrecting an old thread.

forget the packets specially made for this thing - the user guide says it can be used to make beer from other kits.

As this is just 10L - would I e.g. boil up a single can of unhopped malt, add hops, cool then stick in the BM for fermentation (with a good yeast)?

Would I just half the amounts for e.g. a 20/23 L extract brew i.e. half number of hops and half amount of yeast? I am also assuming you would not have to add additional sugars i.e. the can of goo is all one needs.

Would this work?

I know you only get 10 L, but just wondering if this could be done and produce the same quality of beer as a 20/23l batch (if you only use it as a FV).

Thanks


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## thedragon (15/9/12)

thecentennial said:


> Would this work?



Assuming there was no other FV available it could work. But be careful taking it in to the desert. Perhaps you could throw away the box before you take it in and call it a water cooler if questioned. 

If the beer machine device doesn't have a spot for an airlock you could either 1) drill a hole in the lid and fit a grommet and airlock, or 2) after filling the device with wort, put on the lid (assuming that there is one) and unscrew it by half a turn. If using option 2, check Manticle's article on brewing in a cube. Substitute the word cube in the article with 'beer machine device'

Most recipes that you come across will be for 20 or 23 litres. It's absolutely fine for you to scale down (or up) a recipe. Dividing a 20 litre recipe by 2 to get 10 litres should be fine. Although you could also download beermate (google it), put in the recipe you are wanting to replicate, then adjust the volume to 10 litres. Should be self explanatory. If not, feel free to ask. 

Good luck! Let us know how you go.


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## thecentennial (15/9/12)

The BM has an airlock - or a pressure release valve. Once it hits 15psi internally, it releases the CO2.

Apparently good for carbonating.

On paper it looks like it will do the trick, just wanted to make sure I got my maths right for the ingredients.

Thanks for the feedback.


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## poplama (29/11/13)

has anyone used one of these as just a pressure vessel to carbonate normal hb and serve from similar to a tk setup? i have found one of these cheap and was wondering if it would work better than rounding up emty bottles and dis assembling them etc. just cant afford a proper keg seup yet or the fridge space for one and need to re ignite my passion again after about eight years of not brewing. any advice would be appreciated, thanks. please excuse the typing i am on pain killers surgery from and gettin used to a new keyboard.


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## Simpsoid (3/12/13)

I have one that I used for a few batches when I got back into homebrewing from a couple of years break.

Number 1 the packet beer it makes is quite bad, but still drinkable. It's low quality but it is good after a hard day in the yard mowing the lawns etc. but I wouldn't use it as the main source of beer.

The machine is pretty well built, the pressure relief valve mentioned is set to 15 PSI. It's basically a rubber grommet that expands when it reaches that pressure to vent. I'd assume over time that this would have issues and become worthless but a solid lid and a hole drilled with a airlock would be a good replacement.

It has these defoamer disks that are probably useless. They are to keep the krausen down. They probably work but it's a hassle and I guess you can only use them once.

The one problem I had with it was the inconsistant pressurisation during carbonation. Once the beer is brewed then you put it in the fridge. CO2 is absorbed and so the pressure goes to 0PSI. You then jet in some more using the soda bulbs to bring it up to ~12PSI. Over a few hours that's absorbed into the beer taking pressure back to 0PSI. Then you need to "jet" in the gas again to get a decent pressure to serve. But now it's carbonated and under pressure so you get a lot of foam and head on the beer.

And then the pressure drops to 0PSI and you're fighting it again for your next pour. I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to be designed or operate. I guess I'm over pressurising when I dispense (it probably doesn't need to be 12PSI since there's no tubing etc.). But when it's at 0PSI it just trickles out so you need to pressurise it a bit to pour a nice beer. It seems that when you do one jet into the machine with the CO2 (with the machine full of beer) it gets to about 5PSI immediately, so there's very little control with how much CO2 you pressurise the machine with.

TL;DR: It's not a badly constructed machine, the beer provided in the packets is pretty terrible though. If you do AG or extract you could ferment in it (or probably better to ferment elsewhere and rack into Beer Machine and bottle the rest) or just use it as a dispenser. It's an excellent fermenter, certainly a better fermenter than it is a dispenser (I've found). You could probably ferment and then bottle from it to get precise carbonation since it's carbonation method is pretty error prone and occasionally disastrous, but that may be my skill with using the pressure valve. Overall probably worth less than $50 for the vessel and a box of CO2.


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## B/Man (13/12/13)

My next door neighbour picked up about 15 packets of Beer Machine beer mix from the local Target for $1 each a couple of weeks ago with plans to use them in some extract brews. I used part of one to make a starter last week and it worked well so I think that's where most of them will end up.


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## Goose (2/1/14)

B/Man said:


> My next door neighbour picked up about 15 packets of Beer Machine beer mix from the local Target for $1 each a couple of weeks ago with plans to use them in some extract brews. I used part of one to make a starter last week and it worked well so I think that's where most of them will end up.


That is an excellent idea and at 1$ each its a steal. After all, its just DME mixed with dextrose and some kind of dried hop extract I should imagine.

I am surprised the results are so bad vs canned kits...

What is it with this thing, have they gone out of business ?


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## Yob (2/1/14)

(such is my understanding)

you shouldnt use dex in a starter.. can lead to issues with the yeast not chomping on Maltose and being lazy in general.. I think they call it respiration issues and the yeast needing to make the right enzymes to convert the maltose..

probably OK though if you dont intend on re-using the yeast, for me though... nope,

a 1kg pack of DME is $10 at worst which is still $1 p/l... even better if you save some wort from the brew you are going to pitch to...


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## peas_and_corn (3/1/14)

Inn a wort with high levels of glucose yeast stops expressing the genes that create maltose permease (as the name suggests, it's the enzyme that brings maltose into the yeast cell)


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