PicoBrew Zymatic - Automatic Beer Brewer

Product Description

Top Reviews

Makes fantastic homebrew and makes me a more creative homebrewer
by MM (5 out of 5 stars)
March 11, 2015

I have been homebrewing since the winter of 2000/2001, and am part of a homebrewing collective (just a pack of friends who share equipment and brew days and beer). I bought the Zymatic with a brewing partner and it arrived in August 2014 (7 months ago). To date I have personally brewed 17 batches on this machine, including: a Belgian Abbey Ale, a Flipside IPA Clone, a Heady Topper Clone, a Pliny the Elder Clone (x3), a Fresh Squeezed IPA Clone, a Citrus IPA, a Red Racer (Red Betty) Clone, a Fat Tug Clone #1, a Fat Tug Clone #2, a London Ale, a Pale Ale, an Amber Ale, a Porter (x2), and a Spotted Cow Clone.

All tastings have been excellent (with the exception of the Heady Topper when my fermentation chamber went haywire and decided it was a sauna instead). My brew partners and several other friends and acquaintances have told me my Zymatic-brewed beer is the best homebrew they have tasted, that they cannot tell the difference between my homebrew and commercial beer, and several have said my brew was the best they tasted this year (commercial or otherwise). I can say that after 15 years brewing, this is the best and most consistent wort I have produced (and I was a very decent and conscientious homebrewer before). My brew partner and I brewed two batches of the same porter recipe and the same Pliny recipe to test the variance between Zymatic batches, and the results were identical (OG, FG, SRM colour, taste, etc).

So long as your fermentation and sanitation are tight, I don't see any reason to doubt you could brew really excellent beer this way. I am way more confident about it now that I have used it 17 times and tasted end results. I have also run 4 deep clean cycles and 51 rinse cycles (1 before and 2 after each brew). I haven't had any issues except for a lost wi-fi connection which stopped the brew.

I initially thought the batch sizes would be a little small, but my volume and production have actually gone up since purchasing it, as the brew and cleaning process is considerably easier than my more traditional set-ups. My creativity has increased as well: I am far more focused on programming interesting new recipes and testing mash schedules than I was before. And it's just damn fun to use. Frankly, the Zymatic is a feat of imagination and engineering. Every time I brew I am amazed by all the details that were thought of.... and that it all works so flawlessly. The name of the game is precision in timing and temperatures, which makes the effects of different hops, yeasts, grains and water treatments much easier to detect and experiment with.

With regard to process: it's almost as easy as they make it look. I brew on the deck next to my living room, and with the machine running I watched movies with my daughter and my buddies throughout our brews. Normally I'd be chasing her away from vats of boiling wort. The "boil" in a sealed keg is ingenious (re-sanitizes the keg with hot wort throughout the boil), as is the primary fermentation in the keg with the included keg seal. After fermentation is complete, you just replace the seal with the keg lid on the brew keg, attach the included transfer tubing to a new C02-purged serving keg, and you transfer the beer off the yeast cake, carbonate and serve. It's an almost totally sealed system the second you start the machine to the point you serve, which keeps oxygen and contaminants out completely. You can also pressure transfer from the keg to bottles if you prefer - when I do I have used the transfer tubing with a spring-bottom bottling wand to easily fill bottles for parties.

Cleaning is more involved than I thought, but when doesn't cleaning last longer than you wished? All the compartments, etc fit into a dishwasher as advertized, but the hop residue needs be thoroughly washed out of the mesh cages and takes some effort. Same with the inline filter. A soak in PBW goes a long way in this regard. Overall construction is sturdy, and nothing has broken to date despite my moving it to and from storage or back and forth in a hatchback with my brew partner.

I also appreciate being able to monitor temperatures and progress on my phone. I actually find it addicting somehow, watching it do exactly what I programmed it to do. On the backend, you essentially sign in to a website account, and you can edit mash schedules, hop additions, etc to your heart's content and then sync it to your machine. Then you add your ingredients to the various compartments, turn on the machine, and select your recipe. After the brew you compost ingredients, run parts through a dishwasher, and you run a rinse cycle (about 10 minutes long), and you're done. Every 5th brew run a clean cycle (lasts an hour or more).

Now, the reason I am writing this epic review: The Picobrew folks have truly been the best customer service experience I have ever had. I live across the border in Canada. When I mentioned to them I was connecting via ethernet cord due to wifi problems, there was a wifi bridge at my door the next day, (without my asking for it!) followed by a phone call to help me set it up. That kind of cross-border speed and service is unprecedented in my experience. Their brewmaster (and AHA Homebrewer of the Year), Annie Johnson, created a Fat Tug IPA clone for me and loaded it on to the recipe index within a couple hours of my asking for advice in the forum. Then she did the same for two more of my requests! And she regularly responds to questions I have. I really can't say enough about them all. So they get a big fat 5 star rating from me.

Cheers,

MM
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If you enjoy all grain brewing or want to get into it, this machine is for you!
by JPerry (5 out of 5 stars)
January 9, 2016

I held off writing this review for a couple of months, so I would have some basis for writing a review in the first place. I have been a long time home brewer, though never graduated beyond extract brewing because of the amount of gear and the time investment, but I understand the processes and have always wanted to get into it. (Moving around every few years is hard on a set up like that...)

At any rate, first of all, this is not a "Kuereg" for brewing. If you don't already know what you are doing, or have the understanding that there is going to be a steep learning as you gain knowledge on full grain brewing, then this machine will knock your socks off. I will tell you though, that my first experience was very frustrating as I learned the hardware and the software side of things, but hey, that's part of homebrewing. Remember that even your mistakes most likely end up very drinkable.

All of the normal things that apply to traditional home brewing apply here; sanitation, temperature control during fermentation, patience as you allow your beer to ferment and once again, sanitation. What this machine does, and does oh so well, is to simplify the mashing process of the grains and automates the boil and additions to the boil. That's not to say that you don't need to understand what it is doing, but once you perform your setup; i.e. put your crushed, mixed grains into the step filter, put your pellet hops into the appropriate adjunct baskets, and prepared your clarifier for addition near the end of the boil; you tell machine to proceed with the selected recipe, which contains all of the parameters for the mashing process and the boil of the specific beer you are making. At that point you can walk away for 2-4 hours depending on all of those variables. No monitoring your strike temps, manual "mashing in", once again monitoring temps for the lengthy mashing process and then "mashing out" and the painful yet necessary step of pulling your spent grains out of your mash tun, or draining off the wort into you boil kettle. All of that happens automatically. Then it will bring your wort up to the boil temperature and proceed with the boil and the appropriate hopping as prescribed by your recipe. All while you are running errands, watching TV, spending time with your kids... or what ever else you having going on in your life.

Once all of that is done, you still have to chill the wort to your yeast pitching temperature. That can either happen over night or you can use an ice bath or an immersion chiller connected to the fluid loop of the machine. You control that. You pitch the yeast and put the fermentation vessel someplace relatively cool and let it ferment.

The fermentation vessel will typically be the Cornelius keg that you use as the water reservoir for your brewing process (unless you choose otherwise) with the addition of a great rubber keg stopper.

The one downside of this system is the limitation of of batch size being 2.5 gal. It's easy enough to run two batches in one day and ferment in your 6 gal carboy, but I have found out that 2.5 gal of beer goes pretty fast. LOL

I have taken a video of the prep of one of my brew days.

https://youtu.be/LECtRV0llGg

Cleanup is still cleanup, it's just a lot more contained and goes a lot faster.

Have a home brew and smile!

J. Perry
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Only occasionally were the stars aligning for me to have nice enough weather and a completely free S
by socratic (5 out of 5 stars)
October 31, 2015

After brewing for several years, I found myself gradually doing less and less. The cleaning, the sanitizing, the baby sitting a kettle to watch for boil overs and manage temperatures. Only occasionally were the stars aligning for me to have nice enough weather and a completely free Saturday with nothing else to do but brew a batch of beer.

That was before the Zymatic. Now I am able to brew on my own terms whenever I choose. My home-brew club groaned at the news of a fully automated brewing device claiming it was taking the art out of home brewing. Now they groan at the sight of my Facebook statuses when it's pouring down with rain and I am the only one who has a batch going. I've even set myself up to brew a batch on a week night after work.

Most Saturday mornings, I wake up early to watch european soccer. I sanitize the parts, I load the ingredients, and I'm able to brew a batch while I watch the morning matches. By noon, everything is done and the dishwasher is doing the dirty work.The convince alone has made this machine a game changer and not even mentioning the consistency and accuracy it gives you.

My only suggestion for the machine is that they start making adjustable feet to help level it. I experienced some overflowing during a brew and realized that it was slightly leaned forward. Making sure you have a nice level surface is extremely critical.

I've also had a lot of home-brewers tell me that the Zymatic was just too expensive for them but after going through all the gear the have and all the gear that they've gone through, they realize they've already spent close, if not over the price of the Zymatic.
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I bought this-- and I love it!
by Ben (5 out of 5 stars)
July 20, 2015

There are lots of people commenting on this who haven't bought this thing. They give it a one star because it's "too easy" or takes the "fun" out of homebrewing. Let me tell you the truth: I have a 30 gallon electric brewing system that I still love, but haven't used since I bought the PicoBrew. This has changed the way I brew and think about brewing.

The first thing this system did was open me up to being more adventurous. At 2.5 gallon batches, who cares if I make something crazy. I've made almost 10 batches in two months because I can open up the recipe designer and think about what I'm making and have fun with the crafting. I don't need to make 5 gallons or 30 gallons at a time.

Using the Zymatic is simple. You design or scale a recipe to a 2.5 gallon batch. You put the ingredients in the box, put your water in a keg, and have it run your precrafted recipe. Advanced brewers can adjust water chemistry, measure pH and o.g. (at any point in the boil/mash) through the sample port, and easily add items directly to the boil as well. This thing really accelerates at beer < 1.070 gravity. I've made some awesome pales using this thing. The system is designed to make the wort and then let you ferment in the keg. I prefer to ferment in cheap glass carboys, and the picobrew lets me easily circulate the wort from the keg to a carboy at the end. I've made some fantastic beers with this system.

The customer service is top notch. I've had Annie, Kevin and others at PicoBrew respond to questions on a Saturday morning and ship me parts that I lost (my fault) at no cost. These guys are on top of their inbox, and for a $2k system, you get a level of support that matches the price. I can't say enough about how responsive they've been to my questions and problems.

I give this product five stars because it's fantastic to brew with and way easier to clean, and I can do it in my nice air conditioned kitchen. There are a few problems with water pooling on the top, a less powerful designer than I'd like, and chilling is sort of a pain, but this is a homerun in my book.
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Super fun as long as you know what you're getting into!
by Nick (5 out of 5 stars)
July 28, 2015

My previous brewing experience has been in extract brewing and with borrowed equipment. I also have made wine. When I started growing my own hops I knew I wanted to buy my own setup and after reading a bit more about what was available I knew I wanted to move to all grain. This is my first amazon rating, but I was annoyed by the guy who gave this a one star without having actually tried it or knowing how it worked, so I felt compelled to share my very positive experience.

I ended up deciding to purchase the zymatic rather than a full all grain setup because I added up everything I thought I would need for all grain brewing and it didn't seem too crazy far off of the cost of the zymatic, plus I was enchanted by the connectivity and community aspect of the unit, particularly the globe that lets you see what people are brewing right now and in a previous time window. I was also interested in using it for sous vide and frankly I wanted to save time and still get to learn more about beer making!

My first experiences were a little frustrating as some of the instructions are hard for the uninitiated to follow. However, when I checked in the online forums I found every single question I had was answered in the beginner section...so a word of advice: don't be too hasty (like me) when your unit arrives, check that beginner section of the forum out BEFORE you start (unlike me). Also, if picobrew folks are reading this, it would be really awesome if we could get our unit ID and create the account when the product ships so we can get all psyched reading the forums and be ready when it arrives :)

Brewing with this has been awesome and I've already gotten so addicted that I bought a second keg so I can brew again while one batch is fermenting. I realize I could just use a carboy but I like that the keg is self sanitizing since it is used in the boil. I've been reading tons of recipes and information about the science behind the timing and temperature of mashing and am looking forward to playing with different settings.

I just want to caution anyone who is considering this because they think they'll save money on beer and/or thinks it'll be super easy like a bread machine. It is certainly not cheap to buy the ingredients, even in bulk, and given the tiny margins you'll get it would take a long time to "pay off" the machine and all of the other items you'll need for bottling/kegging, taking measurements, controlling fermentation temp, and sanitizing. While it is less time consuming than any beer making I've done before, especially when it comes to cleaning time, it still does take a good amount of time to get everything going, the large pieces are a bit awkward to clean, there tends to be a medium to heavy amount of foam that gets in and around the machine, and the cages and screens tend to trap ingredients inside them pretty well. Once your brewing session is done the process is roughly what it would be for any beer to ferment and bottle or keg.
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This is an excellent product for the busy brewer who doesn't have a ...
by mason d bryant (5 out of 5 stars)
July 27, 2016

This is an excellent product for the busy brewer who doesn't have a lot of time to drag out the equipment and spend the rest of the day cleaning. It's been a great introduction to my friends who aren't brewers to teach them "what the picobrew is doing now"... was easier for them to comprehend. Making some great brews out of this and love the precise adjustments you can make to tweak a recipe. We brew a LOT more often now that we have a permanent place for this. It's always looking at me and begging me to brew. Now I just need to expand my kegerator so I can have more on tap.

Customer service is incredible. Had an issue with a piece of the foam trap breaking and they immediately sent a replacement that arrived 2 days later.
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good beer made easier.
by L. Mureebe (5 out of 5 stars)
October 19, 2016

this renewed my love of brewing. makes great beer. much smaller footprint than the old setup. an the customer service is the best i've ever seen, bar none. problem at 5 pm on a sunday? no prob. they'll get back to you in 30 mins.
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It's a real time saver.
by Amazon Customer (5 out of 5 stars)
August 30, 2017

I was concerned about having a smaller amount of finished beer as I used to brew 10-gallon batches. But this is just push-button easy and I can just keep pushing the button. Clean up is much easier and faster. It's a real time saver.
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Five Stars
by Alejandro Flores (5 out of 5 stars)
June 23, 2017

Only the best
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Yes it's expensive but it does what it says and for a year you will have fantastic support.
by Dustin R. Hubbard (5 out of 5 stars)
September 22, 2015

These guys care. I had a couple hiccups along the way and they were Johnny on the spot with fixing them, even on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The support on this product is probably top 3 if not #1 of other purchases I have made. DO NOT FEAR buying this. Yes it's expensive but it does what it says and for a year you will have fantastic support.

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