Auto personal brewer - Kiwi invention

[Tilt]

Check this out - with the big Lotto jackpot tonight this bit of kit might be finding a home in a homebrewers shed sometime soon.

Williams Warn personal brewer

Seems like theres a lot of local kiwi R&D gone into this with a pretty schmick looking end product.

I'm not sure it hits the mark for me though- not enough experimentation and learn as you go trial and error.

 

[Sam Wood]

do you think that people can't be involved in a community of brewers because they have a WW, and get your calculator out! #@$*!!

[Mike Neilson]

Sam your the WW man and you dont have to justify to anyone!!

 

The Machine makes beer and you like it!! so there!!

 

If everyone liked the same beer it would be a very boring beer world!! 

 

However I really dispise this comment

 

 homebrew can be cheaper than supermarket bought beer

 

Yes it can and is most of the time, however and maybee Im a exception

I never 'got' into brewing because I wanted to make cheap beer I got into homebrewing because I love beer, im passionate about hops malt and yeast im passionate about creating and turnings these into sex in a glass I love beer beeing drunk im passionate about beer beeig savoured.

 

If the WW machine helps people enjoy what I get out of homebrewing and beer than so be it.

 

All I ask for is the WW home boys cater for the now, and not the homebrewers that got turned off off brewing because of the lack of control.

 

 

 

[Sam Wood]

Mike, I didn't write the comment about Homebrew being cheaper than supermarket beer.

I don't brew beer to make it cheaper, I brew it to challenge myself and make better beer, the same way I make tomatoe relish and cook.

I have enjoyed all of the comments and have learnt a bit about all-grain brewing passion, even when I start all grain brewing, I will still use the WW to ferment and carbonate in because it is simply the fresest way to ferment and reduce oxygen contamination.

Thanks for your comments.

 

Cheers Sam

[Mike Neilson]

No way was it aimmed at you, it was aimmed at a comment that someone had made earlier about people who brew to make cheap beer to get drunk on.

[James Lawson]

Nevertheless, that is one of the reasons that people end up picking up a can of goo at Pak N Save and thinking 'gee, maybe I should give this a shot'. And fortunately, from modest beginnings, many people realise how satisfying it is to make their own beer, and want to learn more about it.

 

[JackoNZ]

Not always, I picked up my first can of goo full of excitement that I was going to make my own beer. It wasn't a cost based decision. Even if tomorrow the price of craft beer dropped to $3 a bottle, I'd still be brewing my own beer. I might buy more craft beer too though!

[Andrew]

What a kill-joy. I play with a nice shiney brewkit at work all the time, and believe me all the fun is in knocking something together yourself and seeing all your efforts give you back good beer. While its all nice and shiny, I bet most of the kits all you guys use produce as good, if not better beer than you'd get from this piece of equipment.

[dj]

Hi all.  Been studying and applying what ive learnt from you good folk here for only a brief amount of time so far (o.g. brewing noob!).I feel compelled to put in my 2cents in regards to the Williams Warn brew machine.

I saw the segment on the news,and my first thoughts are "awesome to see another great piece of Kiwi pioneering engineering technology" , So primarily i want to say congrats to these guys for getting this venture going,I wish you all the best for the future.And im sure the rest of the blokes and blokettes in Realbeer would be wishing you all the best also.

Ive enjoyed both my successes,and the not-quite-successful attempts my own brewing endeavours have given me thus far.

Sam i understand what youre saying about the positives of this piece of equipment,and how the target market is intended to be the (so many!!?) Kiwi brewers who have tried and failed  (not to mention foreign market potential). It is a very slick looking machine indeed.

However,personally, i think (for the bulk of us here) this undermines the determination,tenacity, and never say die attitude of trying to master ones knowledge and skills of trying to do it the good old Kiwi way, the do-it-yourself buzz.

Im astounded to think half a million of us GAVE UP!!!!!!  lol!

I for one, despite my muckups,will never give up.. And the community here are ample support,encouragement and inspiration.

I also commend Ian for extending a friendly invite to sample his wares.Thats someone who really knows he has something good going ,and will stand by his product.That always speaks volumes about an individual and their enterprise.

If i win lotto, i will buy one of your kewl machines,and park it up next to my "tu-rangi" homebrew setup, my store bought (well, haha 2nd hand) still, and my half made bokabob still, and my son to be realised A.G. setup.

I commend you on your product,and realise there will be a market for it.I wish the guys from Williams Warn all the very best.

 

 

 

 

[Sam Wood]

Thanks for your comments, I think that we all agree that this was never designed for you guys and we are not trying to take anything away from the way that you do it now. Everything that Ian and Anders have introduced, invented or refined was done within international brewing guidelines and done to make better quality homebrew with ease.

Everyone has the right to do it their own way and if it includes paying 6.5k because you are in a hurry or don't know enough to confidentally your way then that's all good, I would still like one of you to go and see him and try the beer, that is what really got me hooked, I would love to get your comments.

 

Cheers Sam 

[Dave W]

Sounds like the next step on from a braumaster from Germany.

Add water, add malt, program in your recipe and away ya go.

http://www.speidels-braumeister.de/?gclid=CJuXm_PpmKgCFQxvbAodFkmpCQ

 

Doesn't do the fermenting part though.

 

Fella that runs the Great expectations brew shop in Lower Hutt has one and loves it.

The 200L version looks pretty cool for a small brewpub operation.

[jt]

I would still like one of you to go and see him and try the beer

 

Maybe you could run a demo with your beta unit and a tasting for the Hawkes Bay Brewers - i'm sure you'd get some feedback for the forum especially the quality if the beer.

 

There's been a few medals won in the Bay in recent times so I'm sure they'd be well qualified to pass judgement

[JoKing]

Man - this discussion has riled a few people up! A few thread jacks... a few misinterpretations... a couple "my dick's longer than your dick".... and an entertaining week of discussion has ensued.

 

Here are my unbiased opinions:

 

1. The WW is a god damned awesome piece of kit. The engineering involved, especially the thought process and it's conversion into functionality is fantastic.

 

2. All grain brewing / advanced extract brewing is the closest way to get a batch of home brewed beer to taste like the craft beer we all love. James Kemp proved the advanced kit method by winning the SOBA NHC a couple years ago.

 

3. No kit and kilo brew is ever going to taste anything like Epic Pale Ale, Croucher Pale Ale, Schneider Aventinus, Yeastie Boys PKB / Ha' da' Wa' / Rex Attitude, Liberty Brewing Co. Yakima Warrior / High Carb Ale / N'G'B, etc. No Chance - for reasons we don't need to get into.

 

4. There is no doubt that there are a few minor design initiatives on the WW that limit the type of beer that one can ferment in it - primarily the pressure relief system. The way I see it... if you intend to do an enclosed / pressurised fermentation with yeast like wlp300 / Wy3068 or Wy1469, Wy1272, WLP300; or even high gravity ales etc... you are going to have some major krausen problems: namely yeast blocking the releif system. If someone could prove me wrong here (on this issue in particular) then full dredit to the design on this thing (because that its the ONE issue that I see). Therefor - the system is limited to it's intended use.

 

5. The dollar value is high. To be fair - if it's too expensive for you... then don't buy it: you don't actually need a WW to make good home brew: I don't think anyone disputes this. Infact I'm pretty sure you can still make pretty shit home brew even in a WW: you just can't engineer out bad practise.

 

6. If I had $6,500 to spend on a fermenter like this... would I get one? Hell yeah. The amount of mucking around I do to get beer fermented, fizzy and kegged is still too much hassle for me! Unfortuanately... I brew a double batch so could only ferment half of it in one of these.

 

7. This system is compatible with kegging. One minor tweak to the tap, and you're filling kegs through out "out" tube on the keg. Thus turnaround for beer can be as quick as a brew per week.

 

8. Does this discussion prove how passionate people are about making beer at home....?