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During Black Friday 2017, I was offered the opportunity to purchase a PicoBrew Zymatic at a significant discount. Although I'd already had (and been generally happy with) iMake's The Grainfather, I didn't brew as often as I wanted to with it. Although The Grainfather can produce some great beer (and I've got medals to prove it), the time commitment is hard to take. I pretty much had to stay home and watch over it for 5-8 hours, and attend to it constantly. For me, the Zymatic represented the opportunity to brew at times when I couldn't necessarily be there to change mash temperatures, sparge the grain, or drop things into the brew kettle. It would also mean that I could experiment more. Recipes I'd thought looked interesting (but didn't want to give up a day to try) would suddenly mean a few minutes' work to put together and a few more to load into the machine. Needless to say, I took the deal. The Zymatic - mid-brew Can you make good beer in the...

I received my PicoBrew Zymatic back in December 2017, and made my first batches right away.  It's now may 2018, and I've had about five months with it.  If you're considering purchasing one, my experiences might help you make your decision. The Zymatic Has Made Me More Prolific To date, I've made 22 batches with the Zymatic.  That's about half of what I made all of last year.  I've made a pale ale, two blonde ales, a malt liquor, a couple of Belgian Tripels, three Saisons, a couple of ESBs, three Belgian Dubbels, and some other styles.  Some of these were my own recipes, while others were published somewhere.  I would probably have brewed even more batches if I'd had the free time to do it. The Zymatic Can Make Good Beer, But It Can Make Bad Beer, Too Only a few of the beers went into competition. They've gotten scores ranging from an average of 20.6 (a Tropical Stout from a published recipe) to 36.5 (a Kentucky Common, my own recipe).  So ...

The finished beer, poured into a glass I've been trying much of the year to find a Belgian Tripel recipe that matches up to my ideal. What I'm looking for would be mildly sweet, balanced slightly toward the malt, with a touch of citrus flavor, fruity/spicy notes, and a nice effervescence.  So far, all I seem to have managed are dry versions that are not terribly flavorful or aromatic.  Today I decided to give it one more try for 2017.  I'm not entirely sure of the origins of this recipe, other than that it probably started as one of the recipes on the American Homebrewing Association web site - with modifications by me.  It was another opportunity to work with the Picobrew Zymatic, too. Ingredients 6 pounds Belgian Pilsen Malt 0.25 pounds Cara-Pils/Dextrine Malt 2 ounces Biscuit Malt 2 ounces Aromatic Malt 2 ounces Honey Malt 18 ounces of Turbinado Sugar 0.55 ounces of Styrian Goldings hops @ 6.3% AA (60 min.) 1.00 ounces of Tettnanger hops ...

Given that the Picobrew Zymatic is less efficient than some other brewing setups, I began doing some research into how to get the most out of it.  The Braukaiser web site has a very detailed discussion of their experiments into maximizing the attenuation of a beer.  A by-product of this experiment is a series of parameters that can improve mash efficiency. Specifically, the following things are believed to positively increase brew house efficiency based on their experiments: A mash length of 66 minutes yielded the highest efficiency, with efficiency dropping off above 66 minutes Attenuation maxed out at an average mash temperature of 150-151F, but efficiency maxed out around a mash temp of 173F Efficiency maxed out at a pH of 5.2 Efficiency of thinner mashes was higher than thicker, with 2.4 quarts per pound delivering the highest efficiency With respect to the Zymatic, there is nothing you can really do about thinning the mash.  However, there are some things ...

The finished beer, poured a little too hard Earlier this year, I built from scratch a recipe designed to be a vehicle to deliver orange flavor in a beer. I created a blonde ale recipe, adding sweet and bitter orange peel, orange blossom honey, and hopping with Mandarina Bavaria hops - known to impart a mandarin orange flavor.  That beer took second place in the 2017 Ohio State Fair's Fruit Beer category.  The judge mentioned in the notes that the base beer probably tasted great, too.  I decided to find that out. I stripped the recipe down to the malts, hops, water, and yeast, then scaled it to a 1.2 gallon batch for the Zymatic. At right, you see a glass of the finished beer. It's a slightly hazy gold color with thick, white, long-lasting head that leaves behind tiny clouds of lacing. Aroma is mildly hoppy. The flavor is malty with a moderate bitterness with hints of orange and grapefruit. Ingredients 1 pound plus 14 ounces of 2-row Brewer's Malt 9 ounces of...

First bottle of the Dubbel After brewing the Pico Pale Ale in the Zymatic on Wednesday, I decided to try another recipe today.  There is a clone recipe for Chimay Red (a Belgian Dubbel) on the American Homebrewing Association web site that I've wanted to try.  The thing I've always disliked about Chimay lies in the hop flavor it has.  The clone recipe used East Kent Goldings, which rarely agrees with my palate. I decided to substitute Styrian Celeia for the EKG and finish with Czech Saaz.  I like that combination in Belgian ales.  At brew time, I discovered I did not have any Crystal 100L but did have Crystal 80L, so I decided to use that instead. Ingredients 5 pounds, 2 ounces Belgian Pale Ale Malt 9 ounces Aromatic Malt 5 ounces Crystal 80L 5 ounces Corn Sugar dissolved into mash water 0.70 ounces Styrian Celeia hops @ 2.8% AA (60 min.) 0.50 ounces Styrian Celeia hops @ 2.8% AA (30 min.) 0.25 ounces Czech Saaz hops @ 3% AA (10 min...

Pico Pale Ale I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase a new Picobrew Zymatic automated brewing machine a few weeks ago for myself.  Today, I unboxed it and began brewing the sample kit included with it.  The sample recipe, Pico Pale Ale, was one of the easiest brews I've had in years. The machine shipped in four boxes.  Two of the boxes contained 5-gallon Cornelius kegs.  One contained the plastic tray, hoses, power cord, and other items, along with the recipe kit.  The last box contained the machine itself. Setup was fairly easy.  Remove everything from the boxes and confirm that it's all there.  Remove the plastic film covering the stainless steel parts of the Zymatic.  Attach the in and out liquid hoses to the correct fittings on the side of the unit, after inserting a nylon washer.  Attach the ball lock connectors to the appropriate posts on the keg.  Assemble the tray and insert it into the unit.  Register the dev...