Pico Model C Beer Brewer
Product details
Web ID: 5294582Christmas is still giving
I received my Pico C as a Christmas gift. My first brew was the Buffalo Sweat it was very good. I am currently working on a keg of Helle's Lager, Smashbomb Atomic IPA and 1724 ESB. I can't wait to try each of them. Pico makes it Sooooo easy to brew beer at home. I highly recommend purchasing a system. As I become more proficient who knows maybe I'll upgrade :)
Fantastic product!
If you've ever wanted to start brewing beer, this is a great starting unit to help you learn what it takes, the differences between beers, and the limitless possibilities are only made better with things like sous vide. I've already recommended this to a few people and they all love it as well. Think of it like the keureg of beer makers, only without the material plastic waste.
Easy to use, no customization to recipes
Full disclosure: I was solicited to give this unbiased review in exchange for a free PicoPak. POSITIVES: *Ease of use *Ability to make exact recipes from professional breweries *Everything needed provided(minus distilled water) NEGATIVES: *No customization of recipes *Small batches *Not as cost-effective as traditional homebrewing I got in on a Kickstarter for Pico and ordered the Pico C back in the spring. I received it last month and have made 2 batches so far. I have some limited experience with homebrewing in the past, but nothing too serious. First off, the Pico is extremely user friendly. From the first time you plug it in, the machine walks you through the process step-by-step for making your wort. You are able to adjust the bitterness and ABV slightly on a PicoPak, but that is pretty much the limit of customization. After you put in your Pak and push a few buttons, the machine handles the rest for a couple hours and you're free to relax on the couch. As far as ease of use, this machine couldn't get any easier. In fact, it practically cleans itself. However, there are a few shortcomings. As I said, there is almost zero ability to customize the recipe. You receive your PicoPak in the mail and load it into the machine, which scans a code on the Pak and takes care of all the necessary steps to make the wort. Also, you are given instructions to dump the entire packet of supplied yeast into the wort for fermentation. After reading several posts on the Facebook Picobrewers page, however, I discovered it is recommended to only use 1tsp of the yeast to get a cleaner, less cloudy brew. Another short-term issue I've run into is PicoBrew has been slow to make more brewing/serving kegs available. I purchased additional kegs during the Kickstarter campaign and they have yet to arrive. A minor inconvenience, i know, but it makes it impossible to try more than one or two recipes at a time since it takes a couple weeks of fermentation before your brew keg is free to make the next batch (I could ferment in another vessel if I wanted, but this system is designed to ferment in the brew keg. Until additional brew kegs are made available, i consider this a limiting factor). All in all, I've enjoyed my experience so far with the Pico C. I'll be happier once more kegs/equipment are available. I want to buy more Paks to try, but already have one sitting on the shelf, waiting for my lone brew keg to finish fermenting.
Great product for brewing unique beers at home
I have had my PicoBrew Model C for about a month now. So, far I love it for what it is but have had to accept a few limitations. First the great (pros): Having been a home brewer in the past, I was looking for an easy way to get back into the hobby. The Pico C showed up on Kick Starter and seemed like a good fit. The Model C is very good at what it does. It automates the making of the wort. This alone makes the brewing process so much simpler and cleaner. You are able to make fresh beer at home with very little effort or interaction and the cleaning is a breeze compared to traditional setups. As a full time employed parent of twins, this fact alone was perfect. I have really enjoyed the 3 pico packs I have brewed thus far. And find enjoyment in experimenting with fermentation and carbonation. Other reviews have talked about the price of the pico packs. If you strictly run the numbers it is cheaper to just buy beer. But most distribution is limited to region. The Pico Packs give you access to a lot of beers that you may not be able to find otherwise. This is the most exciting part for me. One awesome, bonus side affect is the aromas. When the machine is working the smell in the house is amazing. I love it! Now the cons: As mentioned elsewhere, there is not much in the way of fine tuning the beer or customizing. Right now I am perfectly content experimenting with fermentation and the different packs. I can see me rapidly wanting to experiment with the freestyle packs. Which is great, if limited, but also with mash temps and various parts of the process. As of now the firmware does not give you that level of control. Also, the Pico C comes with a simpler, customized brew keg. It is great for cleaning (top comes completely off!) and for the basic process of brewing. But if you want to try bottling or racking into a ball lock style keg, it takes some creative thinking and "hacking". In hind sight, the Pro version may have been a better fit for me. The simple serving keg that the kit comes with works well if you plan on drinking the beer fairly quickly. If not it will go flat in a short time. The system works very well but the instructions in the manual seem to be geared towards getting drinkable beer out of the system as quickly as possible. The times they give for fermentation, cold crashing and carbonation are the bare minimums. From my experimentation and what I have seen online, you should plan on doubling fermentation, cold crash and natural carbonation times. The beer will be much cleaner and crisper. Lastly, the Pico C is a bit loud. We have ours in the kitchen, which connects to the living room, and it is uncomfortable to have running while trying to watch TV or a movie. But perfectly fine if you are working around the house on things that require less focus. In summary: It is a great machine that does a VERY good job at producing wort for predefined recipes. The unit is extremely easy to clean. It's fun to use and provides just enough tweaking to keep it interesting early on. Be sure to watch the videos they have online just to make sure it is the right setup for what you want to do.
great product
great product! makes great beer but with a couple of adjustments. Ferment for at least 10-14 days and only pitch about 1/2 of the us-05 yeast. Overall im very happy with this product!
PICO C
I have owned the Pico C now for a month and here are my observations. I have yet to brew a beer that is of same quality of a brewery- but I have learned the pain of needing to follow home brew forums to learn on my own(not much available on Pico website) on fermentation temperature by beer style, customized yeast(type and amount to use). Overall I am happy with the beer selection and the quality of the beer(need to drink a gallon and a half in 3days- not always fun). So far I have only brewed Lucky Envelop Lager and in process on Blonde 52. If you are looking to get in a new hobby- this may be a good stop.
Pico C
I purchased the Pico C through the kick starter program and anxiously awaited for the product to arrive. Being a former home brewer I sold all my home brewing equipment to make the purchase. I no longer had the time to commit to home brewing but wanted to be able to enjoy making and drinking craft beer. I felt the Pico C would meet my needs. Once it arrived I quickly unpackaged the unit and was happy with the size being that it fits nicely on my kitchen countertop. It came with the Helles Lager recipe so that was my first brewing experience using the Pico C. I followed the video tutorials available on the Pico website and they were minimal in length and very direct leaving no room for error. I couldn't believe how easy the set up, brewing process, and cleaning process were. I was able to push a button and walk away to handle other tasks. Came back a little over 2 hrs later to pleasantly find my batch complete and my home smelling delicious. The only downside for me was that the remaining 6 or more video tutorials are not available to view as of yet. I force carbonated my beer because I wasn't patient enough to allow it to naturally carbonate. However I tasted the Helles Lager and shared it with friends. We all agree that the beer was crisp, refreshing, light, and good tasting. It had to be because it didn't last long in my fridge. I brewed my next batch of Flying Monkey's Netherworld shortly after and it's fermenting now. Can't wait to transfer it to the drinking keg. So far I'm happy with the purchase and can't wait to try many more recipes.
If you want to brew beer at home this is for you !
I've had the Pico Model C for about 2 months now and have brewed 3 times on it. All three beers came out very well balanced and with no off flavors at all. Use: As a homebrewer of almost 10 years this makes for a great winter brewing setup for me. My main setup is a half bbl rig and produces copious amounts of beer for me but the Pico makes it easy for me to do some experimenting with side by side yeast strains. I'll buy two of the same pico paks brew them both pitch different yeasts and compare the results (My most recent experiment was with the Stoup%u2019s Robust Porter using included yeast and Mangrove Jack MI5 Empire Ale) Side note I did make some adapters to be able to use this unit with my ball lock and pin lock kegs Alternate Use: Sous Vide - This thing is great for sous vide and because of that it avoids the title of unitasker, I have made Sirloin Filets and Pork loin with this and can tell you it%u2019s some of the best tasting meat I have ever consumed. Cost: The initial cost of the system is in line with most starter systems that includes pots and burners, obviously the capacity difference is a concern for some but as a secondary system it sure makes for an easy quick brew day to add variety to the kegerator. I won%u2019t dance around it the PicoPaks are expensive and lack some programmability in the Freestyle sense, but this is my secondary/experimental system so it%u2019s not my main supply of homebrew. If PicoBrew were to release the software and allow end user customization as well as the ability to buy an empty PicoShell (see what I did there) to use your own grains then these units would be a grand slam instead of just a home run. (Hint Hint PicoBrew) Conclusion: If you want to learn the craft and HOW to homebrew this machine is not for you, but if you want to brew beer at home and maybe experiment some this IS absolutely the machine for you.