CES 2016: Home brew re-imagined

Home brewing used to involve placing a fermenting barrel of poorly made beer in the airing cupboard and hoping for the best, but now in an era of craft beer connoisseurship, the market demands a more sophisticated solution. The Pico by Picobrew is that solution, according to founder Dr Bill Mitchell. ‘We wanted people to treat beer like they treat gourmet cooking,’ he says. ‘By using technology we can arrive at the point where anyone can have repeatable and excellent results.’

The Pico follows the start-up’s earlier venture, the PicoBrew Zymatic, which was designed for small-batch brewers all over the world to share recipes and pilot new beers in a small, controlled environment. Now the Pico, initially available for £410 ($599, €550) rising to £685 ($999, €916), compared with £1,370 ($1,999, €1,834) for the larger-scale Zymatic, enables consumers to drink any beer recipe from around the world.

Using the online BrewMarketplace, people can order the ingredients of more than 100 beers to create at home. The machine is wi-fi connectable, and includes the smart features that we have seen in home brew kits before.