The makers of a cool Australian homebrew machine are preparing for a boost in sales after some of America’s largest retailers agreed to stock its BrewArt system, which includes both the BrewDroid (above) and the BrewFlow (below) devices. This is great news for me specifically as that boost in sales will probably include you (CBB reader) buying this cool gizmo for me (your favorite CBB editor, Keith Gribbins), located at 20691 Forestwood Drive, Strongsville, OH 44149. Multiple units are welcome.
What are these devices about?
South Australian brewery Coopers is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of homebrew beer products. It launched an automated system that uses Wi-Fi, precise temperature control and patented end-of-fermentation technology last year.
Two of the United State’s most prestigious department store groups, Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus, and online retail giant Amazon are now selling the systems. Neiman Marcus, which was founded in Dallas in 1907, features BrewArt in its Christmas catalogue this year as well as online, while Bloomingdale’s, which was founded in New York in 1861, is offering the BrewArt system in stores across New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and online.
Amazon has also commenced selling BrewArt units online.
BrewArt says it’s the world’s first fully-automated personal brewing system enabling owners to brew pub quality beer at the touch of a button. It comprises the smartphone connected BeerDroid that brews the beer and the BrewFlo that chills beer to the appropriate temperature and enables people to pour it from a pub style tap.
Brewprints, which are a specific set of ingredients, enable users to pick the style of beer they wish to brew such as American pale ale, European pilsner or customized to make more than 3,000 different beers. The BeerDroid has patented end of fermentation (EOF) technology that automatically detects the start and finish of fermentation without the need for testing, while the BrewFlo controls serving temperature and serving without the need for CO2.
BrewArt’s Marketing Manager, Scott Harris, said the system had been developed in South Australia over a period of about eight years before being released in Australia in July 2016.
Here’s the BrewFlo, yo.
“The response in Australia has been outstanding with the system winning a Canstar Blue 2016 Innovation Award just months after being released,” he said. “We were absolutely delighted when Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus, which are recognised as two of the world’s most prestigious retailers, decided to list it. The listing with Amazon will make BrewArt available to people across the U.S.”
Harris said the BeerDroid and the BrewFlo were high-end lifestyle products designed to not only brew and dispense premium beer but also to look great in modern kitchens.
“What we wanted to come up with was a kegging system and a dispenser you would be quite happy to have on your bench next to your coffee machine,” he said. “It’s Wi-Fi connected so you can actually control this whole thing from your phone. Another advantage of it being Wi-Fi connected is we can do firmware upgrades to upgrade the algorithms or anything else that people have asked for to be changed. The other cool thing about that is if people ring us up and say ‘I did a brew and it just turned out awful’ then with their permission we can log in and check what happened.”
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Brews take similar time as traditional homebrews of five to 15 days in fermentation mode with a keg or bottle fermentation and natural carbonation time of two weeks. Notifications are sent along the way to update users on the progress of their brew. BeerDroids sell for around $799 while BrewFlo units retail for around $699.
Established in Adelaide in 1862, Coopers is the largest Australian-owned brewery, accounting for about 5 per cent of the nation’s commercial beer market. It has been making homebrewing products since the 1970s and has grown to become the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter of brewing extracts.
