If you were one of the top guys who spent much of the 2000s trying to get
Microsoft to develop tablet computers, you might be ready for a drink.
Or two.
Fortunately, that guy - Bill Mitchell - has figured out how to easily
produce a never-ending supply of absolutely top-notch beer, in any style and
flavor you can imagine.
After leaving Microsoft in 2010, Mitchell started a company called PicoBrew
with his food-scientist brother and a gifted hardware hacker he used to work
with in Redmond.
Together they created a dream machine for small-scale brewing that they're
unveiling Monday.
Called the PicoBrew Zymatic, it's a device the size of a large microwave
oven that almost completely automates the process of producing beer.
The idea was to take the drudgery out of brewing, without sacrificing the
fun or the gratification that comes from creating your own batches, Mitchell
said.
"The beauty for us, especially in beer-making, is it's this great fusion of
science and cooking, of chemistry and cooking," he said. "We didn't want to
lose any of that - in fact we want to enhance that portion of it - and just
take out the bad portions."
They've also applied modern technologies to the ancient art.
Zymatic machines were designed to be Internet appliances. They are
controlled by open-source software, connected to the Web and managed through
a browser.
PicoBrew's software dashboard is used to concoct recipes and adjust brewing
cycles. Users can share recipes through the service and monitor the brewing
process remotely on their smartphone.
Data collected by this online service - from users who opt to share their
brewing activity - will be used to continue refining the machines, which are
also designed to be hacked and modified as buyers see fit.
About 1 million people in the U.S. brew their own beer, from President Obama
on down, according to the American Homebrewers Association. But it remains a
niche hobby because home-brewing can be a hassle.
To make a batch, you may spend most of a day cleaning and sterilizing
vessels and implements, then heating, mixing and cooling the ingredients.
It's also tricky to precisely repeat the process, which is what finally
convinced Mitchell there had to be a better way.
While still an executive leading various Microsoft hardware projects,
Mitchell, 50, began brewing more and more advanced beers at his Medina home,
including Belgian ales, stouts and barley wines.
A turning point came after he produced a particularly great stout for a
soccer-team party. Others raved and asked for more, but he was unable to get
his special recipe to work again.
Mitchell didn't have to look far for help. His brother, Jim, is a physicist
and home-brewer who designs food-processing facilities. Their late
grandfather was a noted General Foods scientist whose inventions led to
products such as Cool Whip, Tang, Jell-O and Pop Rocks candy.
"We said, 'We should be able to come up with something that automates that
process, like a superautomatic espresso maker,'?" Mitchell said. Goals
included a system with precise temperature control that could produce repeat
batches and that could be cleaned in a dishwasher.
At first they tinkered with things like robotic arms and complicated valve
systems. Eventually they gave up trying to mechanically add and remove
ingredients. Instead they figured out a way to circulate water at different
temperatures through the dry ingredients.
To make a batch with a Zymatic, you select a recipe in the browser. Then you
measure and pour grain into a plastic tray and the hops into specially
designed filter baskets. You then slide them into the machine. A small
"Cornelius" keg is filled with water and attached to the machine, which
circulates the water back and forth.
About 3 ½ hours later the batch is done. You add yeast to the keg,
refrigerate it for a week or so and the beer is ready.
The machines are developed and assembled by a team of eight working in a
funky building near Gas Works Park where ZymoGenetics started out. It
includes a production shop filled with tools, including surplus Boeing
equipment.
The heart of the building is a former lab area where the machines are
tested, churning out batch after batch of beer. Refrigerators around the
room are stuffed with kegs, and Mitchell encourages visitors to bring home
samples. So far they've brewed more than 300 batches while tuning and
testing the system to be sure it can produce all sorts of beers with premium
results.
PicoBrew's third co-founder is former Microsoft hardware designer Avi
Geiger, who worked with Mitchell at the dawn of the smartphone era when
Microsoft was pioneering the category in the late 1990s.
Later they worked on the ultra-mobile PC efforts in the mid 2000s that
presaged the rise of tablet computing. They also worked with Xbox co-founder
Otto Berkes to secretly build a prototype Windows tablet before the iPad
appeared, but they couldn't persuade Microsoft's senior leaders to release
the product.
Before that, Mitchell managed Microsoft's early forays into smart watches
and in-car computers.
It remains to be seen whether he's at the leading edge of another breakout
consumer phenomenon with brewing gear.
But the rise of home espresso machines suggests there is a significant
market for equipment that simplifies in-home beverage production for
enthusiasts.
For now, though, they're trying to reach hard-core home-brewers and pros who
can use the equipment to experiment and produce small test batches.
Several breweries have been testing the system, including Fremont Brewing.
It used a Zymatic to test and tweak the winter beer it's releasing in
November, a dark wheat ale with smoked and caramel malt flavors and a little
spice.
"We were quite honestly very skeptical at first - it's kind of tilting at
windmills to do this - but they pulled it off," said founder Matt Lincecum.
He's particularly impressed by the compact size and precision.
"We found that the beer it makes also fits all the specifications that you
program in, which is a pretty hard thing to do. That's an impressive
achievement," he said.
In addition to using the machine for test batches, Lincecum wants to place
it in the company's beer garden/tasting room to encourage customer
participation.
"Customers select or participate and select aroma variety or grains or
whatever, then you put a beer together, brew it and put it on tap," he said.
"It's a really neat concept. It brings the idea of brewing to a larger
audience."
PicoBrew will gauge demand and help fund production by selling its initial
runs of Zymatic machines on the Kickstarter project-funding site. Early
machines will sell for around $1,300 and should be delivered in January.
Later models, arriving in February and beyond, will cost about $1,500.
Mitchell isn't saying much about future directions, but there are several
options to broaden the appeal and reach of the company's products.
For instance, Jim Mitchell uses them for sous-vide cooking, a vacuum-cooking
technique in which ingredients are placed in a sealed bag and cooked in
water held at a precise temperature.
Especially tasty was a sous-vide tri-tip steak marinated in a mega stout,
cooked in a brewing machine and shared in the PicoBrew conference room -
proving that you actually can have your beer and eat it, too.
http://seattletimes.com/text/2021921820.html
Microsofters designed and built this machine? Hmmm! I wonder if you push
start when you want to stop it?
Gerry
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