Even if you’ve never considered making your own beer at home, I guarantee you’ll be inspired to with iGulu’s F1, a ‘smart’ brewing machine that recently landed in Australia. Home brewing has always seemed – to me at least — a mysterious ‘why would you bother with it?’ process.
But this fully automated, all-in-one machine enables you to effortlessly produce a wide range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, from craft beer and cider, to kombucha, mead, and sparkling fruit drinks.
A global pioneer in intelligent beer brewing technology, iGulu has had a meteoric rise since founder David Zhang raised more than USD $1 million in crowd funding.
With distribution deals signed in 12 countries in the past year, iGulu’s flagship F1 machine is now set to be a game changer in Australia too. Available from JB Hi-Fi for a launch price of $999 (standard price $1099), it comes in either black or creamy white.
Compact enough to sit on a kitchen bench or countertop, yet capable of brewing, fermenting, carbonating, and dispensing bar-quality beverages from the one device, iGulu F1 requires no more effort than inserting an ingredient kit and scanning the RFID card provided.
The machine recognizes the recipe and automates the entire process, including fermentation time, temperature, pressure, and carbonation.
Three ingredient kits are currently available from JB Hi-Fi: Pale Ale, Bavarian Wheat and Hard Cider, priced between AUD $24.95 and $29.95 each.
More kits are expected to arrive in Australia soon — iGulu has developed more than a dozen to date. It also plans to collaborate with Australian brands to launch some more localized kits. Kombucha and other functional beverage kits are available through the iGulu website.
Aimed at everyone from first-timers to advanced DIY brewers, iGulu boasts bar-quality results. We were invited to put one of the F1 machines to the test and I have to admit to some trepidation in doing so, despite the reassurance that no technical knowledge was required.
We found that while indeed there was zero guesswork as far as the settings go, the instructions for initially setting up the appliance weren’t as clear as they could have been, especially in relation to whether we should buy a C02 canister and when we should install it. A few You Tube videos later and we were on our way.
Our first attempt was with the Pale Ale kit and after allowing it to do its thing for nine days — quietly and without any odour — we excitedly poured the first glass. This part was incredibly easy; it was simply pull the tap and pour.
After fermentation, the beer is kept refrigerated inside the machine and you only need to dispense it into another vessel if you want to make another brew.
We were very pleasantly surprised with just how good the Pale Ale tastes and how professional the result was: light golden in colour, a nicely balanced combination of malt sweetness and hop bitterness, smooth and fresh with good foam. I’m not a beer expert by any stretch of the imagination but I’ve tasted quite a few craft beers and this was as good as any.
If you want to really get serious, a Master Mode Premium Card is available that enables you to fully customize the brewing process by manually controlling the temperature, pressure, and fermentation time. You don’t need to buy the kits either; you could create your own recipes. This would allow you to create unique beverages which could be a lot of fun once you’ve mastered how to use the machine.
We’re not at that stage yet, being very much on our L’s, but I’m not sure I could be bothered anyway, for a big part of the machine’s charm is that you can toss in the contents of the packet, set and forget.
The other part of iGulu’s charm is that it is so good looking. It’s stylish enough to sit in our dining room, where we can dispense the beer right in front of our guests. It is sleek and modern, whisper-quiet, and doesn’t look at all obtrusive.
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post but we did get to keep the machine.
