The BeerMKR is a tabletop brewing appliance that takes grain, water, yeast and hops then mashes the grain and ferments the product to finished beer. The unit has thermoelectric temperature control so it can ferment a lager in the 40s and ferment a Kviek yeast at 100F.
If the website is still up BeerMKR explains the technology surrounding the device here https://beermkr.com/pages/technology
The real heart of the BeerMKR system is the sealed brew-in-bag configuration. All of the action happens inside of hot-fill plastic bags and a plastic tub. The tub at the top is where a basket of grain to be brewed is placed. At brew time the system holds about 7 liters of water. The water is slowly brought up to 160F and held there for a while mashing the grains and sanitizing the inside of the plastic enclosure.
After mashing the water is drained from the grain tub almost fully into the bag system. This is accomplished by removing a “Squeeze Bar” that pushes a volume of water up into the grain basket for mashing. There is just a small amount of liquid left in the tub and this is where hops and yeast are added.
This point becomes a distinct departure from boil brewing. The mashed wort is never boiled. The wort cools inside it’s sealed, sanitized system. Because there is no boiling the hops don’t isomerize (bitter) in the BeerMKR. The technique BeerMKR uses is to provide “Steam Hops” with their kits that have been steamed for common boil times (e.g. 60 minute, 30 minute, 10 minute). This gives them the same flavor profile as if they had been boiled for those times.
When the wort cools down to pitch temperature the yeast, steamed hops and brewing enzymes are added. The enzymes are optional, but that is one of the ways the BeerMKR team brought large-scale techniques to the smallest scale of brewing. A small capsule of Servomyces yeast nutrient is also added before mash.
At this point the unit is closed up and the programmed temperature is maintained. Depending on the yeast used and gravity of the beer the finished, fermented beer is ready to package in anywhere from 5 days to two weeks. The only attention required during that time is occasionally flicking some of the trub off the edge of the bag so it can settle in the “Waste Bag” at the bottom. Even that is optional. I’ve put yeast in the machine and gone out of town for two weeks before I came back and bottled my beer.
The finished beer can be either bottled, or the beer bag can be placed in a supporting container for carbonation and served like a keg. Best of all, the plastic tubs, grain basket, and valve pieces all clean up in the dishwasher.
Leave a Reply