BeerMKR
BeerMKR is the name of a clever little brewing machine by a company of the same name. Unfortunately, the company seems to have faded away. Nobody has been able to get new machines for a while.
The really important thing to me about this machine is that I spend only about 20% of the time from start to end with this machine as I did doing boil batches, cleaning, babysitting fermenters. And that’s for all-grain batches!
The machine does complete grain to finished beer in a sealed package. It makes about 1.5 gallons of beer (about 2 6-packs) which can be carbonated and served like a keg directly from the bag or bottled. It can use kits or users can completely customize their own recipes.
BeerMKR uses a technique that I’m calling No-Boil Brewing. It combines Brew-In-A-Bag, techniques along with some No-Chill techniques. The folks developing BeerMKR also brought materials and techniques to the small scale brewer that previously were only available to larger scale brewers which increased the success for the brews.
Those of us who got machines have been very disappointed by the apparent loss of the BeerMKR company. Orders for kits are being fulfilled by a 3rd party company and the backend cloud server is still running.
Topics for this blog will be how this machine works and repair items to keep this machine going.
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BeerMKR: How it works
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…
To Do List
Valve Slide Replacement
The current grey valve slide locks have a narrow point that breaks easily. Investigate 3D printing a new one
Status: Ongoing
Control Board Replacement
The system still runs with the current AWS back end but it’s unknown how long that will last. Investigate a replacement board (and attendant programming) or possibly a firmware update to current board.
Status: Starting – to be a project page
ThermoElectric Chip Swap
Identify compatible unit and Replace thermoelectric module. Look for a longer life unit under cycling conditions.
Status: Complete