As I’ve mentioned recently, I’m a bit obsessed with craft beer at the moment. I’ve even been considering going down the route of brewing my own beer at some point in the future. Although I know I’ll end up messing it up and it will come out tasting like cat piss.
I have memories of my step-grandad brewing up beer in his kitchen, and while I was too young to really understand just what the hell he was doing at the time, I always thought that it looked a bit of a faff. A cursory Google of ‘how to brew your own beer’ shows I’m not wrong. You need a lot of space and equipment, and even after all that effort the results may be terrible.
Luckily, there’s a solution in the form of The Pinter. I found this little gem via a promotion on the Untappd app.
Marketed as a ‘world-first innovation’, The Pinter is a home brewing kit that’s committed to making the brewing process easier, more affordable, and sustainable.
The Pinter brewing kit contains a barrel, brewing dock, yeast, purifier, and a Fresh Press pack. The latter is what contains the alcohol-free drink you’ll be making. It’s alcohol-free because the alcohol is created during the fermentation process. Choices include the likes of cider, IPA, stout and lager, with more added over time. There’s also a subscription service where you can get a new Fresh Press popped through your letterbox every month.
The barrel itself looks eye-catching, with six different colours that include jet black and hot red. But how does the Pinter actually work?
First, you purify the barrel, before adding water, yeast and the Fresh Press. The brewing dock removes the yeast and residue during the fermentation process, leaving you with pressurised beer. All this will take a few days, with 4 being the standard, but it does depend on which drink you’re brewing.
The cool thing is that The Pinter holds on to the CO2 that’s produced during the fermentation process, and it’s then used to help carbonate the beer. It also kicks out excess CO2 through a valve system.
The conditioning process, where the brew is carbonated so that it’s not as flat as that beer you fell asleep drinking, needs to be done in your fridge. While the barrel is nowhere near as big as your standard pub beer cask (it will supply 10 pints of chilled beer) you do need to be aware that, after the initial brewing process is complete, you’ll need to stick it in the fridge to allow it to cool for even more days. I can see that being an issue with a lot of people, as you’ll no doubt have to sacrifice lots of space and possibly even have to remove a shelf. If you’ve got one of those big American-style fridges, then you’ll likely be ok. I’d probably be shit out of luck, as my fridge is full of cheese.
I love the idea of The Pinter. Making brewing simple and stress-free is a great way to get more beer lovers into it. Plus, the £75 price tag isn’t too high considering how much beer you’ll be getting out of it. However, there is the issue that the only beer you can brew in it are those in the Fresh Press range, so you couldn’t ever try your own creative combinations (it voids the 1-year warranty if you do try this). Hopefully The Greater Good Fresh Brewing Co will keep coming out with new drinks to try.
I’m also thinking that if they went out of business in the future, you’d be left with some kit that you couldn’t do anything with as they wouldn’t be making Fresh Press drinks anymore. But I suppose that’s the risk you take with anything that relies on products you can only buy from the equipment manufacturer.
Still, it’s a great idea and I’m very tempted. Find out more and buy your own over on The Pinter website.