The Beer Machine Model 2000

I just finished my first brew session and had a terrible time with the pressure control valve. This is a crude cheap unreliable valve design and if it malfunctions as mine has the device could rupture.

I manually babied the device every few hours to keep the pressure below 15 lbs. I’ve notified the company of my concerns and modified my unit to use a weighted valve system found on some pressure cookers. This valve is certainly more reliable than the manufactures design. (Cost $12.00)
Rating: 3 / 5

The Beer Machine arrived on Friday, 6-27-08, and by Saturday afternoon I had it assembled and a batch of beer in the works. Before starting on the assembly procedure I thoroughly read the entire manual, not a huge feat as it’s only a few pages long, so as to give myself every opportunity to get it right. I had seen the bad write-ups from people whose units wouldn’t seal, but I had also watched the video at the Beer Machine homepage from a television news program showing two guys putting a unit together successfully and trying the beer a couple of weeks later. Assembly went pretty smooth except that I forgot to put the float and tube in the first time and had to take it back apart. The keg is in two pieces, an upper and lower half, which join together via sliding locks with a silicone gasket providing the seal between the halves. Getting the seal seated in the bottom half groove is not difficult, but you must pay attention and make sure it really is seated all the way around. There are no helpful photos in the manual to show you just how the seal should fit, so you are pretty well left to guesstimate. The instructions tell you that the seal may be warmed up if needed to make it more pliable, but mine was at room temperature and very workable already. Once put together it was time to pressure test the beast. The only places the manual suggests you check for leaks are around the spigot, the CO2 charger, and the cap on top of the unit. My unit showed no leaks in any of these areas, so it was on to sanitizing. Here I took a side road and used Star-San rather than bleach. Bleach requires an awful lot of rinsing to get rid of the taste and odor while Star-San requires no rinsing at all. Finally, it was time to start my first Beer Machine brew. The unit shipped with a mix called “Golden Lager” and that is what I used. An aside here…the instructions make no mention of fermenting a lager at anything less than room temperature and it became apparent why when I put the mix in the machine: the yeast they supplied is ale yeast. If all of their lager mixes ship with ale yeast, then you will have no real lagers…unless you choose to supply your own lager yeast and ferment at lager temperatures. Of course, you don’t have to use their mixes at all…just be aware that you will need to buy defoamer disks and possibly some CO2 cartridges (both of which are packaged with their beer mixes) separately if you make your own wort. Six hours after starting the brew I noticed some very slow dripping occurring along one side of the machine where the two halves join. Since I had set the unit on top of a bath towel it wasn’t going to damage anything, but it was disappointing to see the leak. Rather than jumping the gun I ignored it until Sunday morning. Great! By early Sunday morning the leak had stopped and the tank was beginning to build pressure from the fermentation that had obviously started (I hadn’t added any CO2 myself). By Sunday afternoon the pressure gauge was nearing 8-psi and I knew I was in business! Monday morning and the pressure has hit 10 psi, but so far no bubbles being released by the regulator. Based on the fact that the pressure gauge is not coded red until 15 psi, I will assume that the regulator is set a couple psi below 15. It wasn’t completely odor-free until the pressure built up past about 5 psi; but the little bit of aroma coming from it was much like fresh-baked bread, a smell I like. Ten hours later, after work, it is still at 10 psi. Perhaps it has hit a plateau and will simply remain at this pressure from here on out. Something the directions didn’t mention and I didn’t do is aerating the wort before pitching the yeast. I have an Oxynater and will try it on my second batch so that I can compare fermentation of the two batches. Tuesday morning, 4:00 A.M., still at 10 psi. This must be the working pressure of this batch and should be high enough to produce good carbonation after refrigeration. I will be out of town for the next three days, so I won’t be checking The beer Machine anymore until Thursday night. As soon as I walked in the door Thursday evening I checked the gauge and found the pressure was down to 8 psi. I drew a very small sample of the beer and tasted it. There was a slight sweetness to it, but I am not familiar enough with the recipe to know if this is to be expected or if it indicates the need of further fermentation. I decided to give it another day before putting in the refrigerator. Friday, July 4th: I tried another small taste of the beer and found that the sweetness was gone. The keg pressure was down to 6 psi, so I shot enough CO2 into it to get it back up to 10 psi and then put the unit in the refrigerator. In a week or so I will be ready to do a real taste test. Monday July 7th – I have been keeping an eye on the CO2 pressure daily and adding as needed to keep it up around 10 psi. My first CO2 cartridge is depleted, so I installed a second one. I tried a small glass of the beer and found it a bit low on carbonation and without much head; however, it is beginning to clarify and has a good taste already! A few more days under pressure in the fridge should do the trick. The color is shaping up to be a light golden hue much like Bud Light. The aroma has a slight yeastiness to it, but that is to be expected since the yeast is still in the keg. I know from experience that this beer will improve over the next couple of weeks if it lasts that long (not likely with me around!) and since this review is not about the beer so much as it is about the machine the time has come for me to wrap it up. I am quite impressed with The Beer Machine and believe that it lives up to the assertions of the manufacturer. In just over a week I have a batch of beer that is every bit drinkable right now and will get even better over the next few days. The amount of mess and cleanup involved in brewing with this device is on a par with cooking a small meal…a big departure from the conventional methods of brewing a kit beer! Take your time, assemble it properly, pressure test it, and you will quickly be rewarded with good beer. If you can resist the urge to drink all of your beer at the ten-day mark you will find that an additional one to three weeks will improve it dramatically! Remember: you can bottle your beer and start another batch while your first one is aging. By the time your second batch is ready to bottle your first batch will be ready to drink.

The Beer Machine isn’t for everybody. If you are looking to get started in brewing and want to make large batches (5-6 gallons), then there are other systems you should take a look at; but for someone who wants to brew smaller batches and doesn’t want to spend a couple hours boiling and then cooling wort followed by some serious cleanup this product deserves consideration. It provides for fermentation and carbonation all in the same vessel and makes bottling your beer a choice rather than a necessity. It’s not large and bulky and doesn’t require much room while in use…it’s also not an eyesore sitting in the refrigerator and is bound to elicit some comments from just about everyone who sees it. The nifty float mechanism inside makes sure your beer doesn’t come from the bottom of the keg where trub would be picked up and sent straight to your glass of brew. I already have a good selection of brewery items, including a RIMS, but wanted an easy, non-messy way to do occasional small batches. The Beer Machine fits the bill nicely!

July 25, 2008 Update:

My enthusiasm for this unit was somewhat “dampened” about a week after I initially wrote this review. Fermentation and the first week of refrigeration went without a hitch, but then the unit began losing pressure and I found the inside of my refrigerator getting very wet. I still think it is a pretty good idea and I am going to try some alternative sealing methods in the hopes of finding a reliable solution. On the other hand, I may fit my 3-gallon corny keg with a 12-psi relief valve and use it instead. I know it seals good and is easily pressurized for dispensing and it would be fairly easy to locate the liquid tube high enough to avoid sending trub to my glass, or else fit it with a float like the one used in the Beer Machine.
Rating: 4 / 5