Pinter - Fresh Beer For All?

Good morning. The owners of Wrexham Football Club, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, have purchased a majority stake in Wrexham Brewing Company. In the coming months/years, the oldest lager brewery in the UK will be expanded to a huge untapped market: Canada and the US.

Don’t be surprised when you find the 140 year old Wrexham Lager in a pub near you soon…

-Brandon Copeland

Pinter - Fresh Beer For All?

I saw the Pinter in an ad recently, and I scoffed to be honest - they wanted $150 for a unit that brews the equivalent of a dozen 16 oz beers at one time. On top of that, you have to buy each ingredient pack separate, and they aren’t cheap (like $35 per pack). However, a deal came up that offered a Pinter, 2 recipe packs, and a free beer glass all for $49. I figured this was the prime opportunity to give it a go (as of writing, this deal is still active). To be clear, this is not sponsored or an affiliate and is just based on my personal opinion.

To start with the unboxing, the packaging is really nice - everything was condensed into one box, and it had some cool branding. While this has no impact on the product itself, it may for an interesting unboxing.

I was able to get from unboxing to fermentation all within an hour. There is an accompanying app (of course there is) that walks you through all the steps, and tracks the fermentation days etc. The first step was sanitization - they had a packet in the recipe kit, all you had to do was drop it in the Pinter, fill it up with hot water, and then shake it for a minute. Once this was complete, you empty it out and are ready to “brew”.

Brewing consists of filling the Pinter with water, and then adding a recipe pack. This ends up with a consistency and smell that reminded me of LME. I went with the Black Magic Hour Pumpkin Spice Stout, since it is the season.

After the recipe pack is added, all there is to do is to add the yeast. On some other recipe kits, there are hop extracts that you are supposed to add, but this one did not come with that.

After the yeast is added, you put the top back on and shake vigorously for a minute. Once this is done, you set it aside (in this case the app told me 8 days of fermentation is sufficient) until it’s done fermenting. The airlock is pretty exposed, so my fermentation ended up exploding through and onto the wall (at least I knew it was fermenting away!) but for the most part, it was fairly uneventful.

There is an optional cold crash (since I had the fridge, figured why not). This helps take the solids out of suspension and get them all caught in the brewing base, so that when you go to serve from the same container, it’s clear, fresh beer. It’s recommended to condition for 5 days, but I went ahead and took a taste after 1 day.

So… How Does It Taste?

It’s a solid beer - the recipe was a “Pumpkin Spice Stout”, and I will say that I’m not detecting strong spice, and it feels more like like a brown ale rather than a stout. However, it’s a freshly fermented beer, it’s carbonated, and it’s very drinkable. I only let it condition for one day, so if after the recommended 5 days it tastes much better, I will include the update in next weeks newsletter.

Pinter: The Verdict

It’s a really interesting piece of equipment. It really democratizes “fresh beer” from the tap at home - it takes all the complexity out of “brewing” beer so that anyone can do it. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to configure. I see this more as a gift to give someone who is interested in homebrewing, but has never taken the leap. It might give them the bug.

For an established homebrewer, it takes all the blood, sweat, and tears out of it - which is where the pride comes from in homebrewing. For that reason, beyond the novelty, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend to homebrewers already in the hobby.

Beer Trivia Question

🍺 Wrexham Lager was served aboard what infamous ship that sank in 1912?

Read to the end to find out if you're right!

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Brewgr Recipe of the Week

Viking Grog

If a name like Viking Grog doesn’t pull you, not sure what else would. I also love that Viking Grog is a Blonde Ale, but one with character; it packs a punch at 6% ABV. A complex grain bill is matched with a simplistic hop lineup, and the only other thing to note is a 90 minute boil. A lot of good notes at the bottom if you’re looking to clone it!

Credit: mpt2222

Poll Results: Do You Experiment With Brewing Innovations?

When asked if they experiment with innovations in the brewing space, most homebrewers responded that they do. This is only natural - when I started brewing, I had a terrible setup that I slowly improved over the course of 10 years. Then, I did some research and discovered all-in-one brewing systems and it changed completely how I brewed over night, and now saves several hours from every brew day. Innovation is a good thing unless you are brewing on the perfect system.

And the Answer Is...

🍺 If the Titanic came to mind because it’s the only infamous ship wreck you could think of, well you were right! Wrexham Lager is believed to have been the only lager served on board in the first class restaurant.