Last week I received the Pinter – an ‘all in one’ beer making kit for the home from ‘The Greater Good Fresh Brewing Co’, a company based in East London.
As I write this, the Pinter is brewing away. Once the brewing and conditioning is complete, I should hopefully be enjoying a nice crisp pilsner, straight from the fridge.
But what is it? Well it is an easy-to use system based around using the same unit for brewing, conditioning and serving. The kit uses malt extract and yeast, so a simple starting point for those new to creating their own beer, like me.
The branding, packaging and presentation is superb and well designed. Very impressive what their team has managed both online and in the slick way it is all delivered. I can’t remember when I was so impressed by a box!
As for the unit itself, it seems a rather idiot-proof design. Despite this, I still had some issues (read into this what you will), mainly with how the brewing section attached to the canister and the online video/text instructions stating to fill to a line I could not see.
But I managed to attach it together and pour in the malt extract and yeast to commence the brewing stage. It felt like the plasticy unit was leaking at one point, but I am not sure if that was just an overflow thing. It may have stopped. I will keep an eye on this and if there’s a puddle I’ll get onto customer service.
I have doubts about how many brews the Pinter will survive, but I will give it the benefit of the doubt for now. This is a relatively new product and I have read that they have already improved the tap after customer feedback.
The steps are quite simple. First, a cleaning and purification solution is used to ensure you have a clean vessel. The next stage is filling the pinter with cold water, pouring in the thick, gloopy syrupy malt-extract mixture and then finally adding the yeast.
I am glad I have a large sink in the utility room to do all this, making it pretty easy to fill and leave to do it’s thing. I am hoping I do not have issues fitting in the fridge, but I’m hoping it should be OK as I have a reasonably large American style fridge-freezer.
There is a wide range of colours of Pinter to choose from, and you can also select 2 ‘fresh press’ brew packs from a range of styles. I opted for a pilsner and a stout. Pilsner is usually known for being a difficult beer to get right, as does not hide or mask brewing faults. Perhaps I should have started with the stout…
For the pilsner they state the brewing time is 6 days and the conditioning time is just 2 days. They also state online that these times can be extended to 8 days and 15 days respectively. It’s likely this improves clarity and carbonation. It’s something I will be experimenting with as I get to grips with multiple brews.
Priced at £75 with two beer mixtures means it is certainly affordable. They can’t make much margin on this – I assume the profit is when multiple ‘fresh presses’ from them over time. (Edit: The introductory price of £75 has now been raised to £85).
The Pinter holds enough for about 10 pints, with most of the beers being 4-5% ABV. They have recently redesigned the format and are hoping to offer higher strength beers soon. Great! Prob not a good idea to have 10 pints of 10% ABV beers on tap at home, but I think the higher ABV will be more a more manageable 5.5-6% ABV.
The current list of fresh presses includes lagers, stouts, session IPAs, ciders, saisons and pale ales.
I am considering getting the ‘Co-pinter’ which is available at £35 for owners of the pinter, which means you can have one unit brewing while the other is pouring.
We’ll see how this batch turns out first. I am thinking that this pilsner may be a hard thing to get right on the first go, so it should be a good test.
If it goes well, up next is the ‘Dark Matter’ stout, possibly just in time for St Paddy’s Day (sorry Guinness).
Pinter Brews
Here’s a list of the brews so far which details the results and the quality of the final beer.
- Lockwood Pilsner
- Dark Matter Stout
- Four Saisons
- Space Hopper Double IPA (Failed brew)
- Guestlist
- Alexa Play Three Lions
- Welsh Red (B)Ale
- West Neuvo Lager
- Weiss Nights
Fresh Beer Club
I have now joined the ‘Fresh Beer Club’, which sends you ‘fresh press’ packs on a monthly basis. The costs are fixed at £12 a month, so it works out cheaper than buying the packs separately. You just need to keep on brewing to make it worthwhile!
I am just getting one pack a month, but you are able to order four at a time. Fresh presses can be selected in advance via the greater good website.
Not only this, they also send a free glass in your first month! If you’d like your first month free, join via my link.
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