Whether it’s a Pale Ale called Annie’s London Ale or an Oatmeal Stout by Tallgrass Brewing named Buffalo Sweat, Pico uses grain and hop PicoPaks to start the homebrewing process. In three easy steps that include, brewing your PicoPak, fermenting the keg, and then carbonating the beer – users end up with different crafts inspired from every continent.

According to PicoBrew’s website, “from PicoPak to pint glass, the whole process will take approximately one week.” Depending upon the type of PicoPak, a normal brew cycle takes two days and then fermenting will take another five days. For the experienced homebrewer or those just wanting to personalize their craft beer, there are three options:

1. You can purchase a PicoPak and customize bitterness and ABV percentage to your preference right before brewing.

2. Purchase a Freestyle PicoPak – allowing you to select the hops, grains, yeast, and amount of each.

3. Create your own totally custom PicoPaks by joining the PicoBrew Developers Program.

One of the coolest features of PicoBrew’s personal craft beer brewer is its companion app. As long as there is a WiFi connection, you can track every stage of the brewing process. After the two hour brewing process, the one week long fermenting process, you’ll then need to carbonate your beer with either priming sugar or a small canister of CO2 – both come with the PicoBrew kit.

With a wide selection of PicoPak brewing ingredients, the fully automated robotic beer-maker may be a turn off to those who are experienced homebrewers and may be a bit problematic for beginners looking to craft the perfect batch. With a wide selection of affordable homebrew kits – allowing for creative brewing freedom – it’s tough for the experienced brewer to not go that route. Also, the proper storing of the fermented beer and the carbonation process may be a bit tricky for the novice brewer.

As for aesthetics, Pico is a pretty big stainless steel device that wouldn’t fit seamlessly in your kitchen. You would have to store it in either a basement or garage. Thankfully, it comes with an LCD screen that connects to Wifi and makes Pico’s box structure look contemporary.

According to most reviews, most novice brewers have a found a bit of trouble crafting a “good tasting” beer but experts in the industry, such as Tallgrass and Roque breweries, have been able to duplicate their recipes perfectly. So once again, it looks like you may need a few trial runs to perfect the brewing process.