There’s now a portable brewery that makes and pours you a beer in the comfort of your own home.
The mini brewery the HOPii, created by US-based technological wiz, Jong-Wook Shin, enables you to drink homemade craft beer at its freshest, just as the brewers drink them.
With a simple push of a button, the HOPii will make you a fresh batch of brew.The creators pre-prepare the first two steps of beer brewing: the mash and the boil, which creates unfermented beer called wort. They then send this all over in an ingredient pack with a big bottle of wort, a packet of yeast and any extras you need to finish the recipe. Then, you can put everything in place and hit start.
The brewing process, which takes between 4-7 days, caters to the type of beer and extra flavours you want, and it can clean and sanitize itself when you’re done brewing.
HOPii’s promo video.
Shin, former Vice President of Innovations, with over 21 years of experience in high tech inventions, shares the inspiration behind the product.
“I’m a very avid craft beer lover. I love to drink great craft beers. I used to live in California and love the craft beers there. Then, in 2015, I went to Korea and tried to drink some craft beers over there but unfortunately it wasn’t like in California,” Shin told The Hardware Entrepreneur.
“I started going to breweries in Korea to see if I can get some better tasting and fresher craft beers. So one day I went to one of the best breweries in Korea and I ordered a beer. It was so extremely horrible that i yelled out “OMG this is horrible!” So the brew master overheard, and pulled me out the back door, and poured me a beer straight from the tank…And that was an amazing tasting beer. I asked him, what beer is this? And he told me it was the exact same beer as before, just made fresh that day.
“So that’s when I realised two things, number one: freshness in a beer makes a huge difference.
“Secondly, the only people able to drink the freshest beer right out of the tank are the brewers. So we asked why, why can’t people like me, the craft beer lovers, have these great tasting beers fresh out of the tank. And that’s how the HOPii was born.”
The product has already done exceedingly well on Kickstarter. The company’s goal was to raise 50,000, but has raised almost eight times as much as that, now at $379,187.
You can pre-order the HOPii on Kickstarter now for a discount. The first machines are scheduled to ship anywhere worldwide in the summer of 2018, also available on Amazon.
The retail price is approximately AU$750, with ingredient packs between $25-$40, which will produce 3 litres of beer. That measures out to about eight glasses of beer per batch, so roughly $3 for each glass you drink.
“This project has been a very long time in the making with lots of sleepless nights, caffeine and craft beer. You are so important to us and we need your help to bring this vision to life. Please join us in making world class craft beer by pledging to our project. Cheers!” The HOPii leadership team state on the Kickstarter page.
