I recently ordered myself a beermachine. When I tell people they usually think I ordered one of these home draught machines to which you add these little kegs of beer. But this machine goes a bit further.

I ordered it almost 2 weeks ago from a Danish company (www.beermachine.dk) and 2 days ago it arrived in the mail.

This is how it works:

• Assemble the kit
• Add a layer of water
  Add beermix (one bag of ‘pilsner’ mix is included in the base kit)
  Fill up with water to a total of 10 liters
  Add yeast (included with the beer mix)
  Wait a few days
  Put in fridge to cool down
  Add CO2
  Enjoy your own beer
•  

I picked up the box from the post office and after unpacking it this is what I got:

The main kit, 2 additional bags of beer mix (I ordered American Ale and Canadian Red Lager) and a set of CO2 Bulbs.

After opening the main box you get this initially daunting number of pieces:

You get the 2 main pieces that make up the brewing ‘kettle’, a main seal to connect the 2 pieces, a bag of pilsner beer mix and a plastic bag with lots of small pieces.

In that plastic bag you find 3 CO2 Bulbs, a few rubber rings, a pressure release valve, a defoamer cup, a spigot and some other things that you need to build the whole thing together.

The manual included with the kit was in Danish, and as my Danish has become a bit rusty lately, I went to the American web site where I found the manual in English.

Setting up the kit took me about 10 minutes. Very straightforward.

Sterilize the kit, add a layer of water (3 inches), add the beer mix, fill it up with water, add the yeast, close it thoroughly and wait. It will take a few days (up to 2 weeks in total) for the beer to get ready. Make sure you put in a place where it is 20 to 23 degrees C.

I’ll get back to you after  I tasted my first beer