[MUSIC PLAYING]
Welcome back.
And sadly, it is our
last day of Geek Week.
And we are geeking out
over beer this morning.
How would you like to brew all
different kinds of craft beers
with just [CLICKS TONGUE]
touch of a button.
Our own Chris Cashman is
live at PicoBrew in Seattle
to show us this
cool new machine.
Hey, Chris.
Yes.
"Hoppy" Friday to you.
What a perfect day, and a
perfect start to the day--
some kind of a sunrise here
over PicoBrew in Seattle.
We're calling it
fermentation innovation.
Bill Mitchell is here.
And Bill, we should say that
you are a former Microsoft
big brain.
You're continuing to use
your powers for good.
You started PicoBrew.
It would be too
lazy and too simplex
for me to say this is kind
of like a Keurig for beer,
but it's essentially that easy.
Tell people what
PicoBrew is doing.
Well, it really is the world's
first countertop beer brewery.
Yeah.
So you could look at it
as PicoBrew's version
of the Keurig, but it's
actually doing a lot more.
So what we have
here is the ability
to reliably reproduce great
recipes from great beer
breweries around the
world, or brew your own.
It's really as simple
as inserting a PicoPak.
What we have in here is
actually a pack full of grains,
and hops in this
portion of the Pac.
It's essentially the recipe
that's in here, right?
And you said this is sugar cane.
You guys took like an extra
year of research and development
to say, hey, let's make
sure this is biodegradable.
That's right.
We're from Seattle, so
we wanted to do right
for the environment.
This is a byproduct of
sugarcane production,
and it's actually
fully biodegradable.
So it's just got hops
and grains in it.
When you're done brewing,
just put it in your compost.
You got your PicoPak.
You put it in.
You can adjust some of the
fine tunes here, like what?
Alcohol by volume, you name it.
That's one of the great things.
Yeah.
All you do is
insert your PicoPak.
It says, oh, OK.
I can recognize this.
It's A Little Dinghy
Blonde from Spinnaker Bay,
right around the corner here.
And I can say, OK, well rather
than just start brewing,
I actually want to
adjust the recipe.
I actually want to make
this a little less bitter.
It's a little early in
the morning for bitterness
right now.
I haven't had my coffee.
And I want to adjust
the alcohol by volume.
And I'm going to dial that
down a little bit, too, make
it a morning brew.
And then when I'm ready
to brew, I just hit brew.
You do your thing.
Two hours later, it's done.
You can chill it
for about a week,
and then you're good, right?
That's right.
It's that simple.
We chill it.
We add the yeast and let
the yeast go to work.
And yeah, typically about a week
later, you have a full keg--
these five-liter mini kegs
of the best, freshest craft
beer in the world.
Now, let's show them over here.
One of my favorite
parts about what
you're doing with the
brand new Pico unit
is that they've teamed
up with over 150 partners
across the entire world.
So some of your favorite
beers that you can only
get when you're traveling--
those days are over.
PicoBrew is fixing that.
Now, you can get that
beer that you only
get once or twice a year--
you can brew it fresh at home.
And you guys have this
very cool website where
you can take it a step further.
Instead of just picking out
the PicoPak, I could say--
in my case, I always say, I
like it hoppier than Easter.
I could go in here and
actually drag in hops.
That's right.
I mean, we wanted to
allow you to stand
on the shoulders of giants, brew
the best beers in the world,
and if you want to
take it the next step,
you can actually just
drag and drop grains
and hops right like
I'm doing here.
And it changes in realtime--
alcohol by volume.
There's your IBU--
your bitter units.
I'm going to make this
a really big beer,
so it's really cranking it up.
You can see, it'll tell you
exactly the kind of beer
you're going to make.
I can adjust the hops, as well.
Just start dragging
and dropping,
and make some really
crazy, highly-hopped stuff.
It [INAUDIBLE].
And I love that.
I love that it's smart
enough to tell you
if you're overdoing it, if
you're adding something that
maybe is not the best
idea, it'll actually
warn you and say, are you sure?
That's maybe too much
hops, or maybe you
don't want to add the
chocolate into that.
But it'll let you go there, and
you can make whatever you want.
And the goal here is, stand
on the shoulders of giants.
Learn the brewing profession.
And learn to make the
best beer in your home.
And you can take it as far
as you want to take it.
Once again, over 150 partners
right now, some of your
favorite from right
here in Seattle,
but throughout the entire world.
And you can see the
collection online.
Go online.
Check out their website.
PicoBrew-- the brand
new Pico's only been out
for a couple of months.
A chance to craft custom brew
at home, just pushing a button,
walking away.
No more filling your garage
with beakers, and test tubes,
and getting the chemistry books
from UW library anymore, right?
That's right.
PicoBrew.com, and we
have a big marketplace--
BrewMarketplace.com.
You can check out all
the different beers
you can brew, or
brew your own custom
with this freestyle facility.
We're sharing the party
back in the studio.
We have two mini kegs
courtesy of PicoBrew for you.
Enjoy.
Spread it around the newsroom.
What could possibly go wrong?
Yes.
What could possibly go wrong?
They're adorable little kegs.
This is my kind of
size right here.
Adorable.
You're welcome.
I wonder what it tastes like.
Hmm.
That's the question.
Jake doesn't want to pop it open
right now, in case something--
Spray.
--happens.
It's happy hour somewhere.
Worried about the spray.
It is happy hour somewhere.
Hmm.
Maybe after the show we'll--
These are amazing.
--enjoy.
Thank you, Chris.
You could just roll these
into your party, too.
Exactly.
All right.
Thanks, guys.
7:47 right now.
Let's hand it over to Ben.
