What you see above is the Beer Bar, the latest technological innovation meant to simplify the current trend of home brewing. Beer Bar comes to us from Sparkling Water Markers, the same company responsible for the homemade soft drink system the SodaStream. However, what it does can scarcely be considered “brewing.”
Last year, Paste reviewed a $2,000 home brewing machine called the PicoBrew Zymatic that brewed a “decent” porter in the Paste office one afternoon.
As reviewer and veteran home brewer Jim Vorel noted in that review: “There’s a booming market of gadgetry involved in making the job easier and faster, but no matter what kind of technology you’re employing, brewing—and all-grain brewing in particular—is a process that eats up chunks of time both on brew day, bottling day, etc.”
“Bah to all that!” says SodaStream. Rather than wait days, the Beer Bar boasts a brewing process of mere seconds. All the machine needs are two basic ingredients: sparkling water and a “unique beer concentrate” that produces a brew called “Blondie.”