Everything I said is true, I proved it with a quotation, but now we’re seeing doubling down. No idea what’s happening here.
Megary, you say more or less what I said. I was trying to understand where he got these conclusions without further annoying the Braumeister fans at the other place, so I came here to see if anyone else had any idea where these ideas came from. I was out of brewing from 2007 until 2023, so I missed out on a lot of new knowledge.
Some people get mad when you point out problems with products they like. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. I don’t identify with my beer machine or my truck or my motorcycle. I know my Harley is stupid and backward. I admit it, and I like it anyway. Go ahead and call it “Hardly Ableson.” I think it’s funny. What company needs 1400 cc’s to make 64 tiny horsepower?
I think people get especially mad when they’ve spent a relatively huge sum on something which provides tiny benefits and causes significant problems, because they feel like you’re calling them fools. I spent $950 on my machine, so if they got fooled, so did I. I was not trying to make people look stupid.
I’ll always, always criticize products publicly. No one will ever intimidate me or shame me. One of the great things about the web is that we now have the ability to criticize products and services in front of the whole world. It helps other people avoid trouble, and it helps companies do better.
I have a house full of horrible half-baked greenie toilets that are so bad, Briggs quit stocking parts. You better believe I criticize them online every chance I get, and I tell people how great Toto toilets are. I don’t care if I’m insulting people’s favorite cans or putting Briggs out of business. I’m on the side of the consumer. I’m going to end up paying over $1500 to rip these things out, and that’s the cost when I install them personally.
The web is full of paid shills now. Someone has to be honest. Braumeisters have all sorts of problems.
They should:
- Force distributors to stock and list parts on the web. ALL parts.
- Use generic parts when possible. Don’t be like the jerks at John Deere, who want everyone to think no one else can make motor oil.
- Tell people how to get generic parts. Everyone knows they use generic O-rings.
- Build their machines to use USB, like everyone else on Earth except Apple, which is being forced to do it now.
- Build their machines to use ordinary $10 wifi adaptors instead of $400 proprietary adaptors that are never available.
- Create a phone app and desktop apps so nobody has to join a cult and store private info on someone else’s website. The app should allow recipe editing through a keyboard, and storage should be limited only by the consumer’s computer’s memory.
- Fix it so data can be ported to apps like Beersmith.
- Allow firmware fixes via USB drive. They totally botched my machine’s firmware, and the official method of fixing it was to take the machine to a nonexistent local vendor who owned the unnecessary proprietary cable.
- Change the geometry of the mash pipe and screens so holding more grain is normal. I know they’re German, but not everyone brews one Helles lager after another. Some people like imperial stout.
- Charge reasonable prices for retrofit improvements. They fixed the controller and supposedly added some of the things I’m talking about here, but they want about $800 for it.
For another $800, I get better connectivity and a more water-resistant controller. I’ve never submerged my controller, so no idea what that’s all about. Still no USB! How can that be? They added relatively useless things like a timed start and an animated help menu. Honestly, I don’t care at all about the few minutes it takes to heat, so how does an automatic start help me?
Still has to use their website.
Does Morebeer stock the new controller? See if you can guess.
The wifi issues with my unit are amazing. I have Inkbird stuff that costs nearly nothing, and it talks to me over wifi. How come I can communicate with and even operate a $30 Inkbird device from anywhere, but I have to walk across the house and use clumsy scrolled inputs to talk to a $3000 machine? If you’re going to be Buck Rogers, be Buck Rogers. Don’t half-ass it and let a Chinese startup make you look bad. They should have gotten this right a long time ago.
Bottom line: people like me can spend $800 to get a partial solution, they can spend $400 to get a wifi module to get something nearly as good, or they can spend $150, get kettles and bags, and spend 25% as much time cleaning up while producing exactly the same beer. Then they can sell their old Braumeisters for a grand or more and keep $850.
