Whirlpool Gets Into The Home Grog Making Business

First we had coffee making machines, now Whirlpool is getting into the grog making business with a brand new machine that allows one to home brew beer.

Overnight the world’s largest appliance manufacturer announced the launch of a beer fermenter and dispenser system for home brewers, the product is tipped to be a massive hit in Australia where home brewing is growing.

In the US market ‘Craft Brewing’ as it is called is already a multibillion dollar industry.

The product, dubbed Vessi, is a patented device that ferments, carbonates and dispenses home-brewed beer in as little as seven days, quenching thirsts way sooner than traditional home-brewing methods that can take a month or more.

Vessi was designed by Whirlpool’s W Labs division, which fast-tracks innovative concepts, and was launched on Indiegogo “to connected with potential customers and evaluate what they need and want in a beer fermentation system,” the manufacturer said.

According to Noel Dolan, Whirlpool’s open innovation and strategic partnerships senior manager, Vessi is the result of “researching, testing, designing and rethinking the entire beer brewing process.”

The fermenter features a single-tank system that’s sealed, pressurized and temperature-controlled to reduce contamination, oxidation and imperfect temperatures to produce the perfect brew. Vessi also retains the beer’s carbonation throughout the fermentation process, unlike the often complicated, multi-step carbonation process typically used by other home-brewing systems, Whirlpool said.

The apparatus will likely be priced at US$1,899 retail in the USA and around $2,900.

Early adopters and would-be backers can pick one up on Indiegogo for US$1,199.