Brewie offers a device that enables newbies as well as experts to craft beer on their own. You simply start with choosing your favourite ingredients and defining the water intake with the integrated touch display. You can either run it automatically or control each step of the process. Since the device is constantly connected to wifi, you can even monitor the brewing process while at work or on the road.
While for some it might just be a cheaper solution, others see homebrewing as striving for independence with the creative potential of crafting unique types of beer. Hungarian Brewie took up this lifestyle and turned it into a DIY business with the help of Indiegogo. Inventures talked to CEO Marcell Pal, who learned about concept of homebrewing during his summer break in 2013.
“I learned that you need a lot of equipment, need to be around during the whole process that takes about 6 hours - measure the temperature, balance ingredients and so on - which followed by 2-3 hours of cleaning. It’s a complicated process,” explained Marcell.
Fascinated with the process but frustrated with the downsides, they set out to build an automatic brewing machine so they don’t have to spend so much money on beer. The path from a dazed idea to the ready product led Brewie through several challenges and competitions. At Startup Sauna Budapest they won first place, at Next Berlin they were among the best eight startups, and the feedback had been encouraging and showed them that they should keep going.
In December 2014 they dared to take one big step further by launching a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Having finished their crowdfunding campaign on 31 January, they have managed to raise 223,878 dollars which is more than double the amount they targeted.
“I believe crowdfunding is one of the best financing techniques for a startup at the early stage. I strongly encourage everyone to use crowdfunding to get funding, validation and increase the value of the company with the early sales,” added Marcell.
Their next big challenge for Brewie is finishing the production in time and starting to ship the first batch to their backers by September. Right after that they will hit the commercial market. Moreover, in March 2015 they will exhibit their invention at the music, film and interactive festival SXSW in Texas, which will be a great chance to meet some future customers and reach out to future business partners as there is a huge homebrewing culture in Austin.
