iGulu F1 - Smart home brewing, made easy — Australian Review

I’ve always been curious about home brewing but was put off by how complicated and space-hungry it seemed — all the buckets, tubes, temperature checks, and the constant fear of contamination. I'd tried it in the past, and not had a lot of luck ... and perhaps one of the reasons is that my heart wasn't quite in it. You see, I'm not much of a beer drinker.

But cider? Yes, that I'll happily drink, and wouldn't you know it, you can make cider much the same way you make beer.

So, when I came across the iGulu smart home brewing machine, it felt like the answer to everything that had held me back. An all-in-one, countertop device that claims to automate the entire brewing process? I had to try it.

After a few weeks of brewing with the iGulu F1 model, I’ve had enough time to see what it does well, where it could improve, and whether it actually delivers on its promise of "brewing made easy." This review covers my experience from unboxing to first pour — the good, the not-so-good, and what I wish I’d known before I got started.

What is it?

The iGulu F1 is a hybrid device - on one hand, it's a fairly standard home-brew kit, with all the typical home brewing bits and bobs. On the other hand, it's imbued with a level of technology allowing things like smartphone pairing, more controlled brewing conditions, remote monitoring and a built-in delivery system. Not only can it brew your beverage of choice, but it can dispense it too - either using compressed air, or an option CO2 cylinder (which, incidentally, makes your brew store longer too).

It comes in a fairly massive box, but once you get rid of the cardboard and packing materials, you're left with a fairly modestly sized device and a few doodads to make it work.

In the box, you get the brewing kit itself, including the outer shell, the inner keg, some connecting hoses and fittings, a splash mat to collect the beer you spill, a power adaptor and a couple of manuals. Depending on the kit you choose, it may come with some starter bottles and brew options. Our review kit came with two bottles, an apple cider kit and a pale ale kit as well.

How's it work?

Once unpacked, you plug the brew kit into a wall socket and this powers the smarts of the device as well as the built in refrigeration circuit. This is quite neat, because the iGulu F1 can adjust its internal temperature from slightly above freezing to low 20s in order to bring your brew along in ideal conditions and - once brewed - keep it nice and cold so you can enjoy a cold drink whenever you feel like one.

Like anything else with a fridge in it, it can make a little noise when actively cooling, but it's hardly loud - it's quite unnoticeable when sitting in my loungeroom doing its thing.

Pairing with your mobile is easy enough; install the app on your Apple or Android device, follow the prompts in the iGulu F1's little screen, and within moments it'll be paired to your phone for setup, and then connected to your home WiFi for connectivity. From then on, you can monitor your brew using the built in screen (for a quick summary), or using the mobile app to get a bit more detail or finer control.

Setting up a brew is easy, too.

Fill the supplied keg to the marked line with filtered water (or tap water, if you must, it works just as well), add the recipe ingredients, and then sprinkle some brewer's yeast on the top. Once you've got the ingredients put together, pop the keg into the brew kit, tap the RFID recipe tag on the machine so it knows what to brew, and it'll modulate the temperature as required over the next 10 days or so, resulting in a tasty, cool, refreshing drink.

Is it good?

The short answer is yes, and it's pretty easy to use. There was initially a bit of confusion over what connector and tube goes where, but in typical male fashion, this confusion was more a function of my reluctance to read the manual rather than anything else. Once I gave in and read through it quickly, the process couldn't have been easier. The hardest bit was probably waiting the ten days or so for the brew to finish.

After that, and after figuring out how to get a Sodastream CO2 cannister on the back for easier dispensing, I was able to enjoy a refreshing glass of apple cider, made by me!

I've started a second brew - which probably won't finish by the time I publish my review - of the pale ale, and while mixing the ingredients was a bit harder (the malt didn't want to break up in the water, and the hops drops smelled quite foul), it smelled quite like beer once mixed together, ready for the yeast to do its job and turn the liquid into booze.

I can't really fault the system - it does what it says on the box, so to speak, and really doesn't require much by way of interaction with it during the process. The mobile connectivity is nice, but ultimately, it doesn't really add much - the screen at the front of the device gives you all the interaction you really need, and ultimately it pays to remember what this is - it's a home brew kit, not a gizmo, so you really don't need to fiddle with it (and, in fact, it's probably better that you don't).

Any concerns?

No, not really. While you may feel somewhat locked in to using iGulu's ingredient kits to make your brews, you actually don't have to - you can make your own, or use off-the-shelf kits from wherever you like, you may just have to adjust ratios a bit to get the right mix for what will fit in your keg. Typical home-brew kits can hold a lot more liquid than the iGulu F1 can, so you may need to be a bit precise in how you break down your measurements for the smaller capacity.

However, there's so many easy ways to figure that out it hardly seems like a burden. You can even tell ChatGPT what kit you've got, and what you need to fit it into, and it'll work out the quantities for you. I asked it to give me a recipe to make a mango cider, adjusted for the capacity of the iGulu F1, and it did so straight away. Can't wait to try that one!

Should you buy one? Would I?

Honestly, if you're into home brew, then yeah you probably should - the only qualm will be the slightly lower volume of beer/cider/whatever you get from each batch as opposed to what you can do with a bigger (manual) kit. However, if you're not a huge consumer and just want to make tasty things occasionally, then yeah, this will be right up your alley.

For me, I'm just not that big of a drinker. I'm not 100% sure I'd go and buy one for myself, just because I'm not sure I'd get the use out of it, nor the return on investment. Equally, in a relatively small apartment, I don't have room for unnecessary appliances, and one that I'd possibly only use infrequently at best... it's a bit tough.

However, if you like making crafty beers and ciders, especially if you've got a bit more room for a home brew setup, then really, you can't go wrong. Let me tell you, on a warm sunny day, the apple cider goes down a treat ;)

The iGulu F1 is on sale via JB HiFi (and other retailers) for a suggested price of $999.