Home beer brewing kits for Christmas | FOX31 Denver
Smappee (its a sort of an acronym for Smart App for Energy Efficiency) is a sensor that measures the total electrical power that your home draws from the grid. That's not unique, but Smappee's ability to uniquely identify each appliancelarge and smallis new. Smappee CEO and founder Stefan Grosjean says awareness leading to behavior change, plus the ability to remotely power devices off with Smappee Comfort Plugs, will reduce the typical consumers energy bill by 12 percentenough to pay for the device in about one year. Smappee says its sensor can identify a refrigerator's energy consumption discretely from that of a toaster. Youor an electrician, if you dont feel comfortable working inside your breaker boxclamp a pair of sensors to the main power lines coming from the grid into your circuit-breaker panel. (The clamps don't come in contact with the copper wires, reducing the risk of shock, but Smappee nonetheless recommends you hire a professional.) The sensors measure fluctuations in the magnetic field emanating from the electrons flowing through the cables and send the information to the Smappee box. The box uploads this data to the cloud via your Wi-Fi network, where Smappees servers analyze these patterns, disaggregating the data to identify the consumption signature for each device in your home. These results are then pushed to an app on your smartphone or tablet. Grosjean says Smappee can measure consumption down to a single watt, but its technology wont be able to uniquely identify a device consuming that little power. He also admitted that major applianceswashing machines, air conditioners, and refrigerators, for instancecan drown out lower-power devices. And while Smappee can identify electrical consumption from home lighting, it wont be able to tell you which light is powered on. We wont find everything, he said. Small devices can get masked, but we can produce detailed graphs of consumption down to about 40 watts. Were about 80 percent accurate. Smappee has also developed very low-cost plug-in modules that can be used to remotely power-off devices. One is included with the product, and you can buy three more for just $40. Thats considerably cheaper than Z-Wave, ZigBee, and Wi-Fi smart plugs. And because they operate on a very low frequency (43MHz) they should offer excellentrange. Consumers will be able to program the app to power-off devices automaticallywhen low energy consumption indicates the house is probably vacant, but someone forgot to turn off a lamp or TV. The Smappee app reports on each device's energy consumption throughout the day, week, month, and year. Smappee also supports IFTTT, Apples Homekit, and Googles Works with Nest protocol to make it easy to integrate with other smart-home devices. Grosjean described a scenario where you could write an IFTTT recipe that would turn the lights on in your bedroom when the morning coffee is ready (because the coffee makers energy consumption would drop off after it completes its brewing cycle). The company has also released an open API to encourage other manufacturers to tap into Smappees capabilities. If your home uses solar panels that are connected to your breaker panel, an additional sensor will report the energy those panels are generating, so that you can measure your homes net energy consumption (or production, as the case may be). Smappee is new to the North American market, but Grosjean says the concept was fine-tuned for more than a year in Belgium and the Netherlands before being rolled out to the rest of Europe. The Smappee app offers tips for reducing your homes energy consumption, and it uses gamification techniques to motivate energy conservation. The app will also support multiple sensors, so you can set one up in your primary home and a second in your vacation home, and track them both with the same app. The standard Smappee will be priced at $249, with the model capable of supporting solar panels selling for $349. Smappee is sending us an evaluation unit, so look for our hands-on review in the coming weeks.
Source http://www.pcworld.com/article/2857701/weird-name-cool-tool-smappee-monitors-and-reports-energy-consumption-for-each-of-your-homes-applian.html
Seattle company develops 'Keurig for beer' | Local & Regional | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News
Its a huge business and a huge hobby with thousands of people now brewing their own beer. And, all this week were offering advice on what to buy your guy for the holidays. If your man likes beer, a home brew kit could be the perfect gift. You probably think a home brewing kit is a major investment and all the equipment will take up a bunch of space. But now, more home brew supply shops are offering smaller brewing kits for people who just want to try it out casually. Brad Segall from brewing supply company Northern Brewer is here.
Source http://kdvr.com/2014/12/09/home-beer-brewing-kits-for-christmas/
Lots of opportunities to try Lost Forty Brewing for the first time | Eat Arkansas | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art
Home brew kits and home brew beer shops have been a staple for amateur brew masters, but there hasn't been an automated, high tech, one-button solution to create custom microbrews. PicoBrew in Seattle believe it's satisfied that desire for a Keurig for beer -- the home bread-maker for brews -- with the Zymatic, a $1,700 computerized beer making machine. "It's the world's first automatic beer brewing machine," said co-founder and ex-Microsoftie Bill Mitchell. Mitchell left the world of device development to chase his passion for home brewing. Along with his brother and a team of like-minded professionals, Michell wanted to keep the "craft" in craft brewing while embracing the power of the internet and eliminate the guess work associated with home brew systems. The result was the Zymatic. After a very successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $661,000, PicoBrew had the funds to create its dream and is now building Zymatic's at its Seattle production house near South Lake Union. Users create or borrow a recipe from the PicoBrew online library. Brew masters then fill a five gallon cornelius keg with water and attach the hoses from the keg posts to the Zymatic. Depending on the recipe, users add grain to the main compartment of the step filter and add hops into the appropriate hop cages inside the unit. The entire canister slides into the Zymatic and the brewing begins. The brewing takes about four hours, leaving the unfermented beer in the keg that originally held the water. Add the yeast, then after a week of fermentation you get beer ready to be carbonated for dispensing from the keg. National Home Brewer of the Year Annie Johnson was skeptical at first. "There was a picture of the founders and none of them have beer guts," said Johnson. But after she did some test brews, she says she was able to precisely control her recipes, easily modify the ingredients and temperature to fine tune the entire brew. She was so impressed, she joined PicoBrew as their Chief Brew master. It's not just home brewers who are interested. Fremont Brewing bought a Zymatic to test new recipes and potential hops for future brews. "We get a kind of an idea of what that beer will taste like without running a 1,000 gallon test patch," said Fremont Brewing Lab Manager Robert Fulwiler. The first 420 Zymatics, which are promised to contributors of the Kickstarter campaign, will begin receiving their units soon. There is a back order for $1,700 units, $1,800 for one that includes a cornelius keg. Now anyone can join the microbrew craze and become their own king of beers.
Source http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Seattle-company-develops-Keurig-for-beer-285309681.html
Blue Canoe Brewing opens | Eat Arkansas | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art
Meanwhile, the brewery and taproom are gearing up open their doors before Christmas. Here's the schedule of bars and restaurants where Lost Forty is hosting debut parties: Flying Saucer: 5:30-8:30 p.m., tonight, Dec. 10 Creegen's: 4-7 p.m., Dec. 11-13 Mellow Mushroom: 6-9 p.m., Dec. 16 Old Chicago in North Little Rock: 6-8 p.m., Dec. 30 There's also a pair of growler debut events: Colonial Wine & Spirits: noon-3 p.m., Dec. 13 Metro Wine & Spirits: 4-7 p.m., Dec. 17 At each stop, the brewery will have its winter seasonal, Forest King Stout; Bare Bones Pilsner, and Lost Forty Pale Ale. There'll likely be special, small batch experimental brews at each stop, too. Look for a Double IPA at Flying Saucer. Beer will start hitting taps at other restaurants and bars around town this weekend as well. Check here for updates.
Source http://www.arktimes.com/EatArkansas/archives/2014/12/10/lots-of-opportunities-to-try-lost-forty-brewing-for-the-first-time
Third St. in the River Market area, opened it's doors on Saturday. Passing the location many times over the last few months and peeking in the front window, I couldn't help but wonder what they could do with such a small place. I also hadn't gotten a chance to try any of their beer at the last couple of festivals they attended and had only heard quick opinions that varied greatly about what to expect.But my first visit shortly after the doors first opened on their first day left me excited to know that we've got another great addition to our beer scene in Little Rock. OwnersPatrick Cowan, his wife Ida and Laura Berryhill have created a place that will be on my list for a visit often, with a wonderful, quaint tap room and a nice variety of flavorful beers. They definitely did the most they could with such a small space that might seem tight when there are a whole lot of people in there as there were on opening weekend, but I'm sure when it settles down it'll actually be about right. It probably seats 20 or so with room for double that to stand I'd guess. Their use of tin and wood gave it a very comfortable feel aesthetically, like I was drinking in some little taproom back in the woods by a river full of canoes instead of a downtown metropolitan area. It's an escape as soon as you walk in the door. Additionally, the owners added to the comfort level with friendly service, even as swamped as they were on day one. click to enlarge I tried The Whittler milk stout, a seasonal spiced pumpkin ale called Pumpkinetic, Whoo Brew Belgian Saison and my personal favorite of the four, a rye IPA called Razorback RyePA. They had eight beers available, all their own, on tap and it sounds like that's about what you can expect year-round. Half of those will be "regulars" and the other half rotating throughout the seasons. There are a lot of variety in the beers so there are plenty of reasons to keep coming back, which I will be. I'd just like to add how much I love our local beer scene as at one point I was hanging around the back of room just taking it all in and sipping on my beer while noticing there were owners of Rebel Kettle, Leap of Faith and Stone's Throw Brewing all in there at the same time, showing support and checking things out while spending money. It's such a great brotherhood and support group our brewers seem to have here in the state and I hope that keeps going. A brewery like this has it's own niche. They're not going to be selling their beer in California or New York anytime soon, nor are they trying to, but they're our own little gem which you can only get right here in LittleRock. Stop by and see for yourself with a pint at the bar or fill a growler to take home.
Source http://www.arktimes.com/EatArkansas/archives/2014/12/10/blue-canoe-brewing-opens
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