Homebrew Wanker™! Review of the Pinter fresh brewing kit
By @edent
· beer gadget review · 20 comments · 1,150 words · read ~14,658 times.
Do you like beer? Do you like cider? Would you like to brew your own? Would you like a frustrating experience? Well, gang, do I have a treat for you!
This is the Pinter from the Greater Good Fresh Brewing Company. It promises to introduce you to the wonderful world of beer and cider brewing. It is only mildly annoying to use.
First up, cost. £75. That's a chunk of change - but it comes with two different brews, each good for 10 pints. That works out at £3.75 per pint - which isn't too shabby. Subsequent kits are £13 each, which is £1.30 per pint. Or you can subscribe to a monthly pack for £12 each.
Each pack comes with a large plastic bottle of pre-mixed beer concentrate. You also get a vial of sterilising crystals for cleaning the unit before brewing, and a small pack of yeast.
The kit comes beautifully packaged. Despite being a somewhat industrial bit of kit, they know that it has to fit in to a home.
It's even available in a choice of colour to match your décor. Nice. 
The unit itself mostly feels pretty sturdy. There are a few scribbles of leftover plastic which you might want to gently remove. My unit came with a few scuffs on the plastic. 
Some of the instructions are printed directly onto the unit - which is helpful - but the print quality isn't great, and looks like it will wear off with a bit of washing.
Others are on temporary stickers. I'm not really sure why. They're useful pointers and probably ought to be permanently attached.
The stickers are easy to peel off - which rather raises the question of why they're there.
All the parts are fairly stiff when trying to remove them, so it is worth following the instructional videos before you make anything. That'll get you used to how to manipulate everything.
A couple of things come to light when you do a practice run. The handle is quite a ridiculously tight fit. It is impossible to use it without scraped knuckles. Similarly, some of plastic feels a little fragile - don't apply too much force.
The Process
The first run is incredibly frustrating. I spent an evening wrestling with the kit trying to assemble it before I found a YouTube tutorial and found out the supplied instructions were wrong!
In order to fit the brewing dock, you must invert the Pinter. I found it impossible to screw the dock on to the Pinter - I ended up cutting my knuckles and chipping the fragile plastic.
Place the dock on a flat surface, lift up the Pinter, align it, and twist. Very annoying.
To their credit, the supplier did ship me out a replacement part - and a free brew - to apologise.
Once that's done it's a pretty passive process. Leave it somewhere stable for a week. Then remove a part to clean out the used up yeast.
Ew!
Then stick it in your fridge for a couple of days.
The Taste Test
I started with the "Lockwood Pilsner". It came out extremely fizzy and thickly yellow - with a fair amount of sediment at the bottom.
Replying to @edentWell, it is fizzy and the right sort of colour... pic.x.com/O1frI8cxM8
Replying to @edentFirst pints are *very* thick, almost opaque, with a fair bit of sediment.
But it tastes… like a reasonable lager.
Light, fizzy, no obvious aftertaste. pic.x.com/TiPAsS6HQt
And it tasted... fine. A clear, crisp taste. No overpowering flavours or surprises. If you had it at a beer festival, you would score it as a perfectly average beer. I don't know how alcoholic it was - there's no measurement device included with the kit. But a couple of pints didn't leave me noticeably impaired.
You can view other people's review of the beer quality on Untappd.
After a few more days in the fridge, the clarity had improved. The taste become much more interesting and "crafty".
Can I make other beers in it?
Their FAQ is pretty clear that they only support their own proprietary blend of liquids and yeasts. But this isn't some horrific espresso machine which only works with the manufacturer's pods. It's a big ol' barrel and valve - no mechanical or moving parts. So it will probably work.
Verdict
It is hard for me to recommend this. It is very much a prototype product and, as a beta test, it is OK. It is fiddly to use, with confusing instructions. The plastic parts feel very fragile at times. A bunch of the little rubber feet have already fallen off. It would be helpful to have a transparent window on the barrel to see how much is left in there.
In order to get all the beer out, you need to tip up the barrel - I can't help wondering why it isn't designed with a built-in slope.
At this sort of price, I expected something a little more high tech. Perhaps a little Arduino to display the alcohol level, or to show the ideal temperature.
It can be quite messy to use. So be prepared for a fair bit of washing and scrubbing.
The beer is pretty good, and there's a certain sense of accomplishment from (mostly) brewing it yourself. I say "mostly" because all you're doing is mixing pre-made ingredients and waiting. There aren't any choices or decisions to make. With all that said, it works. Mixing yeast with a sugary solution and water produces fizzy alcohol.
But you end up with an entire shelf of your fridge taken up for as long as it takes you to get through 10 pints of beer. And that's a bit of a pain unless you have a spare fridge. I ended up bottling as much of it as I could. 
And, that's the main problem. You end up with the barrel dominating your fridge for around a week - a few days for conditioning and a few days for drinking. Depending on your lifestyle, that's a big commitment.
If you value small batch, interesting beer - I recommend you spend the money at your local brewery and get a selection of bottles. Store them in your cupboard and chill them whenever you want.
I'm going to try a couple of the other brews - cider is up next - but I think this might be one of those kitchen gadgets which comes out once or twice per year.
Update for 2022
I got rid of the Pinter. Too much of a faff to use, poor quality materials, and a decidedly average drink from it. Review dropped to 2 stars.
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I bought one after seeing your original post, an had the same problem screwing the dock on. The thing that worked for was to place the whole unit on the floor and use my weight to keep push the dock down while twisting. Not easy, and I'm still not sure it's on properly.
T says:
Put dock in sink, turn Pinter over and on top, twists on with ease 🙂
Les Stanley says:
Same problem on my first attemp, so phoned the company and they suggested the dock in the sink method, "Works a Treat"
S Carter says:
Thank you - top tip as we couldn’t get the dock on at all- thanks for this- it worked
Gavin says:
I came to the same conclusion, £75 worse off latter and not many "decent" pints out of the 20 two packs should've gave. I had the same as you, mega fizzy to start, makes a huge mess of the fridge, doesn't really taste alcoholic or get me even tipsy after 3-4 pints (one and half pint at weatherspoons normally does me!), first few pints fizzy, last few pints look and taste of yeast, so get a couple of decent tasting possibly low-achololic pints per pack. Mine's getting packed back away into my garage or shed somewhere now.
And I think you were VERY generous to give a 3 star 😉
Les Stanley says:
To prevent too much Fizzzz i found that releasing the carbonation valve very very slowly, then when you hear the first sign of air stop and let it slowly release. this works for me, i still get a good head on my beer, but its a lot less fizzy.
Billy Forbes says:
Now redecorating my hall ceiling. I’ve had three brews leak . Just chucked one Pinter in the the wheelie in still 3/4 full . I’ve got the second one brewing in a big bucket, hopefully this one will stay sealed. One bottle of brew to do after this one then l’m out. Concept and brews are a great idea. Equipment is badly made and unreliable Pity because l’ve enjoyed it when it worked.
Martin Turland says:
I did two brews out of my unit got about 9pints out of it not great beer bit cloudy not like the pics they show tap does not work so i not bothered brewing anymore with this kit going back to my 5 gallon beer barrel
trip to the tip next week
Julian Spacie says:
I’ve owned 2 for about 3 months this product is shocking poor build quality all the same problems as in other comments. Such a shame a great idea it simply just doesn’t work. Maybe mk2 will be better!?
Dan says:
Those of you smug enough to suggest you can secure the Dock with ease should count yourselves lucky that you got one of the few products that aren't defective. I've made 3-4 brews but have always had horrendous issues screwing lid and attaching the Dock. It doesn't matter if you put it in a sink or on the floor-the handle of the lid does not fold effectively into the space provided. This makes attaching the Dock a lottery and likely a lot of stress and exertion in the process. The beers themselves are really nice which is the only reason I have persevered to date. But I don't need the stress of this after a busy days work and won't be giving it the time of day anymore
@edent says:
Yup, I'm much the same. The last brew I made, the dock didn't go on at all. The cider came out fine - although a little hazy, so I filtered it before drinking.
But, yeah, it really is a fiddly and annoying process.
John Tiplady says:
Hmmm! I was beginning to think it was all my fault till I read these reviews. One of my barrels developed a crack and leaked in the bedroom. All brownie points cancelled. They exchanged it promptly but had me faffing with photos. The Pinter 2 looks ok but I' m not going to fund any more unproven projects. I've had some good(space hopper) and some duff(cider) brews and find even Wilko's kits work. I'm sad that the Pinter has not been as good as the slick advertising led me to expect. Oh well,back to tried and trusted methods. Best wishes to all, Jon
Tom Laycock says:
Great product when it works but unfortunately it doesn't work for long before breaking and becoming unusable. After six months use mine developed a fault which Pinter agreed to send parts out to resolve the issue. I was originally told these would be with me in a few days and that was nearly six weeks ago. Every time I have contacted their customer service team I speak to a very polite and cheerful member of staff who apologises and tells me it will be dispatched and I will get the parts in a few days. I have now waited so long the two brew pack that I wanted have for Christmas are reaching their use by date and I still have no idea if I will every get the parts. They have refused to replace the Pinter or give me a refund so I have £80 of plastic sitting in my kitchen and £30 of beer in my fridge I cant use,
Daran Devine says:
Word of warning if buying online with a gift voucher, you may not get the full value of your voucher. The website is not clear that, when placing an order for new Pinter, with a gift voucher, if you choose the subscription offer & set up direct debit for monthly subscription, you are unable to use the full gift voucher amount. Using a voucher I was given for a present for £169, I lost £20 of the voucher because my basket came to £149, I was unable to add any further items to make up to the voucher amount because I chose the subscription package. Despite many emails and complaints they have refused to refund citing Ts&Cs. Pretty poor customer service imo. I have cancelled my subscription and won’t be using them again.
Luke Phillips says:
I've never done done homebrew before in any form, this is my first attempt as a complete novice.
I've had a few times when the dock hasn't gone on easily but I haven't had anything like the experience of the reviewer and commenters. I've probably done 12 or so brews now, one failed which may have been ambient conditions but the firm sent me another brew pack.
I ordered a second unit where the dock seemed a bit too stiff but the company swapped it out within a couple of days.
No leaks, no broken parts, just an occasional swear word if the dock doesn't go on or off first time or I get the carbonation wrong and things are a bit lively when the dock comes off.
£75 with two brew packs was an absolute steal at the time for the kit, asking for arduino kit included given the price seems a bit unrealistic. New unit was too expensive for me but as long as they honour the £12 brew pack price I'll continue to be a very impressed customer.
I have no affiliation with the company whatsoever, just a happy punter.
Paul M says:
Well - I'm on my 3rd Pinter now, first one leaked all over the floor and carpet, second one fizzed out of the carbonate dial after being in the fridge conditioning. Hopefully this one will give me my first brew. One issue that I have had with all of them is getting the brew dock to fit, I had to sit on it this time to get it to turn.. Pinter team pretty good at emailing and replacing defective Pinters, took a while but got it eventually with a couple of presses for the inconvenience.
Steven scurr says:
Dock broke trying to put it on no joy from Pinter to buy a new dock was told to go to eBay two kits in fridge waiting to brew what a waste of money Pinter going in bin
Graham Robb says:
I'm on my 6th brew now. No serious mechanical issues. All brews have been over-frothy. After the first, I stopped using the fridge, as I don't want cold beer and it takes up a lot of fridge-space. Did not seem to make a difference to the froth. It's as if the carbonation dial is not analogue. It opens below 0.5 and anything above that is fully closed. (all beers tried have 'carbonation setting 2'). Beers: Uplands Social is the nicest so far, if too sweet for a real IPA. Space Hopper was horribly sweet - not really a beer at all !. Public House and 4-seasons IPA very fruity - again a bit sweet. None like a decent pub IPA yet however and all frothy to be unservable in a pub.
Chas says:
Guys I had the same problem.2 printers sent back.got a refund.waste of time.ps could you brew this in a demijohn.
LostShepherd says:
I had three of the original pinters I found it a good system, yes the build quality was suspect but they quickly replaced any faulty parts and between the three I found the bits that matched well.
My main reason for selling it on was that it was a lot of work for 10 pints I would prefer to invest more time but have a proper system and get higher batches to ultimately reduce the number of brews like maybe brew only once a month or every 6 weeks.
It wasn’t all negative though I liked getting to try the different types and generally I got a good brew, don’t think any failed on me, plus the packaging and customer service were amazing. Just too frequent a brew cycle for me.