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PicoBrew<\/a> has been around for a while, making beer brewing easy, even for people who don\u2019t know the difference between hops<\/a> and hops<\/a>. The company\u2019s current Kickstarter campaign is for the Pico C<\/a>, a small home brewing appliance to make brewing even easier, using a Nespresso-style cartridge approach to making your own home brews. Today, the company announced a surprise upgrade option to its campaign \u2013 a whole new appliance. The PicoStill<\/a> is a small still to make hard liquor from the beer you made with the Pico C. I\u2019m not sure these type of surprises are a great idea.<\/p>\n On the topic of moonshine, I should point out that the company (wisely) doesn\u2019t suggest you go and brew your own gin right off the bat. \u201cPicoStill can be used to distill hop oil, water, and essential oils. Licensed and properly permitted craft distillers can also use the PicoStill to produce a wide range of alcohols, including vodka, whiskey, bourbon, moonshine, gin, brandies, schnapps and more.\u201d Can you hear the \u201cwink, wink, nudge, nudge\u201d in that sentence, right around where it says \u201clicenced and properly permitted craft distillers\u201d? Yeah, me too.<\/p>\n Anyway. As exciting as it is to spring a whole additional piece of kit on your backers, I\u2019m not going to lie: I really hope that this isn\u2019t the start of a trend. Hardware startups are hard (I should know\u2026<\/a>), and scaling hardware manufacturing is an art in itself. We\u2019ve seen many of the most popular hardware crowdfunding campaigns crumble under their own weight, (Ahem, we\u2019re looking at you, Coolest Cooler<\/a>) not least because they added layers and layers of complexity to a product as so-called \u201cstretch goals\u201d. Adding a whole new piece of equipment to the mix is\u00a0brave<\/em>, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong; PicoBrew is an excellent company, and they\u2019ve successfully delivered on promises in the past. There\u2019s nothing that makes me think that it\u00a0won\u2019t deliver this time, too. I further admit that a $479 brewing machine and still early bird kit is causing my finger to hover over the \u201cpledge now\u201d button. The thought of having a home brewery and still in my own\u00a0home is so unbearably cool that I barely know what to do myself. Of course, that\u2019s exactly what marketing is meant to do (It worked! Congratulations.)<\/p>\n Having said that: surprising backers with major changes half-way through a campaign makes it much harder to do due diligence. Whenever you back a campaign on any crowdfunding campaign, you should ask yourself \u201cDo the promises a company is making about a product make sense? Do I have faith in their ability to deliver?\u201d The answer to that question could change significantly if the campaign changes the goalposts half way through, and makes it much harder\u00a0to be a diligent crowdfunding backer.<\/p>\n PicoStill is available now to Kickstarter backers<\/a> for $170USD, or packaged with the Pico Model C for $499. It will retail for $349 when it hits stores later this fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/04\/pico_lifestyle-22inch-02.jpg?w=680\")
PicoBrew has been making beer brewing easy for a while. The company’s current Kickstarter campaign has been running for a couple of weeks. Today, the company announced a surprise upgrade option to its campaign – a whole new appliance. The PicoStill is a small still to make hard liquor from the beer you made with the PicoBrew C. I’m not sure these type of surprises are a… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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