New machine turns water into wine in three days(financialexpress.com)
financialexpress.com
New machine turns water into wine in three days
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/new-machine-turns-water-into-wine-in-three-days/1232309
23 comments
It's priced on value to user, not component cost.
Heh, for funs note how the circa 10 mg/L error bars drop off the free amino acid measurements in Table 3. Would've been embarrassing to have the effect barely bigger than the expected deviation...
On a marketing note: I get why they've chosen this name, but I think it's a bad idea. It raised all of my snake oil red flags initially.
I checked out the page and it does seem like a real project, and could be pretty cool. But I think attaching a hyperbolic "miracle" name to an otherwise interesting home winemaking device hurts their credibility.
I checked out the page and it does seem like a real project, and could be pretty cool. But I think attaching a hyperbolic "miracle" name to an otherwise interesting home winemaking device hurts their credibility.
I used to use old coke bottles, baby bottle sterilising tablets, cheap apple juice, bread yeast, granulated sugar, an electric blanket and a condom to brew cider when I was a kid.
Worked like a dream, until I got caught.
Didn't cost $500 either and took only a couple of days more...
Worked like a dream, until I got caught.
Didn't cost $500 either and took only a couple of days more...
"The fermentation chamber in the machine turns water, grape concentrate, yeast and a finishing powder into wine."
> The 'Miracle Machine' takes only three days and just a couple of dollars to make wine that would normally cost at least USD 20, its makers claim.
That sounds completely preposterous to me, unless wine is much more expensive in the US than it is here in France. Assuming that we are talking about the price of a single bottle of wine (which seems about right judging by the size of the device) 20$ would get you very high end wine. You can get good wine for a quarter of this price easily.
Brewing stuff at home is fun but this seems closer to kool aid than oenology. I'm not sure you would learn a great deal about wine making by using it. I'm not sure I see the appeal, unless as they seem to boast the wine ends up very good and much cheaper than simply buying it in a store.
That sounds completely preposterous to me, unless wine is much more expensive in the US than it is here in France. Assuming that we are talking about the price of a single bottle of wine (which seems about right judging by the size of the device) 20$ would get you very high end wine. You can get good wine for a quarter of this price easily.
Brewing stuff at home is fun but this seems closer to kool aid than oenology. I'm not sure you would learn a great deal about wine making by using it. I'm not sure I see the appeal, unless as they seem to boast the wine ends up very good and much cheaper than simply buying it in a store.
>That sounds completely preposterous to me, unless wine is much more expensive in the US than it is here in France.
It is. I'm used to similar pricing as you are being in Portugal, but in California 15-20$ is usually entry level pricing for good wine.
It is. I'm used to similar pricing as you are being in Portugal, but in California 15-20$ is usually entry level pricing for good wine.
Oh. That makes sense then, I suppose this machine might have a market in the USA if it makes proper wine.
How come wine is so expensive over there anyway? They produce some don't they?
How come wine is so expensive over there anyway? They produce some don't they?
There's very little culture of having table wine here in the US, and that allows pricing in the market to come a bit unhinged. And wine's heavy, and for most Americans it needs to be shipped in from far away. Even when it's domestic - I imagine the shipping cost to get a bottle of French wine to me is actually lower than the cost for a bottle of Californian.
Also, Carlo Rossi. I think a lot of us still haven't quite managed to banish the memory of that wine.
Also, Carlo Rossi. I think a lot of us still haven't quite managed to banish the memory of that wine.
California produces some but it's probably way too low of a volume to allow for the cheap prices wine countries are used to. In Portugal and I assume in France as well wine is made in pretty much all of the country. In the US there's a bit of California and not a lot more. Demand and supply does the rest.
In 2012, France produced 41.3 million hectoliters of wine, and the US produced 28.4 million hectoliters. 88 percent of US production was from California.
So it's true that US wine is primarily from California, and it's true that France produces significantly more. But it's also true that the US does produce quite a bit.
One might speculate that some of the price difference is due to the kind of market that evolves when, culturally, wine is not consumed as frequently as an everyday staple of the dinner table, but rather as something for special occasions.
References:
https://www.wineinstitute.org/resources/statistics/article83
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-27/french-bulk-wine-pr...
So it's true that US wine is primarily from California, and it's true that France produces significantly more. But it's also true that the US does produce quite a bit.
One might speculate that some of the price difference is due to the kind of market that evolves when, culturally, wine is not consumed as frequently as an everyday staple of the dinner table, but rather as something for special occasions.
References:
https://www.wineinstitute.org/resources/statistics/article83
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-27/french-bulk-wine-pr...
>So it's true that US wine is primarily from California, and it's true that France produces significantly more. But it's also true that the US does produce quite a bit.
By your numbers France produces 145% of what the US does while having 20% of the population. So per-capita it produces a lot more wine. On the other hand the French drink more wine. I found a table of consumption per capita[1] and looked up the populations of France and the USA on wolfram alpha. The end result is that France produces 142% of it's consumption, while the US produces 95% of its consumption.
So the French need to export their wine to find a market, and that's probably only easy for the high-end stuff. That should make entry-level but still good wine easy to buy. That's certainly our experience in Portugal as well. It's one of the barometers I use for the state of our wine industry. If I can still find good 2-5€ bottles of wine on the supermarket it means we're still not good enough at exporting it.
[1] http://www.wineinstitute.org/files/2010_Per_Capita_Wine_Cons...
By your numbers France produces 145% of what the US does while having 20% of the population. So per-capita it produces a lot more wine. On the other hand the French drink more wine. I found a table of consumption per capita[1] and looked up the populations of France and the USA on wolfram alpha. The end result is that France produces 142% of it's consumption, while the US produces 95% of its consumption.
So the French need to export their wine to find a market, and that's probably only easy for the high-end stuff. That should make entry-level but still good wine easy to buy. That's certainly our experience in Portugal as well. It's one of the barometers I use for the state of our wine industry. If I can still find good 2-5€ bottles of wine on the supermarket it means we're still not good enough at exporting it.
[1] http://www.wineinstitute.org/files/2010_Per_Capita_Wine_Cons...
I can't help but remember the story of the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
During their heyday, they made one of America's most popular beers. At the time there was a lot of interest in developing a faster fermentation process in an effort to make beer less expensive to produce. Schlitz got caught up in this - competition was fierce at the time - and ended up deciding to switch over to a continuous fermentation process and also started using extracts instead of more expensive traditional ingredients.
End result? The company was sunk within a decade. The new beer wasn't the same, and customers didn't like it. The flavor just wasn't there. That's really saying something when you're talking about an American-style adjunct lager, which isn't exactly the world's most full-flavored beer in the first place.
Which isn't to say that it's futile to try and come up with new processes for making fermented beverages. Companies like Miller and Anheuser-Busch have managed to figure out how to produce consistent, clean-tasting pale lagers in only a week or two where historically brewers would need to allow months of time for fermentation and cold conditioning. But they developed these processes incrementally. Attempts at radical, all-at-once re-envisioning of the processes for beer & winemaking seem to have a historical tendency to end up being radical failures.
During their heyday, they made one of America's most popular beers. At the time there was a lot of interest in developing a faster fermentation process in an effort to make beer less expensive to produce. Schlitz got caught up in this - competition was fierce at the time - and ended up deciding to switch over to a continuous fermentation process and also started using extracts instead of more expensive traditional ingredients.
End result? The company was sunk within a decade. The new beer wasn't the same, and customers didn't like it. The flavor just wasn't there. That's really saying something when you're talking about an American-style adjunct lager, which isn't exactly the world's most full-flavored beer in the first place.
Which isn't to say that it's futile to try and come up with new processes for making fermented beverages. Companies like Miller and Anheuser-Busch have managed to figure out how to produce consistent, clean-tasting pale lagers in only a week or two where historically brewers would need to allow months of time for fermentation and cold conditioning. But they developed these processes incrementally. Attempts at radical, all-at-once re-envisioning of the processes for beer & winemaking seem to have a historical tendency to end up being radical failures.
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I feel that using the term "wine" is misleading considering it is not made from fermented grapes. Not to mention that wine is one of those things that has a touchy-feely side and this system has none of the romance that many would argue helps define a good wine.
You can also take powders, process them and make yourself some nice cubic zirconia that looks a lot like diamond, but that doesn't change the fact that a diamond is a diamond and that shit you just made is not a diamond.
You can also take powders, process them and make yourself some nice cubic zirconia that looks a lot like diamond, but that doesn't change the fact that a diamond is a diamond and that shit you just made is not a diamond.
Not sure that's the best analogy. You can also take a bunch of starting material, process it, and make yourself an actual diamond.
So swap out synthetic diamond for cubic zirconia for the analogy. Synthetic diamond and geological diamond aren't priced so differently because of their chemical composition. The way they're made is an integral part of what defines them and how they're valued.
There is a reason a flawless 1 carat natural diamond might cost you somewhere around $18,000 and a flawless 1 carat synthetic diamond will cost you maybe $100-200. And you can't put either a synthetic diamond or cubic zirconia on a ring and market it as a diamond ring.
The point is, that a big part of what defines wine for me is the process of making it. The process is why some wines cost $200 a bottle and some cost $5. And that process which partly defines the wine is completely missing from this system. (Not to mention that the other part: fermented grape juice, is also completely missing from this system) So labeling the resultant wine flavored fermented kool-aid from this machine as "wine", seems wrong to me.
There is a reason a flawless 1 carat natural diamond might cost you somewhere around $18,000 and a flawless 1 carat synthetic diamond will cost you maybe $100-200. And you can't put either a synthetic diamond or cubic zirconia on a ring and market it as a diamond ring.
The point is, that a big part of what defines wine for me is the process of making it. The process is why some wines cost $200 a bottle and some cost $5. And that process which partly defines the wine is completely missing from this system. (Not to mention that the other part: fermented grape juice, is also completely missing from this system) So labeling the resultant wine flavored fermented kool-aid from this machine as "wine", seems wrong to me.
" There is a reason a flawless 1 carat natural diamond might cost you somewhere around $18,000 and a flawless 1 carat synthetic diamond will cost you maybe $100-200. "
That reason's quite probably "the deBeers marketing machine". The only difference between a synthetic diamond and an actual diamond is one's grown in a cleanroom and the other's dug out of the ground by exploited miners (and sometimes actual slaves).
That reason's quite probably "the deBeers marketing machine". The only difference between a synthetic diamond and an actual diamond is one's grown in a cleanroom and the other's dug out of the ground by exploited miners (and sometimes actual slaves).
"New machine turns ingredients of wine into wine."
Film at eleven.
Film at eleven.
Cool tech if it actually delivers on the promise, but I'm going to need more than just one of the founders word that the wine it produces is indistinguishable from that which costs $20 per bottle. The name they have chosen doesn't help, a miracle machine should do something like cure cancer, not get people drunk. Even something like 'Wine-o-matic 4000' would have gone down better with me.
Home wine-making kits have been around since forever. Example sites:
http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/wine_kits.html
http://www.homebrewusa.com/
I guess the main innovation is the sensors and the microcontroller? Is that new? It seems unlikely, but I'm not sure.
http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/wine_kits.html
http://www.homebrewusa.com/
I guess the main innovation is the sensors and the microcontroller? Is that new? It seems unlikely, but I'm not sure.
It's the convenience factor. Making good wine at home using traditional techniques requires a lot of skill and time. For some people that's fun, for others it isn't.
I think it's sort of like bread machines. There's definitely an allure to appliances that let you take most of the labor out of making things at home while still getting to call them homemade.
I think it's sort of like bread machines. There's definitely an allure to appliances that let you take most of the labor out of making things at home while still getting to call them homemade.
If you find any cost savings in this, I'm guessing you're an alcoholic and should probably avoid a make-it-at-home device.
I got excited because the title led me to think the machine somehow went directly from water to wine with no additional ingredients.
Where's the rest ? I mean the part containing the technical stuff, not the one saying "Miracle Machine".
A link to the actual site is more useful: http://themiraclemachine.net/
I'm wondering how hard it would be to reverse engineer this, reading the "we're keeping the exact science under wraps".
It's an "Arduino microcontroller" -I wonder who came up with this expression, since the Arduino is the board-.
How can someone customize it to make a different kind of liquor.. Or connect two of which functions are inverse: Water into wine, and then into water again..
It's an "Arduino microcontroller" -I wonder who came up with this expression, since the Arduino is the board-.
How can someone customize it to make a different kind of liquor.. Or connect two of which functions are inverse: Water into wine, and then into water again..
"Keeping the exact science under wraps" means "there is no science of note, we are charging a lot for household products".
A friend of mine used to brew beer, a lot of the recipe books were written by this guy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Line
I particularly remember a 7.3%ABV stout with strong overtones of "candied orange peel" among other things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Line
I particularly remember a 7.3%ABV stout with strong overtones of "candied orange peel" among other things.
I bet most of wine you can buy in Russia is made with a machine like that :facepalm:
Do you really need a machine to add yeast to grape juice and seal it up to ferment and make wine? I remember a kid doing this in my high school science class.
Impossible, water does not contain the type off chemical elements needed to make wine.
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Heck, I have a machine, quite inexpensive
that will turn nothing into some of the
world's best wine instantly! Don't have
to add water, grape concentrate, etc.
Instead, starting with a clean machine,
just add some really good wine!!!!!
[deleted]
Brilliant! So, you put in ingredients instead of pixie dust.
I currently make beer, but if I was going to make wine, I'd instead look at sourcing good quality grapes, and just fermenting reasonably cool in a fridge rigged up to a PID.
On the topic of artificially aging wine this article is rather fascinating http://people.math.aau.dk/~cornean/index.html/ACwine.pdf where they use HV AC to apparently decrease the harshness of un-aged wine. Additionally if you did want to age wine you can get small oak barrels from ebay relatively cheaply.