Our hands-on review of the iGulu F1, an automated appliance that ferments, carbonates and dispenses small batches of beer from a single unit.
Introduction
iGulu contacted us and asked whether we’d be interested in reviewing the F1, an all-in-one brewing appliance that manages fermentation, temperature control, carbonation and dispensing. They supplied the unit featured in this review, along with several beer kits for us to try. iGulu had no editorial control over this review, and the opinions and conclusions below are entirely our own.
What Is the iGulu Smart Beer Home Brew Appliance?
Before we get too deep into the specifications, features and our experience using the iGulu F1, let’s first explain exactly what the machine does.
The iGulu F1 is an all-in-one homebrewing appliance built around a 5L keg with a recommended usable brewing capacity of 3.8L. The keg is filled with unfermented beer, known as wort, before yeast is added to begin fermentation.
One of the most important factors during fermentation is temperature control. Yeast generates heat as it ferments, which can cause the temperature of the wort to rise. If the wort exceeds the yeast’s ideal temperature range, undesirable off-flavours can develop in the finished beer.
The iGulu takes care of all the temperature control, offering heating and cooling to automatically keep the fermentation temperature under control - operating as a set-and-forget style system.
Simply add all the ingredients of your recipe kit to the keg, leave it for 10 days or so (the time required can vary between different beer styles) and once completed you'll have ready-to-drink beer.
Furthermore, the iGulu takes care of the dispensing side of things as well, so once your beer is ready you can simply pull the tap and start pouring pints of freshly brewed beer.
The idea is great and makes the art of brewing beer accessible to just about anyone as it lowers the barrier to entry significantly compared to other entry-level options.
There are some caveats to this though, but we're all for anything that helps drive new people into the greatest hobby in the world - homebrewing, so read on to find out everything you need to know about the iGulu F1 Smart Beer Home Brew Appliance.
Packaging
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| The iGulu F1 arrived inside a large cardboard shipping box, accompanied by three recipe kits. |
Our iGulu arrived well packaged in a single box (as pictured) along with a separate satchel with three recipe kits (Mosaic Pale Ale, Double West Coast IPA and Stout).
After opening the first (brown) box, we encountered a second (white) box inside which had the iGulu and all accessories/parts inside. It was all well packaged neatly with individual parts wrapped in plastic and plenty of foam protection to keep everything damage-free in transit.
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| The appliance and its accessories were securely protected by an inner box, plastic wrapping and foam inserts. |
Getting the iGulu out of the box was slightly challenging because there are no built-in handles for lifting it. We eventually managed to slide our hands underneath the unit and get enough grip to carefully lift it out.
It's worth mentioning that using the support ring for the CO2 cylinder on the rear of the unit as a handle is not recommended and would likely snap off if you did so.
What's Included
The iGulu F1 comes with all the following parts included;
- iGulu F1 main unit/body
- Drip Tray
- Power cable
- Mini Keg including dip tube and gas/liquid posts
- Liquid and gas connectors
- Power supply
- Tap handle
- Instructions
- Keg opening tool
- AT Keg Dispensing Coupler
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| The F1 includes the mini keg, dispensing connections, drip tray, tap handle, power supply and keg-opening tool. |
One important item not included with the F1 is a carbon dioxide (CO₂) cylinder, which we strongly recommend purchasing. The machine is compatible with standard screw-in SodaStream cylinders, which are widely available and easy to replace.
Assembly
The iGulu arrives almost fully assembled. Initial setup consists of attaching the metal tap handle, removing the packaging from the mini keg and connecting the power cable.
Parts Breakdown
Let's go through all the parts/features of the iGulu F1 to get a better understanding of the components and how it all works together.
Main Unit
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| The F1 has a polished, futuristic design that would not look out of place on a kitchen bench or home bar. |
The iGulu F1 looks surprisingly polished, with a futuristic design that gives off some definite droid vibes. Its appearance matters because, unlike most fermenters and homebrew equipment, the F1 is designed to remain visible inside the home. Overall, we think it looks good and would not appear out of place on a kitchen bench or home bar.
It's got a reasonable footprint, with dimensions of 332 x 455 x 518mm and weighs about 11.3kgs (25 lbs), so it's not exactly small, or light, but can be maneuvered easily enough.
(No) Handles
Our biggest physical-design complaint is the lack of proper handles for lifting the unit safely. The black plastic body does offer enough grip to lift it (if the surface and your hands are dry), but with a "dry" weight of 11.3kg (closer to 15kg if the keg is full), some care and effort needs to be taken when moving it around.
On the flip side, we do understand that the inclusion of some handles may detract from the overall impact and sleekness of the design, so perhaps a case of form over function here.
Lid
The lid sits loosely on top of the unit with no hinge, clip or clamp to hold it in place. This makes removing the lid quick and easy, and does have a handle built into it.
Gas Connection
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| A standard screw-in SodaStream CO₂ cylinder can be attached to the regulator at the rear of the machine. |
As we touched on above, the iGulu F1 allows for a sodastream gas cylinder to be connected which can be used after fermentation for carbonation and dispensing of the finished beer.
Using a CO₂ cylinder is optional, as the F1 also includes a built-in air pump for dispensing. The pump may be suitable if you intend to finish the keg quickly, but introducing atmospheric air will accelerate oxidation and reduce the beer’s shelf life. We therefore recommend using a CO₂ cylinder if the keg will be consumed over multiple sessions.
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| The rear assembly includes the cylinder regulator, pressure gauge, on/off control and a ring that supports the cylinder. |
We opted to use a CO₂ cylinder and purchased a compatible SodaStream cylinder, which screwed directly onto the pressure regulator at the rear of the machine. An on/off switch is located underneath the regulator, while a small gauge displays the cylinder pressure. A support ring built into the rear of the F1 helps hold the cylinder upright.
Integrating with soda stream style cylinders is a clever design choice as they are widely available and easy to find.
LCD Touchscreen
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| The small circular touchscreen provides access to the F1’s settings, brewing profiles and operating information. |
On the front of the iGulu F1 there is a circular colour LCD which is the primary interface for interacting and controlling the machine.
Although quite small, it's fairly easy to read with vibrant colours and a decent enough resolution to support the relatively small text. The touchscreen navigation is intuitive as well, using swipe gestures to move between screens which is second nature to most people now based on their mobile phone usage and experience.
The size is a good design choice in our opinion - any smaller and it would be difficult to read/use and any larger and it would potentially detract from the overall sleek styling of the machine.
RFID Reader
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| Each iGulu recipe kit includes an RFID tag that automatically loads its preset fermentation program. |
A built-in RFID reader is used to load the preset fermentation profile supplied with each iGulu beer kit. We initially thought this feature might be a gimmick, but it makes starting a new batch remarkably quick and removes the need to configure the fermentation program manually.
LED Light Strip
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| The vertical LED strip changes colour to indicate the appliance’s current operating state. |
A major aesthetic feature of the iGulu F1 is the LED light strip. It glows different colours depending on what the iGulu is doing;
- Orange: Fermenting
- Green: Cooling/Dispensing
- White: Standby
- Lightless: Turned Off
Drip Tray
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| The removable rubber drip tray catches residual beer from the tap and can be easily wiped clean. |
The rubber drip tray is a nice inclusion and catches any drips from the tap that inevitably happen after pouring. The rubber can be quickly and easily wiped clean and matches the aesthetic of the iGulu nicely.
Mini Keg
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| The included keg has a total capacity of approximately 5 L and a recommended brewing volume of 3.8 L. |
The included mini keg has a few unique and interesting features to it.
Capacity
The mini keg has a total volume of around 5L, but a usable volume of only 3.8L (1 US Gallon). The extra headspace is needed during fermentation to allow for krausen, the foam that yeast creates on top of the fermenting beer/wort during fermentation. Filling it any higher than this will more than likely lead to an overflow of beer out of the beer or gas lines connected to the keg which could potentially damage the gas regulator and lead to quite a mess to clean up.
Lid and Clamp
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| The tightly fitted lid uses an O-ring and external clamp to maintain a secure seal while the keg is under pressure. |
The lid fits snugly into the keg opening and uses an O-ring to create an airtight seal. In fact, “snugly” may be an understatement, as removing the lid can be quite challenging. iGulu appears to have anticipated this and includes a plastic tool specifically designed to help pry it free.
This snug fit is ultimately a good thing though. As we'll discuss more indepth later on, we'll be dealing with reasonable amounts of pressure throughout fermentation and serving so it's critical that the keg is leak free. We'd rather it be very tight than even a little bit loose.
The clamp is another good feature and ultimately acts as a safety net to ensure the lid stays in place and doesnt blow off when the keg is under pressure. The operation here is quite good - it's easy to wrap around the keg lid and secure in place with the built in clip.
Gas and Liquid Connections
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| Separate gas and liquid fittings prevent the two lines from being accidentally connected to the wrong keg posts. |
This is one of the more interesting design choices on the iGulu F1. The keg features iGulu-specific proprietary connections for the gas and liquid to the keg - as opposed to the standard ball-lock connections seen pretty much exclusively across all other homebrewing equipment and keg dispensing systems.
The connections appear to be quite good though, and click into place and feature small 'buttons' that can be depressed to allow for disconnection.
There are also different connection types for gas and liquid (male/female) to ensure the connections don't get switched around or put onto the keg incorrectly - very important to ensure you don't end up with beer in your gas line.
Dip Tube
Gas Cylinder & Regulator
Standard screw-in SodaStream cylinders are compatible with the iGulu F1 and are recommended for carbonating and dispensing the finished beer. They attach directly to the regulator on the rear of the unit and can be readily exchanged when empty.
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| The regulator is compatible with widely available blue screw-in SodaStream CO₂ cylinders. |
The regulator that the cylinder attaches to features a single on/off switch located underneath to control the gas operation, and there's also a pressure gauge to show the high pressure reading directly from the bottle which can give an indication of when the bottle is nearly empty.
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| A small rear-mounted gauge provides an indication of the remaining CO₂ cylinder pressure. |
This gauge is tiny though and depending on how your iGulu is oriented may not be particularly easy to access without having to spin the entire unit around.
The actual gas pressure that's used by the iGulu for carbonating and dispensing is electronically controlled and automatically set based on the beer kit you've selected. There doesn't appear to be a way to adjust this or override it manually though.
Our First Beer Kit - Mosaic Pale Ale
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| The Mosaic Pale Ale kit contains the pre-measured ingredients needed to produce one 3.8 L batch. |
It's been a while since we've made an extract-based beer, so we were very keen to see how the iGulu beer kits actually taste. What's particularly interesting about these is that rather than mixing and boiling and adding hop pellets, we're simply mixing and adding hop extract to give the bittering and hop aromas/flavours - not something we've used or experienced before.
Making The Kit
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| Preparing the recipe kit involves adding its pre-measured ingredients and water directly to the sanitised keg. |
The instructions for putting the kit together are fairly straight forward and are printed on the back of the packet.
Cleaning & Sanitising
We start out by making sure the fermenter is clean and sanitised. We did a simple wash of the keg with some sodium percarbonate based powdered brewery wash (PBW) followed by some phosphoric acid based no-rinse sanitiser (StarSan equivalent). We already have these on-hand as we use them regularly for cleaning our other brewing equipment, but any newcomers who have just purchased the F1 probably won't have these things just lying around.
We’d like to see iGulu include small sachets of cleaner and sanitiser to help first-time brewers get started. Cleaning and sanitation are essential to successful homebrewing, and losing an early batch to infection could easily discourage a newcomer from brewing again.
Hop Extracts
The hop extracts are to be added next which is as easy as tearing the corner off the small sachets and pouring them into the keg.
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| Hop extract is added directly to the keg to provide the bitterness, flavour and aroma for the Pale Ale. |
Next we mix in the dry malt extract and sugar. Since we're using cold/room temperature water (as per the instructions), it doesn't mix in particularly well and clumps quite a bit. We went off script a little here and put the lid on the keg and gave it a good shake to help mix it all in, and as an added bonus probably introduced some oxygen to the wort as well which is good for initial yeast health.
Dry Yeast
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| A measured sachet of dry yeast is supplied with the kit and sprinkled onto the prepared wort. |
Lastly, the dry yeast is sprinkled on top before the keg lid is put in place and clamped shut before the keg is placed into the iGulu F1.
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| Once the ingredients and yeast have been added, the keg is sealed, clamped and placed inside the F1. |
(No) Dry Hopping
The iGulu F1 is not conducive to allowing dry hopping - where hops are added during or after fermentation to extract the pleasant, fruity flavours from them - which is a draw back and a positive depending on how you look at it. Any time you open the fermenter (or in this case, keg) after fermentation there's a risk of oxygen ingress and associated oxidation and staling of the finished beer, so not needing to do this is beneficial in this regard. However, are we sacrificing hop flavour by only adding hop extracts prior to fermentation?
RFID Tag
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| Scanning the included RFID tag allows the F1 to recognise the recipe and load its fermentation schedule. |
After putting the keg back into the F1 and closing the lid, we then held the included RFID next to the reader. The F1 immediately recognised the kit and displayed it on the LED screen and after pressing Next, we were shown the preset fermentation schedule. We then pressed the brew button and the LED strip turned orange and showed the fermentation program was now underway.
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| After recognising the RFID tag, the F1 displays the selected recipe and its preset fermentation program. |
We must admit - this was a pretty clever, seamless and easy process making it pretty much fool-proof and taking all the guess work out of having to manually select or configure a fermentation profile. The set and forget style programming here is perfect for beginner homebrewers who just want to get their beer fermented without too much guess work getting in the way.
Fermentation
Beer Kit Summary/Thoughts
All up including cleaning and prep we probably spent about 20-30 minutes making the kit, but once you've done this a couple of times it could probably be done in as little as 10 minutes, which is significantly faster than other extract brewing methods where the wort is boiled, and hop pellets are added at different times to extract bitterness and other flavours.
At this stage, our main question was how much hop flavour and aroma would remain in the finished beer. Hop aroma can be stripped during active fermentation as CO₂ escapes from the wort, which was a particular concern given that all the hop extract was added before fermentation.
Other Available iGulu Brew Kits
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iGulu offers recipe kits covering a range of styles, including ales, lagers, stout, cider and mead. |
As at the time of publishing this article, the following brew kits are also available for the iGulu F1;
- British Pub Bitter
- Goslar Sea Salt Gose
- Dragon Eye Mead
- Citra West Coast Double IPA
- Pale Ale
- Apple Hard Cider
- Irish Stout
- Bavarian Hefeweizen
- German Pilsner
- Amber Lager
- Traditional Amber Ale
- German Helles
- English Porter
Operation
Heating/Cooling
The unit features heating and cooling capacity, meaning no matter where your iGulu F1 is located, it should be able to reach and maintain the desired temperature for your fermentation (or serving). The stated temperature range for the iGulu is 2°C - 40°C.
For our first batch, we had the iGulu located in our garage, in winter which overnight sees temperatures dip down into the low single digits (°C). We'd walk past the F1 several times a day and never noticed it more than 1°C outside of the target temperature range, so it does do a good job at maintaining it's target temperature.
Noise
The associated noise from the iGulu is minimal at best and we don't anticipate would cause any distraction or disturbance no matter where you had it located in your house. Of course it makes some noise when the unit is actively cooling, but small bar fridges would emit more noise than the F1 does.
Pressure Fermentation
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| The F1 monitors the fermentation temperature, pressure and program progress throughout the brewing cycle. |
The iGulu leverages the benefits of pressure fermentation, meaning that pressure is maintained in the headspace of the keg during active fermentation. We must admit we were a little surprised at just how much pressure was retained - with the display hovering around 20psi, which is relatively high in our opinion.
Pressure fermentation does offer some advantages though. The pressure in the headspace forces more of the CO2 created by yeast during fermentation to remain in solution - which gives a headstart on carbonation, can help to suppress certain off flavours from being developed and also prevent oxygen ingress into the keg.
The trade-off is that fermenting under pressure can suppress some yeast-derived characteristics, including esters. Whether that is desirable depends on the beer style and the intended flavour profile.
Maintaining approximately 20 psi during active fermentation therefore seems like an aggressive choice, particularly when the F1 already provides tightly controlled fermentation temperatures. Because the pressure is selected automatically and cannot appear to be manually overridden, experienced brewers have limited control over this aspect of the fermentation profile.
Dispensing
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| The Mosaic Pale Ale in the glass |
Dispensing Crash Course
Dispensing is one of the hardest things to get right with any draught-style dispensing system. When dispensing beer in particular things get quite tricky as not having things setup correctly, or not using the correct technique can lead to glasses of nothing but foam, or flat, lifeless beer with no head.
We don't want to get too scientific but it's worth giving a very brief overview of some basic fluid dynamics to understand the concept of dispensing correctly.
Our beer is stored in the keg with CO2 pressure applied in the headspace of the keg. Some of this CO2 is dissolved into the beer which creates the carbonation. How much is absorbed can be calculated by the pressure applied to the keg and temperature at which the beer is sitting. The guess work is taken out of the equation here because the iGulu F1 controls this automatically, but for our Mosaic Pale Ale beer kit, it looks like we're dispensing at 2°C with around 9psi of pressure.
When we open the tap to let beer flow out of the keg and into the glass, it moves quite rapidly - and when it moves too quickly and the temperature changes (ie. it warms up), CO2 comes out of solution which causes foaming to occur. A little bit of foam is good, but too much is definitely not good, and finding the balance here is tricky to say the least.
The best way to address foaming is to introduce resistance into the beer flowing out of the keg. This is typically done by decreasing the diameter of the line the beer travels through and increasing the length of this line.
Beer Dispensing on the iGulu F1
On the iGulu, the diameter of the beer line is already very small which is good, however the length of the line is quite short. The instructions state you can also use the clamp on the beer line to help restrict the flow.
Without using the clamp on the beer line, after fully opening the tap to begin dispensing, the beer flows out in what could only be described as a jet, smashing into the glass and leading to nothing but foam so we wouldn't recommend pouring it this way.
We mitigated this somewhat by only opening the tap the smallest amount possible to get nothing more than a trickle coming out of the tap which helped to minimise foam, but lead to an excessive amount of time being required to fill a glass.
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| Using the included clamp on the beer line to restrict beer flow helps reduce foaming |
Following the iGulu instructions, we tightened the clamp on the beer line to reduce the flow rate, which produced a significantly better result. The clamp has multiple teeth that provide progressively stronger restriction, and moving it by just one tooth made a noticeable difference. We quickly found a suitable setting that allowed us to fully open the tap and pour a steady stream of beer with minimal foaming.
Beer Kit Tasting/Review
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| The Mosaic Pale Ale initially poured quite foamy until we adjusted the beer line clamp |
Probably one of the most burning questions from anyone considering buying the iGulu F1 is what do the beer kits taste like? Are they as good as the craft beer I can buy at my local bar/pub? Or do they just taste like "homebrew"?
We can definitively say that the Mosaic Pale Ale avoided the obvious fermentation faults often associated with poorly controlled beginner brews. We started homebrewing with extract kits ourselves and were frequently underwhelmed by the results, but the F1’s built-in heating and cooling removes one of the major variables that can undermine an otherwise sound recipe: fermentation temperature.
Does it taste good? In a word, yes. Does it taste as good as premium craft beer that you can buy at your local bar or pub? Probably not.
All the hallmarks of a good beer are present. The Pale Ale initially appeared slightly cloudy but cleared remarkably well after a few weeks in the keg. It developed an appealing amber colour and a persistent white, frothy head once we had the dispensing setup properly adjusted.
The malt flavour is there, the bitterness is there as well as some hop aroma and flavour, but in our opinion it just tastes a little artificial - and we're likening this to using hop extracts instead of whole hop pellets. There just doesn't seem to be the same complexity and flavour profile that you get in a beer made with regular hops.
Hops contain a complex range of compounds that contribute bitterness, flavour and aroma to finished beer. In this particular kit, the hop-extract sachets produced recognisable bitterness and some hop character, but the finished Pale Ale lacked the depth and complexity we associate with beers made using conventional hop additions. That appears to be one of the compromises made in exchange for the kit’s speed and simplicity.
Where we think this style of recipe would be particularly good is a lager - where bitterness can be more restrained and hop character is less prominent.
Fresh Wort Kits?
We would like to see iGulu offer fresh-wort kits as a future recipe option. These kits are produced from malted grain and conventional hop additions before the finished wort is packaged for fermentation at home. A concentrated version designed specifically for the F1 could potentially be poured into the keg, diluted to 3.8 L and fermented using the machine’s temperature and pressure control.
Existing fresh-wort kits are generally too large for a single F1 batch and would need to be divided after opening, introducing additional storage and sanitation concerns. A purpose-made F1 version could preserve the appliance’s simplicity while offering a flavour profile closer to conventionally brewed beer.
Cleaning After Use
Cleaning the iGulu F1 after finishing our first batch proved to be a straightforward process. Once the keg was empty, we disconnected the beer and gas lines from the lid and removed the keg from the machine.
The next, and most important, step is to completely depressurise the keg before attempting to remove the lid. Do not release the lid clamp while the keg is still pressurised. The lid is held securely in place by the clamp while the keg is under pressure and could be forcibly ejected if the clamp is released prematurely.
To depressurise the keg, pull the pressure relief valve (PRV) upwards and hold it open while the gas escapes. Wait until the flow of gas has completely stopped before releasing the lid clamp. Once depressurised, the lid can be safely removed and the dip tube detached for separate cleaning.
To clean the keg, we used a sodium percarbonate-based brewery cleaner with warm water. We avoid scented household dishwashing detergents when cleaning brewing equipment, as fragrances and detergent residue can be difficult to rinse completely and may affect the finished beer.
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| We use a sodium percarbonate based cleaner for cleaning all of our brewing equipment |
The keg is marked with a maximum temperature of 90°C, but we opted to use warm rather than hot water. Warm water was more than sufficient to soften the dried krausen on the walls of the keg and dip tube, and there seemed little benefit in exposing the plastic keg to unnecessarily high temperatures.
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| A mixture of warm water and cleaner in the keg before scrubbing |
The keg opening is large enough to comfortably reach inside by hand, which makes cleaning considerably easier. A simple rinse wasn't enough to remove the ring of krausen left behind after fermentation, but some warm brewery cleaner, a soft dish cloth and a little elbow grease had the keg looking clean again within a minute or two.
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| You can see the stubborn krausen ring even after a thorough rinse |
We would avoid using abrasive scourers or anything else that could scratch the plastic. Scratches can provide places for residue and microorganisms to accumulate, making the keg more difficult to properly clean and sanitise between batches.
The dip tube is easily removed from the lid, allowing it to be rinsed and thoroughly cleaned with a pipe cleaner.
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| Some build up on the inside of the beer line that connects the keg to the tap |
Cleaning the beer line proved slightly less straightforward. The line can be disconnected from the keg and rinsed under the tap, but the black plastic keg connector does not appear to be easily removable from the tubing. On a conventional kegging setup, we would normally circulate cleaning solution through the complete beer line and tap using a pump or pressurised cleaning bottle. The F1's proprietary connection prevented us from using our usual cleaning equipment, so we instead used a pipe cleaner to mechanically remove some of the build-up from inside the tubing.
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| All clean and ready to go for the next batch |
All up, cleaning the iGulu F1 after our first batch was quick and straightforward. The keg, lid and dip tube are easily removed and cleaned separately, while the wide keg opening makes it simple to reach inside and remove stubborn fermentation residue. The beer line was the only component we found slightly awkward to clean thoroughly due to its proprietary connector, but overall the cleaning process didn't add any significant inconvenience at the end of the batch.
iGulu App
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| The iGulu F1 app |
An iGulu app is also available, which we tested using the iOS version. It acts as a useful companion to the F1, allowing you to remotely monitor the current temperature and keep an eye on your brew’s progress.
After launching the app and pairing it to our F1 unit, the first thing we did was adjust the preferences to change from imperial to metric units of measurement.
Monitoring the progress of your ferment is fairly comprehensive within the app - giving you real time updates on temperature and pressure, as well as a countdown timer for the current step of the brew program you're running.
You can also view all the built in Recipe profiles and initiate them directly from within the app (as opposed to using an RFID tag). There's also the ability to view your batch history and perform firmware updates via the app
Price & Value
Whether it represents good value will largely depend on what you want from it. The F1 is considerably more convenient than assembling a traditional fermentation and dispensing setup, but its 3.8 L usable capacity means the cost per litre may be relatively high. You are paying primarily for its automation, compact design and ease of use rather than its brewing capacity.
Who is the iGulu F1 actually for?
Rather than competing with conventional homebrewing equipment, the F1 feels more like a premium kitchen appliance aimed at people who want fresh beer at home without needing to learn the intricacies of brewing.
The closest comparison may not be traditional homebrewing equipment at all, but a premium kitchen appliance such as a Thermomix. Both can appear expensive when compared with buying their individual components separately, but convenience and automation are central to their appeal. The iGulu F1 packages fermentation, temperature management, carbonation and dispensing into a single appliance that requires very little brewing knowledge to operate.
The comparison has its limits, however. The F1 produces only 3.8 L per batch and remains occupied while that beer is being dispensed, so buyers need to place considerable value on convenience to justify its AUD$1,099 price.
Pros/Cons
Pros
- Extremely simple fermentation setup
- Automatic heating and cooling
- Automated pressure control
- Ferments and dispenses from one appliance
- RFID profiles remove most of the guesswork
- Compact, polished design
- Better beer than typical beginner extract kits
Cons
- Only 3.8L usable capacity
- One machine cannot ferment the next batch while dispensing the current beer
- No proper lifting handles
- Proprietary keg connections
- CO₂ cylinder, cleaner and sanitiser not included
- Extract and hop-extract kits lack some of the complexity of traditional brewing
- Dispensing requires adjustment to prevent excessive foaming
Best suited to: beginners, apartment dwellers, occasional drinkers, people who want a simple draught/tap system and those who value simplicity over recipe flexibility.
Final Thoughts
The iGulu F1 succeeds at what it sets out to do: it makes fermenting, carbonating and dispensing a small batch of beer substantially easier than a conventional homebrew setup. Its temperature control, automated fermentation profiles and integrated dispensing make it one of the most approachable brewing systems we’ve used.
The trade-offs are capacity and flexibility. The 3.8L usable batch size will not suit everyone, the proprietary connections limit interchangeability, and tying up the machine for both fermentation and dispensing creates a considerable wait between batches. The extract-based recipe kits produce respectable beer, but the Mosaic Pale Ale did not have the same depth or hop complexity we would expect from a well-made all-grain or fresh-wort beer.
For an experienced brewer, the F1 is unlikely to replace a complete brewing setup. For a beginner, an occasional drinker or someone who prioritises convenience above all else, the iGulu F1 is a genuinely compelling entry point into homebrewing. However, at over AUD$1,000, potential buyers should carefully consider whether the simplicity and automation justify the premium price and relatively small batch size.
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