'Personal brewery' promises perfect pint

Ian Williams says his nano brewery machine has taken 'all the errors' out of home-brewing and is seven times faster. Photo / Natalie Slade

Master brewer Ian Williams has spent the better part of a decade perfecting the art of home beer-making.

After seven years of tinkering and tasting, Williams has produced a personal brewing machine, which he claims pours out commercial-quality beer at a third of the retail price.

And it's not just for beer; the Kiwi-made machine can brew mead, cider or anything else that is alcoholic and carbonated.

Williams is no stranger to the brewing craft - he has been in the trade since 1990 and was the man behind Tiger Beer's award-winning 1998 drop.

Applying his brewing knowledge and expertise to home beer-making, Williams said his machine took "all the errors" out of the process. "I identified 12 problems with home-brewing and we've solved them all," he said.

"What all home-brewers around the world do, unlike breweries, is they make flat beer and then [go through a second process] to gas it up. It all takes seven weeks to get the bubbles back in that you let go in the first place. [Our machine] takes seven days, rather than seven weeks."

Despite the $6500 price tag, Williams has already sold 45 of the 60 brewing machines made as part of an initial manufacturing run.

Foreign firms and distributors had already shown a keen interest.

"The response from around the world has been unbelievable. We've had 200 offers for distribution from 50 countries in 16 weeks. I get emails every single day from Mexico, Brazil, Iceland saying either 'can I distribute it' or 'can you ship one now'."

His company, WilliamsWarn, will have the machine on display during the Rugby World Cup New Zealand Showcase, which kicks off today in the Cloud at Queens Wharf.

The showcase, with other parts of the cup's New Zealand festival, aims to promote top Kiwi firms to visitors.

Twenty-two companies will be showing off their wares, including Martin Jetpack, Sealegs and Yike Bike.

The expo is open to the public and will be set up and packed down 18 times during the tournament to make way for party-goers at the Cloud.

Williams hopes his creation will be a hit with visitors so he can ramp up production and begin shipping overseas.