One Month Later: Is PerfectDraft Actually Worth It?

One month into Perfect Draft ownership, how good were the kegs I've had so far and do I still think the machine is worth it? We're about to find out. Hello and welcome back to the channel and welcome back to another Perfect Draft video which seems odd saying given the first one only came out a week ago but a bit of YouTube trickery that was actually filmed a month ago because I've had a very busy month indeed. Basically four weeks between creating content which what hasn't happened since I started this channel I don't think. It has been a while but nevertheless we are here and we are once again going to talk about the Perfect Draft. Before I talk about whether I still think the machine is worth buying or not I want to talk about the beers I've had so far. In that first video I let you know that Jupiter is the one that I was trying there and then and yes I still liked it as I said in that video. I also told you that I'd be getting Old Peculiar coming soon and I have also finished that keg. Should say not by myself I've had quite a few visitors in this month hence we've got through a few kegs and there is a third keg that is currently sat in the machine still downstairs which I'm going to review for you live here today. So let's go get a pint and talk about the rest of them. And there we have it then a nice crisp pint of beer out of the PD but what is it? It's not a lager and it's not an ale it's a Kolsch which of course means this is a delectable pint of Fru Kolsch. Now I am aware that a Kolsch traditionally is served in much smaller glasses and then topped up frequently but well my Perfect Draft is downstairs and I'm not going to be carting up and down every five minutes during this review so that's what we have here. So the three that we have covered are these two and the Fru Kolsch and I'll be honest I can't really make my mind up as to which one I like the most. Before I try and make that decision though I should tell you that this review of the Fru Kolsch is more than just a straight up here's a new keg review. This has been sat in my Perfect Draft machine for 15 days exactly half the amount of time they say it should last for. So I know what this was like when it was fresh but of course so do most people who've tried it. This is a bit of a longevity test for me because well I've been away for the best part of the last two weeks and as a result I haven't had any and during that time it's been very hot in the UK as well meaning it's basically been the worst possible conditions to leave a keg of opened beer in. So if this is still very very nice indeed we know we're onto a winner. I do want to get a sip before that head fully dissipates though so let's get into it Cheers everyone! Interesting it's definitely different from first opening but I'm not sure that it's in a bad way. Now like I said this isn't a lager and it's not an ale well for those of you who don't know what does that mean well it's a beer that is brewed in the same way an ale is brewed but then treated in the way that a lager is treated. It is more lager-y than it is ale-y in modern terms but technically it's brewed as an ale so yeah it's an interesting hybrid and I think that is particularly interesting for this machine because well if we look at how those two styles are typically delivered in a pub a lager is forced out of a keg using carbon dioxide so okay it's that it's in a keg and quite often is the similar sort of setup in these there's a bag which holds the beer and so on but the difference here of course is that we aren't delivering this using pressurized carbon dioxide this is literally just squeezing a bag and if you think of beer in a bag that's more commonly an ale thing but that is drawn not pumped so well the delivery method is basically a hybrid of what you normally get from the two distinct styles as is this and to be honest with you hybrids definitely go well together just before I rate this alongside the other two I am going to give you a proper more in-depth review so aroma on this fruity zesty slightly fresh berries weirdly it's like I think it's the yeast that's coming through because the way it's brewed the yeast is slightly more present but it's not giving brewer's yeast or bread yeast or anything else on the nose it's the esters of that yeast almost and in this yeah it's almost slightly black curranty or red curranty it's along that line anyway the taste well let's do it again cheers it starts off ultra refreshing and then it moves into this area where you go I don't know how this is going to pan out and it starts to get a bit fruited a bit berry forward again and you think this is starting to get a bit aily really genuinely and then just at the point where you go oh no this isn't a lager at all it's all confused it's all going wrong it washes away and leaves you with a beautiful bit of proper German bready malt which is what we really love from all those German lagers so yeah most definitely a hybrid and really very enjoyable how's it changed from when I first opened it well I was excited to try this on this machine for the reasons I've already given because it's a bit of a hybrid as is the machine and I thought it would go well together and it did but this came across very very lager forward I wasn't getting a lot of those deeper richer notes but now that's not the case and ales generally done on cask they are living matter and well once a bit of air gets in they do tend to change their character a bit sometimes casks are better after a day perhaps so well yeah similar thing happening here of course these are sealed systems but well it goes out of date for a reason there's got to be something getting in somewhere stopping it from being perfect and that thing that stops it from being perfect forever is actually making this much more enjoyable right now which if I'm honest makes this whole decision a lot more difficult because I'm going to be honest with you I was most excited for the old peculiar but it's probably the one that I've enjoyed the least and I will explain why in a minute that jupiler was fantastic it got better again as this did after a few days when it first went in but that was only hanging around for about a week tops so yes not that long compared to this and it just got better and better and I kind of wish it went on forever because it really was that good when I said how good that was in my previous video I had a few comments saying yeah it's all right but it used to be better when it was brewed in Belgium it's now brewed in the Netherlands I thought that's interesting it's been a while since I've had a jupiler but I really enjoyed it like it was as good as I remembered so I did a bit of research and turns out yes a lot of these kegs are now made in the Netherlands brewed in the Netherlands and they've put a jupiler in it except for this one I was just doing a whole bit about how this keg was definitely brewed in Belgium and not in the Netherlands because I found this thing on it that gave the Belgian address turns out when I looked the other day I couldn't read and that's just the registered address of jupiler this one was also brewed in the Netherlands which is a bit embarrassing for me because I had a whole thing about you know it is really good if you can get the right one well to be fair maybe it did used to be better but I really enjoyed it it doesn't take away from the fact that I thought it was exceptionally good for me so still a massive thumbs up the old peculiar however well it's a bit peculiar because the flavor out of this keg was phenomenal it is a beautiful beer I like it very much and the flavor was there but the consistency the texture the mouthfeel the body of the beer just doesn't suit for me the perfect draft I don't really think it does ales any justice but I think it could I don't think it's a problem with the way it's stored the way it's kept the way that the system operates I think it's to do with the tap and I think there's two things going on one is that with a tap unlike a conventional handful I don't know I'm doing that actually when I've got one right here but you get the idea you get motions you've got it's on and then it's off and then it's on and then it's off and it's kind of like waves and that disrupts and agitates the beer gives life to it and just well yeah get some oxygen in there and shakes everything up in addition to that if you get a pint in well anywhere north of the m25 give or take you get a sparkler on your tap and that gives more life to it there's a little I mean I'll show you we've got one attached here if it will here we go one of these little things and all that does is aerate the beer as it's going out there's some holes in the end of it beer gets forced through those agitates it gets a load of oxygen in so what now I'll be honest I hadn't really come to these conclusions whilst I had the keg in the machine it was very much something that happened afterwards while this keg was in the machine I had visitors over we were having a good time we didn't really care that it wasn't the perfect pint but afterwards I was thinking it definitely wasn't as enjoyable as the others why not and I do think that's it so if there's a way for someone to engineer a sparkler for the end of a perfect draft and maybe use the tap in a on and off motion to kind of replicate what you get out of a beer engine then yeah I think it could be very good indeed but as it stands it's not quite there which leaves us with a decision on the Fru Kolsch because that is the most complete experience of a Fru Kolsch I've ever had I've had lots of bottles of it and I find it a bit average at best most of the time I was even a bit hesitant about ordering one but then I thought no we should try it a few people have recommended it and I thought why not it's not I've never disliked it it's just never blown me away that is genuinely stunning and I don't know I struggle to validate this because Jupiter for me is one of those beers that I love because of where I was when I first tried it not necessarily because I think it's the best beer ever but I do have a real soft spot for it but I think if I'm being entirely pragmatic about the situation the Fru Kolsch after it's been left open for a bit is by far the best of the three I've tried so far so with that all done and dusted do I still think the machine is worth buying yes did I need to buy the pro no am I happy that I did yes because the temperature control would have made this absolutely awful if I couldn't have controlled temperature on the old peculiar so yes it was worth it of course with hindsight a lot of people in the comments of that last video told me that they've taken a regular perfect draft and installed something that enables them to change the temperature which sounds great and cheap and a brilliant idea except for the fact that I'm the sort of person who will take on a project like that I will do all the information absorbing it reading it making sure I understand everything thoroughly even though I've not got a particularly strong background in electronics and I will be entirely confident I know exactly what I'm doing I'll have missed one key bit of information I'll blow the whole thing to pieces so I don't really want to do that so for me actually yeah it probably was the right call and yeah so far the experience has been very very positive I'm still excited to use it maybe because I've been away for two weeks that probably helps but you know this is definitely good and the way that it keeps it fresh the how fresh every pint feels even after two weeks well is a yeah a big improvement on any other home machine I've had or tried so yes I do think it's worth it and look a lot of people in the comments of that video also said what you've said about cost of the pint still seems too expensive for them and that's fine and I don't disagree entirely except for the fact that now well the pints have got even cheaper one thing I didn't know when I made that last video was that once you sign up to perfect draft and get on board with they send you emails daily constant harassment if we're honest but if you are a savvy buyer they're worth having because well actually I've got a lot of kegs in my garage now and well most of them I've got for 30 quid or less because the offers they put on daily or nearly daily are pretty hard to ignore so much so now that I basically ban myself from buying any more till I get through them what kegs have I got I hear you ask well I have this through Kolsch I have a Huck Beck Pills a Hertog Jan needs I've not tried either of those before ever the Jupiler which is already done Lowenbrau Peroni I am one of those people that genuinely likes Peroni I think it's probably a bit controversial but I do genuinely enjoy it Spartan or Spasin as I often get told off for calling it incorrectly I've got another keg of and I've got a triple Carmelay which sounds very dangerous in that volume but it is one of my favorite beers of all time so yeah that will be interesting so let me know which of those beers you would like me to review next and if this has gone out by the time I put another keg in that will be the next one or the one after and I will review some kegs as requested but that really is all I've got to say about it so as always thank you very much for watching if you enjoyed this video please like if you haven't already subscribed if you'll be so kind and I'll catch you next time. Cheers!