CES 2017: Smartphone controlled device promises to turn fruit into alcohol

A countertop device controlled by your smartphone promises to make turning leftover fruit into alcohol “as easy as making coffee”.

The £400 Alchema brewer offers hundreds of different recipes for cider, mead and wine that can be monitored through an app.

After placing the fruit - along with sugar, water and yeast - into the wifi-connected device, the user can check on the drink’s temperature and adjust the sweetness and alcohol content to taste.

A weight sensor tells the user how much fruit to add and it includes a built-in sanitiser.

The length of the process depends on the brewer, with craft cider needing one or two weeks and wine taking up to four months.

The firm behind it said Alchema “removes the trial and error from home cider making and produces a perfect batch of hard cider every time”.

If there is a problem with the mixture then the device sends an alert to the app.