PicoBrew startup may be shutting down: What this means for users

It seems that PicoBrew, the startup offering the ability to make your own beer at home, may no longer be with us. Though the company's website is still live, a series of reports have chronicled its descent into bankruptcy and, most recently, a sale at auction. The latest report claims that PicoBrew was recently bought, but its future remains uncertain.

The information comes from The Spoon, which has reported multiple times over past months that PicoBrew is, essentially, defunct. In its most recent report, the publication claimed on behalf of unnamed sources that PicoBrew is now fully owned by the individual who submitted a winning bid during an auction earlier this month.

Former PicoBrew CEO Bill Mitchell reportedly sent a letter this week stating that the company is a 'noble failure,' and soon after — the report claims — its customer service team and the founding team were both let go. It's unclear what kind of impact this will have on existing device owners who need assistance with their brewing hardware.

The services behind the hardware are still live, but there's no word on how long they will remain this way. It is possible that the apps could be made open source so that the platform can live on beyond the company itself, but again, nothing official has been provided at this time.

The report raises questions over the brand's future and whether it will live on in some way under a new owner. This, according to the report, is unlikely because the auction reportedly 'made it clear that the new owner is getting rid of all of the operational pieces of the business.'

In that case, it is possible that the new owner may license the company's patents, among other things. PicoBrew was one of a number of home beverage systems that offered the ability to make drinks at home. There is, for example, Drinkmaker from Keurig that offers alcohol in a pod. These offerings haven't caught on in a big way due to their high initial cost and various limitations.