Via Core77, meet the Miracle Machine - a device that you can use to make high quality wine at home in just a few days with low-cost basic ingredients, which uses a smart phone app to let you monitor how it's fermentation process is coming along:
Do you have what it takes to make your own wine? Most likely not. But with this fancy gadget and a lower-than-average amount of skepticism, you might. Drink like Jesus did with the Miracle Machine: just add water, grape concentrate, yeast and a vaguely described "finishing powder" to impart that truly barrel-aged flavor without true barrel-aging.
The modestly named Miracle Machine is a household appliance with the capability of fermenting and age-flavoring fine wine within three days, for as little as $2 per bottle in materials.
Here is developers Kevin Boyer and Philip James' "Kickstarter" pitch:
Sound too good to be true? That's likely because it was.
In reality, the water-to-wine Miracle Machine turned out to be quite a publicity stunt:
It's amazing what you can do with some attractively turned wood, plastic and LEDs these days!It sounded like a dream come true. The Miracle Machine was a gadget that would turn water -- along with grape concentrate and yeast -- into wine in your very home in as little as three days. A lot of people got excited, imagining becoming home winemakers without all the bother of growing grapes, aging in barrels, or knowing anything about how to make wine.
There was just one catch, and it was a big one. The Miracle Machine is a made-up product. The Miracle Machine founders promised a Kickstarter launch, but that debut never materialized. It was just a hook to get people to sign up for more information. Today, those people got an e-mail leading them to a video about Wine to Water, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supplying clean drinking water to people in need around the globe.
The end game for the stunt is to raise awareness of Wine to Water and drive donations and volunteers to the cause. The people behind it say that more than 600 media outlets around the world picked up coverage of the fake product within the last 10 days.