You'll soon be able to buy a machine designed to help people with “no brewing experience” make beer—brand-name beer—on their kitchen counter.

If you've ever brewed, or just watched someone slog through the process, the idea of a countertop brewing machine seems crazy. But a startup called PicoBrew designed the Zymatic, which makes beer with digital precision, and less mess. That machine was a Kickstarter hit that put the Seattle-based makers on the map, but still it required the know-how of a seasoned brewer. The new Pico, announced Monday but not shipping until next spring, simplifies things a lot further.

Bill Mitchell, CEO of the Seattle-based PicoBrew, calls the new machine a “3-D printer for beer,” yet I think of it more like a Keurig: You buy $19 PicoPaks, which contain all the ingredients to produce five liters (about 14 bottles worth) of beer. Insert the Pak in the countertop system, and it circulates water heated to just under boiling, extracting the grain sugars and hop essences in a process that takes about two hours. All of the good stuff ends up in a steel tank, and you can throw the biodegradable Pak itself into the compost.

Of course, it’s not ready to drink quite yet: You still have to pitch the yeast and wait five to seven days to ferment at room temperature before you can cool it and tap it. Because the Pico is connected to the Internet, you’ll get an alert on your smartphone when your beer is done.

The level of mess is very low compared to a home-brewer’s typical system—and even compared to PicoBrew’s $2,000 Zymatic—and clean-up is pretty easy, said PicoBrew’s head of marketing, Donald Brewer. You flush clean water through the machine and tank after each batch is complete, and every third batch, you add a cleaning pellet. The heated water itself sanitizes the tank, and the closed system means low risk of contamination.

The key to this, though, is that the Pico’s recipes come from world-class craft brewers.

From Rogue on the West Coast to Dogfish Head on the East Coast, more than 50 cult-favorite brewers are contributing PicoPak recipes (in exchange for licensing fees, naturally). The incentive for them is that often their beers don’t have nationwide distribution, and this is a way for them to reach new fans. Freshness matters with beer, too, so if the machine works properly, you should be able to taste what the brewmaster tastes. And because the Pico recognizes the recipes, even the date that the PicoPak was assembled, it can make minor adjustments to the process to ensure consistency.

The Pico is set to ship next spring, after pre-orders on Kickstarter. Illustration: PicoBrew Inc.

You can’t make your own recipes in the Pico—not yet at least, said Mr. Brewer. (For now, that’s what the pricier Zymatic is for.) But you can adjust the bitterness and alcohol content of the recipe at the start of the process.

Some hopheads might look down on a machine that takes the know-how out of brewing beer. Still, there’s a giant gap between those who can make it and those who want to drink it. That’s the target that the PicoBrew is aiming for with the Pico, which will cost $1,000 when it goes on sale sometime next spring, but is offered for pre-order on Kickstarter for $500. When it finally shipping, PicoBrew will sell it through major retailers including Amazon. Even the PicoPaks will be available on Amazon Prime.