Pricey but cool

[Kealia]

Good call Dawg. I could see this being something to buy with giftcards, etc. when you normally wouldn't buy something for yourself. I think there is a similar product called a Brew Bug that is available, too.

[Inkleg]

See this is one of my gripes with all these new homebrewing apps and such. (WARNING: Grumpy Old Man rant to follow)

Is it necessary to have something that tracks your beer's gravity throughout the fermentation process and sends updates to your cell phone? How does this make you a better homebrewer? How does this improve your beer, especially if you effed up your mash temperature or strike temperature, or your water is too acidic or too soft?

In some ways, it's just a toy. A really expensive toy that doesn't seem to really improve the process or the finished product.

Feel free to discuss.

I think it would be fantastic when trying to replicate a two yeast pitch beer like this Gulden Draak clone where they say to rack to secondary at 1.016 and pitch the second yeast. Not to mention numerous other applications. This threshold could be missed within the 24 hours that we normally check our beers. Sure would take a lot of the guess work and just plain work out of it. By the way, this brew is coming up soon for me as a request from a good friend.

[jimjohson]

I don't know...To me it's all about the variances that each brew brings. An always changing flavor profile, if I wanted it to be dead on each brew, might as well drink bud.

[kbenton00]

I got one and used on my last beer. I like it and it was fun being able to "see" what the current SG and Temp was. That being said do I really "need" one? Nope. But that could be said for a lot of the home brewing gadgets on the market. Like others have pointed out, I can wait the two to three weeks it normally takes to make sure the fermentation is done. Also, I'm not keen on the idea that you need to keep a phone or tablet near the fermenter to collect the data, so I picked up a Raspberry Pi 3 SBC and wrote a small python script to read the data whenever I wanted to login and look at it. Next up is to collect and store.the data in a file and then plot the output.

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[John Sand]

Good review KB. Thanks.

[BlackDuck]

Yea, great info KB. Good idea using the Raspberry Pi also.


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[Whamolagan]

got mine today. will be using it on sunday

[Stinkfist]

I think I may have to pick one of these up....seems like what I have been looking for thanks for the info!

The people who just wait and check there beer right before packaging, have you never had a stuck fermentation?

[Whamolagan]

I think I may have to pick one of these up....seems like what I have been looking for thanks for the info!

The people who just wait and check there beer right before packaging, have you never had a stuck fermentation?

The stuck fermentation and the fact I hate to open my fermentor is a reason why my wife got it for me. I started playing around with it in some distilled water and it works good. Brew toys

[Kealia]

The people who just wait and check there beer right before packaging, have you never had a stuck fermentation?

I've had a few. But, if it's stuck, it's stuck and there's not much I can do about it so I just accept it.
The last batch of Amber I did stopped at 1.022 (AG) but turned out to be a fantastic beer (based on feedback).

That being said, I like toys and things like this and the BrewBug do seem cool to me.

[swenocha]

I might could use something like this. I really hate having to open the fermenter 3 times to get hydro samples and take a chance on infection. Once I pitch the yeast the only time I have to open is that. After I get my reading everything is sealed beer movement.

^^^this. I don't think I'd spring for one (I'm pretty low budget on my brewing setup), but I have a feeling I might have a friend or two that would be interested...

[John Sand]

I don't check my gravity until I'm ready to package. If it has attenuated as expected, I package. When I was bottling, if the gravity seemed high, I would warm the beer for three days. That only changed once, 3 points. Now that I'm kegging, if it's even close, I keg it. Keg bombs are unlikely. I generally leave it in the fermenter three weeks anyway.

[Whamolagan]

Update: Alrighty then, it works good, but it will not send a signal trough a SS fermenter and a chest freezer. Not a deal killer, I just have to open the lid and stick the phone in then and I get a reading right off the bat when I open the app. The temp takes a little while to register, but it is spot on with the other thermometers I have. I didn't buy it for the temp, so not bothered by that. All in all so far I am happy. Will let ya'll k now in the next couple of days.

[Dawg LB Steve]

This is a toy that would be great for lagers, when you need to pay attention to when the d-rest needs to happen and dropping back down for the finish.