I like how you can see the temperature climb during active fermentation… All brews take note of that. Sneezles61
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So is that a cold crash at the end or did you forget to end the data collection after you took it out.
ok. That is not how it should be working. Something is wrong with your device and you should contact Tilt.
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Holy Moly!! Sneezles61
Haha yea I told you. It just randomly kept jumping around during primary fermentation. It settled down eventually. I will contact tilt before my next brew just to be safe.if I just ignore those weird data points (any SG over 1.1 and any temp over 70) it makes a very normal chart. Maybe my sampling time was too quick (15 minutes)
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Cold crash. A bit too brief though.
You’re not in Southern California by chance?
But seriously is there anything that could be shaking the fermenter? In my house the dog running around or someone doing some exercise can shake the whole place. I’m just wondering if there’s something that could be shaking the fermenter or getting the Tilt dancing in there. Otherwise, I’d say you have a defective unit.
It sits on the basement floor, so I highly doubt anything could be shaking it. Could be defective, who knows. But the final week or so has been steady so my guess is that the early fermentation period had something weird going on
Great observation. I didn’t notice that.
Actually, that was a Belgian yeast. After fermentation started, and looked to be just past it’s peak, I raised the temp on my controller. That’s why the increase is so pronounced.
But @sneezles61 point is valid. Active yeast throw off a lot of heat. Fermentation temp effects the flavor of your beer. You need to be aware of both facts.
More on yeast bumping the temps…
Here’s a graph from my temperature controller for the active phase of that fermentation. The vertical blue lines are when it was actively cooling by running the freezer. I’ve learned how to watch that graph; I pay attention to how close the blue lines are. Notice how they start slowly, then come together… that’s because the yeasties are getting into full party mode and heating up the joint. I.e. transitioning from lag phase to active fermentation.As soon as the lines start to spread out again, I know the party is dying down, and it’s about done. In this case I bumped up the temp to let it finish warmer.
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My tilt is in a SS bucket fermenter… Inside a freez-mentor… I can set my phone on the lid and it will pick up the readings… If I get much further away, it’ll not pick up the signal. Problem? Not for me. I can get the info I need without doing any opening and moving stuff around… So let’s say, it is a handy tool, pricey, but it saves some steps and possible O2 exposure… Sneezles61
I have the same set up, (freezer and SS brewtech bucket). As long as my battery is good and strong in the Tilt I can be upstairs in the kitchen and pick up the readings from the freezer directly below me in the basement.
@sneezles61 @tominboston You can also use a raspberry pi near your fermenters. It runs the Tilt app that will do the spreadsheet update. You can also then connect to the app on the pi using your phone’s web browser and see the current status wherever you have your home WiFi.
Tilt also seems a “Repeater” for $60, but that doesn’t seem worth it to me.
I’m very lucky to get this far with a highly technical gizmo… I’m content just to be able to see what’s happening in real time. Sneezles61
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I think I’m convinced. Our host has a $20 off that would come in handy.
Unfortunately, the Tilt is on the excluded-from-discount list. I asked about it when I was last in the NB store and (I’m pretty sure) he said the no-discount comes from the company that makes the Tilt.
If you have a friend (or in my case a coworker) with an extra Tilt that is not in use at the moment, you can ask to borrow it for a batch or two. With it I was able to graph how fast the temperature and gravity dropped over the course of fermentation. I now know that, during active fermentation, the temperature of the beer I most commonly brew is 2-3 degrees higher than ambient temperature. I ferment in a chest freezer (with inkbird controller) so I can control ambient temperature and through that, fermentation temperature. After a week I can set the controller a couple degrees higher because fermentation is no longer generating significant heat. I hate to give it back but the knowledge it gave me was fantastic! But not fantastic enough to cough up $135 + tax!
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