Frustrated... (Tilt/Kindle)

Yeah, mine really would be as well. I've bought a lot of my retirement toys already, some of which is beer equipment, and a new shed for my tractor and junk on the shelves in my basement garage so I have room for a fridge or freezer for temperature control in the garage. Then, can move my brewing operation out there. No more steps to climb with my burner, etc, but I will probably have to set up some ventilation. My burner would probably burn every bit of oxygen out of the garage in about 3 minutes. I can boil 5 gallons of water in just under 14 minutes, if that's any indication of what 400,000 BTU can do. I think it would melt the bottom out of the 10 gallon aluminum pot I use for sparge water if I lit it before putting water in the pot.

I've come to appreciate the taste of craft beers, and find I can barely palate the commercial stuff at all now. Light beer? Isn't that sort of like taking a shower with a rain coat on? I don't do near-beer.
 
My garage has my brewing, mechanic, and blacksmithing/welding stuff in it. I need a bigger garage.

I made my own electric brew rig with 2 1500W heat sticks.
 
I love my Tilt! I use an old iPhone to send the data, just keep it plugged in all the time so it doesn't go to sleep or have the battery die. From there I send it to Brewer's Friend, so I can see it anytime I want on my iphone, iPad, or desktop. I love it!
 
Bulin's Milker Bucket Brews said:
Don’t get me wrong, I may give one of those electronic hydrometers a try, would come in handy when I have 3-4 beers I want to through the big Spiedel. Baby steps ya know...
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I personally use a Plaato and love it. It's different in a sense that it is an airlock and doesn't float in the wort. I ran it in learning mode for 3 brews and manually updated the gravity every few days per batch and the 4th, 5th and 6th brews I turned learning mode off and let it do its thing and shockingly it has been spot on each time for gravity reading after comparing it to a hydrometer after primary was done
 
Marz said:
I personally use a Plaato and love it. It's different in a sense that it is an airlock and doesn't float in the wort. I ran it in learning mode for 3 brews and manually updated the gravity every few days per batch and the 4th, 5th and 6th brews I turned learning mode off and let it do its thing and shockingly it has been spot on each time for gravity reading after comparing it to a hydrometer after primary was done
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Got a link?
 
Yooper said:
I love my Tilt! I use an old iPhone to send the data, just keep it plugged in all the time so it doesn't go to sleep or have the battery die. From there I send it to Brewer's Friend, so I can see it anytime I want on my iphone, iPad, or desktop. I love it!
Click to expand...

Meh, too 'cloud' based for my tastes, albeit, do I really care if someone steals my brewing data? Sharing that info is exactly what BF seems to be about, so no, I don't care. I'd prefer a device that would just log the data to a local PC, and if I want, let me upload all of it to BF at one time to show off how good I am at it. Or, if it's really embarrassing, I don't have to send it unless I want help to figure out what happened. o_O Most of the time, the results tell me EXACTLY where I screwed up.

Not justifying anything, nor arguing the value, just stating a personal preference.
 
Hawkbox said:
My garage has my brewing, mechanic, and blacksmithing/welding stuff in it. I need a bigger garage.

I made my own electric brew rig with 2 1500W heat sticks.
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Immersion, or like a hot-plate? I would think immersion sticks would wind up with a lotta scorched starch and sugar on them. Got a photo of your rig?

Immersion heating elements sure don't fare well in our high calcium water. I recently replaced my hot water heater because of the lime accumulations in the tank. The lime builds up on the elements, then shatters when the steam breaks it up and falls to the bottom of the tank. Eventually, it builds up to the point of covering the bottom element and restricting water flow around the element. Boom, dead element. Immersion elements do not like to get dry. I cleaned it out about 15 years ago when the bottom element quit, but it was just a 6 year warranty water heater. It was probably at least that old when I cleaned it out, so I elected to replace rather than clean it out again, not to mention, I got hot water back in service a lot quicker. Now I want to put the old one in my new shed for hot water access out there.
 
RoadRoach said:
I still think the 'dog-hair' might be concentrations of yeast turning on and off, as well as krausen/bubbles sticking to the tube. Not sure there would be a remedy for that. The device appears to work on pressure/depth measurements.
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Yes, exactly: Krausen is the cause for the erratic readings.

The theory of measurement is not depth, but tilt angle: the device tilts at different angles and, minus any contaminants (such as measuring a bowl of sugar water), is accurate to a hundredth SG point (0.01).
 
Marz said:
I personally use a Plaato and love it. It's different in a sense that it is an airlock and doesn't float in the wort. I ran it in learning mode for 3 brews and manually updated the gravity every few days per batch and the 4th, 5th and 6th brews I turned learning mode off and let it do its thing and shockingly it has been spot on each time for gravity reading after comparing it to a hydrometer after primary was done
Click to expand...
Does that have an electronic hydrometer that comes out of the airlock? How does it measure?
 
RoadRoach said:
Meh, too 'cloud' based for my tastes, albeit, do I really care if someone steals my brewing data? Sharing that info is exactly what BF seems to be about, so no, I don't care. I'd prefer a device that would just log the data to a local PC, and if I want, let me upload all of it to BF at one time to show off how good I am at it. Or, if it's really embarrassing, I don't have to send it unless I want help to figure out what happened. o_O Most of the time, the results tell me EXACTLY where I screwed up.

Not justifying anything, nor arguing the value, just stating a personal preference.
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You can configure Plaato to send data anywhere you want, including a local PC, you don't have to have it upload to a public website and I'm sure Tilt has the same features. Although it does take some technical knowledge on parsing the data yourself. Fortunately I have a lot of software background so I wrote some code to capture the data and parse it all out and then send it to my personal Slack chat so I get notifications hourly on my brew process.
 
Minbari said:
Does that have an electronic hydrometer that comes out of the airlock? How does it measure?
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It just counts the bubbles and calculates the FG based on environment variables and the type of yeast you select in the Plaato app. Pretty futuristic if you ask me.
 
RoadRoach said:
Immersion, or like a hot-plate? I would think immersion sticks would wind up with a lotta scorched starch and sugar on them. Got a photo of your rig?

Immersion heating elements sure don't fare well in our high calcium water. I recently replaced my hot water heater because of the lime accumulations in the tank. The lime builds up on the elements, then shatters when the steam breaks it up and falls to the bottom of the tank. Eventually, it builds up to the point of covering the bottom element and restricting water flow around the element. Boom, dead element. Immersion elements do not like to get dry. I cleaned it out about 15 years ago when the bottom element quit, but it was just a 6 year warranty water heater. It was probably at least that old when I cleaned it out, so I elected to replace rather than clean it out again, not to mention, I got hot water back in service a lot quicker. Now I want to put the old one in my new shed for hot water access out there.
Click to expand...

Immersion. I drilled 2 holes in a 16G kettle and installed these in it. The water here is a bit hard and I have to scrub them off occasionally but it works pretty well. Getting a Robobrew is probably easier and not much more expensive.

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That is insane that that works. It musty Havre something to make sure the bubbles are Uniform
Marz said:
It just counts the bubbles and calculates the FG based on environment variables and the type of yeast you select in the Plaato app. Pretty futuristic if you ask me.
Click to expand...
 
Minbari said:
That is insane that that works. It musty Havre something to make sure the bubbles are Uniform
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Yeah it has a divot where it funnels all bubbles out through one opening only and there is a sensor right under it that can see each bubble as it passes through.
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AHarper said:
Yes... In my case it is self imposed but well worth it - especially with a coffee machine and CD player in there too. You can always keep milk in the fridge too!!!
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You're one step away from regressing to a teenager and moving out of the main house. Just need the bed and painting the shed black.
 
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