Real-Time Fermentation Monitor
 

I visited a friend last weekend - he's an ol' college buddy - we used to make a mean homebrew with an old engineering professor who taught us the fundamentals. I hadn't seen the guy since his wedding but we try to stay in touch by email. He heard I was coming up his way on business and told me I should stop by and check out his latest project.

He was always smarter than me, and last weekend he really proved it. The dude has built an instrument that measures specific gravity, % sugar and % alcohol in real-time. I could not believe my eyes. He has already made 6 or 7 batches and he popped up the data for each one to show me some of the differences between batches - he even showed me one batch that stalled and how he was able to get it going again! He was in the middle of brewing an IPA, it was 3 days in and had already converted half the original sugar to alcohol! Somehow he paused the thing so he could remove the instrument and show me how accurate it is - water read 1.001 and 190 proof whiskey read .805. The instrument fit right down inside the throat of his carboy - it was made of copper but he said he could make it out of just about anything. It plugs into the USB on any computer (he has several - what a jerk).

I told him he should try to patent it, or sell it or something but he said he didn't think many people would be into it like we were. I thought I'd post it out here and see what the masses think. Cheers, :mug:

First dibs! How much? I want one!!

i agree tell him you want some prices even if he only made them by order for us that would be cool as hell

I'd take one

uh...I'm not aware of the legitimacy of the possibility of this device existing but if one was available with everything you said above, I'd pay a solid amount of cash for it.

Is this like in Men in Black where the aliens give us products like velcro so they don't have to be funded by government, because I'm ok with that.

Sign me up for one, and tell him he needs to patent that right away!

oh SNAP: Anton-Paar.com :: Product :: Beer Monitor

I think it's a McGuyver twist on an old idea. Google fermentation monitor and you'll get a hint of what I mean.

Not long ago, there was a Purple monstrosity marketed towards wine that was advertised to do the same (minus the USB connection) turns out it was little more than a bubble counter using some fuzzy logic and when compared to actual lab equipment test reading was really innacurate (duh).

Not saying this is your man, nor am I saying that he hasn;t found something more useful, I am just being the skeptic.

The full production versions appear to be something of a sniffer which is what he may have here coupled to some sort of algorithm to calc away the concentration of CO2 vs Alcohol and deduce fermentative state, or something scientifical like that.

Might be a cool gadget if proven accurate and marketable on the cheap but, if it cost more than the price of both a hydro and refrac count me out til it has matured in it production and proven itself.

tell me the cost i might be in for 3