Real-Time Fermentation Monitor

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Yorbag

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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:
 
he said he didn't think many people would be into it like we were.

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.
 
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.
 
Looks like at least a few folks out there think this is as cool as I do. I'm going to phone him today and get him to join this forum.
 
I have to say I could use 2 to 4 of them. If the price is reasonable it would really be a plus, hopefully they could come with long lines.
 
ok, so i just put in a long reply and something went fubar on me so this time I will simply attach the display of my current batch (Amber Ale, mmmm). You can see the device measures SG actual, SG corrected, temperature and pressure. I have it programmed using VB in Excel because I love Excel. My plan is to keep testing this instrument and make some others to see if I can repeat the success. I appreciate the interest, I will keep you posted,

FerMonitor Display.JPG
 
Being a gear nut about backpacking of course I'm going to be the same about brewing, count me in! Oh, let me know where to ship the wife if it's out of my budget!
 
Okay, so now this does peak my interest.

$$$$

And it would be interesting if you took samples to test against the data to verify accuracy.
 
I love the fact that this is in vb.... That means the Access Brew file that I am about to work on will be able to do this... I am thinking you click on the recepie, then you can see the fermentation temp, and the rate of fermentation... all in one place, one file. how amazing would that be?
 
yeah, i'm totally in on this one. The screen shot has me sold.

What's your ballpark price? Seems like you've got at least a couple dozen orders so far...
 
that's a good idea - I am assuming that you have to put it in right when you pitch your yeast so that it can take an initial reading and then calculate ABV off of that?

I think I may have just found a use for one of the old pc's I have laying around :)
 
Xmas is coming real fast! This definately makes my list. I would think the people at Beersmith or promash would be very interested in integrating this into there software. GET A PATENT! if you dont someone will. Count me in for one if you come up with a price!
 
Holy crap, looks like everybody wants one. Ok Mansfield, you know I gotta be first on the list. Maybe I get a free one? :rockin:
 
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