Monitoring & Controlling Keezer/Fermentation Chamber remotely?

[jayskerdoo]

I am new to homebrewing, just a handful of easy ciders and kit beers under my belt. I do have a keezer, and am building a single carboy fermentation chamber right now. The former just uses an Inkbird ITC-308 for temperature control of the big upright chest freezer. I am also admittedly a total nerd when it comes to technology, and find myself wanting to monitor and control the temps of my current keezer and future fermentation chamber over the internet with my phone. There are so many cool brew tech products on the market and in the open source space, however I can't seem to find a temperature control setup that is cloud enabled and allows monitoring and control via an app, which sort of baffles me.

Am I alone in my desire to want to have both monitoring of and control to these environments? I think it would be awesome to know how the keezer or fermentation chamber temp is fluctuating on a particularly hot or cold day, and how the duty cycle of my freezers are doing, or to schedule a different serving temperature for a particular beverage on my way home from work, or to start a cold crash remotely when something like a Tilt Hydrometer tells me target is reached.

Is there a cloud-enabled temperature control unit that I am unaware of? Maybe something from a tangential market?

 

[doug293cz]

There is a WiFi version of the Inkbird ITC-308 available.

Brew on

 

[jayskerdoo]

There is a WiFi version of the Inkbird ITC-308 available.

Brew on

I figured that version only helped you to control it via wifi on your home network when you are connected, but after your comment I did some more digging and it looks cloud enabled. Awesome! Thanks for that, I think I will use one of those for the fermentation chamber, the price is still pretty good too.

It's too bad it's not PID temp control or anything, it would be nice if a brew tech company did a product that integrated with all this other great hardware and software, but hey it's a start. So many great pieces of gear like BrewPi, CraftBrewPi, iSpindel, Kegbot, Boozer, yet none of them really give much in the way of cloud features, which is what would really seal the deal for me. Brewfather seems to be getting there with at least getting the local data from some of these devices onto the cloud, same thing with Plaato, but no two way communication back down to the devices to control your gear. Brewfather pretty much just put out a nice, simple API for third parties to play nicely with, but nothing two way.

It does look like you can set a delay for refrigeration on the WIFI Inkbird if the freezer requires one though, that is nice and can help prolong the life of a keezer. Thanks again for sharing!

 

[crosschk]

There is a WiFi version of the Inkbird ITC-308 available.

Brew on

I second this. I have 2 inkbirds on wifi, one for keezer and one for a fermentation chamber like your setting up and it does indeed work away from home....just wish i can download the temp charts

 

[crosschk]

Btw, I just downloaded inkbird pro, and that does give you the ability to download data in csv, unlike inkbird smart

 

[Whisky River]

You might want to check out the Rapt Controller, I believe it’s WiFi enabled and works off a cloud based portal letting you control temp from anywhere and pre-plan temperature ramp schedules etc.

This is the description from a popular home brew supply website.
(No affiliation.)

Do you want to convert a refrigerator into a temperature controlled fermentation chamber or wine cellar, and want to be able to control things on your phone or desktop? The WI-FI enabled RAPT Temp Controller from KegLand connects to the free RAPT web portal (RAPT Cloud), and lets you create a temperature profile that can vary over time if desired. Get a spare refrigerator, put a small heating pad in it, and you have a inexpensive temperature controlled chamber that can be controlled from anywhere you have internet.

Once you set up an account on the free RAPT portal, register your controller and then develop temperature profiles which can vary over time if desired. For example, set it to ferment for 16 days at say 75° F., and then set it to 45°F. to cold crash on the 17th day. Then login to the portal at any time to see actual temperature,a temperature history, and of course change the temperature if needed.

The color screen displays current temperature, as well as a graph of future and past temperature ranges. The blue outlet plug hanging below connects to your cooling device, and the red plug connects to your electric heater if desired. Each power outlet is rated at 10 amps (1200 watts) maximum. You can set the control from -2° F to 246° F, and it is switchable from centigrade to fahrenheit.

 

[jayskerdoo]

You might want to check out the Rapt Controller, I believe it’s WiFi enabled and works off a cloud based portal letting you control temp from anywhere and pre-plan temperature ramp schedules etc.

This is the description from a popular home brew supply website.
(No affiliation.)

Do you want to convert a refrigerator into a temperature controlled fermentation chamber or wine cellar, and want to be able to control things on your phone or desktop? The WI-FI enabled RAPT Temp Controller from KegLand connects to the free RAPT web portal (RAPT Cloud), and lets you create a temperature profile that can vary over time if desired. Get a spare refrigerator, put a small heating pad in it, and you have a inexpensive temperature controlled chamber that can be controlled from anywhere you have internet.

Once you set up an account on the free RAPT portal, register your controller and then develop temperature profiles which can vary over time if desired. For example, set it to ferment for 16 days at say 75° F., and then set it to 45°F. to cold crash on the 17th day. Then login to the portal at any time to see actual temperature,a temperature history, and of course change the temperature if needed.

The color screen displays current temperature, as well as a graph of future and past temperature ranges. The blue outlet plug hanging below connects to your cooling device, and the red plug connects to your electric heater if desired. Each power outlet is rated at 10 amps (1200 watts) maximum. You can set the control from -2° F to 246° F, and it is switchable from centigrade to fahrenheit.

Wow, I am surprised I did not come across this in my research. It seems to be unobtainable at the moment but this is exactly the style of product I was looking for. Particularly one that is brewing related. Very cool. It appears to be sold out everywhere that I can find except maybe aliexpress and from the AU, and the app doesn't have fantastic reviews but this one looks hopeful. It looks like maybe these are imported to the US. It does have integration with that companies tilt style hydrometer too which is cool.

 

[jayskerdoo]

Curious if anyone here has actually used the RAPT and can comment on the performance of not only the hardware but more importantly the app?!

 

[DuncB]

Set up a server to allow you to tunnel to a brewpiless. Temperature control, pid, build from easy hardware, add in pressure monitoring and auto spunding to the brewpiless. You could also monitor your keg pressure via brewpiless. Not forgetting gravity mon on your ispindel to monitor ferment temp and gravity. Also variant of gravity mon to just monitor temperature so you can watch the keg fridge temp.
This thread also some options
Post in thread 'iSpindel' iSpindel

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Look into Fermentrack, it is super, you can put a Raspberry Pi in your DMZ and access it from anywhere.
It was developed and is supported by one of the users on this forum

 

[TinyRivers1]

Curious if anyone here has actually used the RAPT and can comment on the performance of not only the hardware but more importantly the app?!

I presently use the Inkbird ITC308S (the S model having a replaceable sensor vs the built in that comes with the wifi version). I also have a Rapt pill, reporting via wifi/cloud the temp, specific gravity, battery %, alcohal % (based on starting gravity info, etc.). So, in my fermentation chamber I can monitor the temps, via cell phone or computer, but I can not control the temp setting of the inkbird unless I physically control it.

The system worked great for my first batch. I tweaked as I went, and re-targeted my temp, after initial fermentation slowed. I'm pleased so far. I use a mini-fridge and a heat belt, and easily controlled temps to within .4 degrees celsius without the fridge compressor becoming compromised.

The pill is supposed to report every hour (telemetry), but I've had it hold out for 3 hours sometimes. Probably due more to my internet than the unit. The software could be better, and I still find myself confused by it, and the s.g. readings don't always report exactly as my hydrometer might (although it is possible to fine tune with more detailed calibration), but they come close enough, and feed me enough info that I'm happy with the set up.