tilt v.s. brew bug

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Arbe0

Arbe0

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I have been looking at the tilt Hydrometer and the Beer Bug. the Tilt Hydrometer is $120 and the beer bug looks like it can be between $150 and $250.
the extra $100 seems to make me want to get the Tilt Hydrometer unless I can get the Beer Bug for $150, but still the Tilt is cheaper.
Wondering if any one has any input on the Tilt V.S. the Beer Bug.
 
Arbe0 said:
I have been looking at the tilt Hydrometer and the Beer Bug. the Tilt Hydrometer is $120 and the beer bug looks like it can be between $150 and $250.
the extra $100 seems to make me want to get the Tilt Hydrometer unless I can get the Beer Bug for $150, but still the Tilt is cheaper.
Wondering if any one has any input on the Tilt V.S. the Beer Bug.
Click to expand...

I like the tilt (formerly known as brewometer) personally, used it for about a year. It's a very simple approach that works pretty well. I am trying to find an advantage of Beer Bug - perhaps it's that you can easily switch it from one airlock to another without having to fish out the tilt? I use Fermonsters lately so that's not an issue, and most of the time I wait till fermentation is done. Battery lasts about 4 months, I have a package of brand new ones bought very cheaply and can replace them once in a while, very easy.
 
good to hear, I have been leaning towards the Tilt mainly because of the cost. Getting ready to click on the Buy button unless someone can convince me otherwise.
 
What device are you using to collect data with the Tilt? I love the idea, but don't have a spare tablet or smartphone lying around for data acquisition. I would be great if they had one that would store the data for a day or two at a time and you could download it later - assuming I understand how it works correctly, which I may not.

Another thing that is a little disconcerting with the Tilt (again, if I understand correctly) is that it only works with their website; if they go under to device is worthless.
 
jmos said:
What device are you using to collect data with the Tilt? I love the idea, but don't have a spare tablet or smartphone lying around for data acquisition. I would be great if they had one that would store the data for a day or two at a time and you could download it later - assuming I understand how it works correctly, which I may not.

Another thing that is a little disconcerting with the Tilt (again, if I understand correctly) is that it only works with their website; if they go under to device is worthless.
Click to expand...

It's the other way around, the tilt runs on Bluetooth LE so there is no website involved, just a device with the app. I believe the beer bug is web dependant though.
 
I had both for a time.

The beer bug requires (required?) an active connection to their website at all times to function. Their site was down for at least 9 months, which means for 9 months I had a device that couldn't be used. They've recently gone through an ownership change, but I still recommend against this product based on both the original poor experience, and the terrible communication from the acquiring company as they took over.

The Tilt doesn't require any web access, but it does require that you have a device nearby that can log its output. Thankfully, a Raspberry Pi running a modified BrewPi counts. You can also use an android device.
 
nice to hear from others that have had experience with these. I will be using a tablet and maybe phone that would work with the recommendations.
By the way, just asking, if my PC (windows 10) has the latest blue tooth (which I already use for a speaker) could it be used to communicate with the tilt?
 
There's a pretty lengthy thread on here about the Tilt that I've been pretty active in. I used to be pretty enthusiastic about them, but somewhere along the way they started having some problem which have been noticed by others on here as well.

Before buying you might want to have a read through this post, which is my pretty honest review/opinion of the product, and this one detailing the response of the company when I reached out to them about some of those issues.
 
I got a Tilt for Christmas (best wife ever) and have used it for 3 brews with zero problems. The Google Sheet that "catches" the data took a bit to set up only because I had zero experience with it. I run it on a Used IPad 3 which I got on craigslist for $20.
 
Tilt and BrewPi, a match made in heaven

BrewPi-Tilt.PNG
 
Arbe0 said:
nice to hear from others that have had experience with these. I will be using a tablet and maybe phone that would work with the recommendations.
By the way, just asking, if my PC (windows 10) has the latest blue tooth (which I already use for a speaker) could it be used to communicate with the tilt?
Click to expand...

Check the Tilt site for a list of compatible tablets and phones. You need BT 4.0 + LE. Because it is LE, if your PC does have it, it will need to be fairly close to your fermenter to read it.

Before I had my BrewPi connected, I used my wife's iPhone to read the value once a day, but it is nice to watch the SG curve going down in BrewPi. (see post above with picture)

Stefan
 
I've only used it once so far, as that as all I have brewed since the purchase, and it worked out perfectly for me. I learned the hard way that the device that the Tilt communicates with needs to be in range of the Tilt. Luckily I had an old iPhone on hand that I used to set the Tilt app up on and left it at home.
 
Thanks for correcting my mixed recollections. I had read about both (I really like the idea) but had concerns.

I'd be really unlikely to buy hardware that will only work with the vendors website; too risky. I like the idea of the Tilt but will have to read the thread and see what the issues are.

Not having a device lying around to use also raises the cost of entry.
 
+1 for the Tilt... I own two now and think they're great for understanding where you are in the fermentation process. I still take a hydrometer sample at the end for my records but I can't imagine not using one of these things. The additional device thing could be an issue I suppose, but I simply use my phone when I'm nearby. I'm rebuilding my brewpi setup to handle two chambers and will incorporate the Tilt 'hack' into it.
 
jmos said:
.

I'd be really unlikely to buy hardware that will only work with the vendors website; too risky.
Click to expand...

Actually, it doesn't work with the vendor's website. It works with your Google account. You create a Google Spreadsheet that you deploy as a web app. That is where your data is logged. Not Tilt's site. :mug:
 
I got a Tilt for Christmas, I don't use a spare device with it. I just connect with my iPad a couple times a day before and after work, check the reading and it auto-logs it to the Google sheet. No real need for a dedicated device to get readings every few seconds, unless you just want to check it throughout the day when you are not home.
 
DrFun said:
No real need for a dedicated device to get readings every few seconds, unless you just want to check it throughout the day when you are not home.
Click to expand...

Agree with this. It is nice to be able to check the spreadsheet from work to see how things are going, but not really necessary. Everything connects back up when you get home with the device of your choice. A lot of data or a little data. Either way, it tells you where you are in the process. :ban:

Edit: A dedicated device is not necessary, but it is nice.
 
allanmorgan said:
Actually, it doesn't work with the vendor's website. It works with your Google account. You create a Google Spreadsheet that you deploy as a web app. That is where your data is logged. Not Tilt's site. :mug:
Click to expand...


I think he was referring to the Beer Bug which is tied to their cloud service. That alone disqualified them from consideration when I was looking at them. I need to see a solid track record for a company before I buy into a cloud service that could render my purchase a brick.
 
I don't think the brewpi updates allow for that and to be honest, I'm not sure you'd want to do that as the Tilt is better looked at as providing a fermentation trend, and as such the values can and do fluctuate in the short term.
 
True, I don't think that's possible right now, but it would be cool if BrewPi and Tilt would collaborate, you could probably base the set-point change off of an average SG over 12 - 24 hrs. For this type of application I wouldn't think pinpoint accuracy would be required.
 
I'm not savvy enough to develop this, but I was talking to a couple of other guys about tying these two elements together. My fermentation schedule is not perfect by any means with life sometimes getting in the way. It would be nice to have some thing that you could Ron Popeil, set it and forget it. Coupling this technology to a two stage temperature controller would be a nice tool for homebrewers. It would have to be fairly robust, easy to use and have the ability to manipulate settings by the user. I would be happy to set up some different fermentation profiles or enter SG milestones to transition from cooling to heating.
 
Thanks for this thread folks! Both of these units sound like "gadgets" to me instead of tools. I don't have money for gadgets. :)
jmark said:
I don't think the brewpi updates allow for that and to be honest, I'm not sure you'd want to do that as the Tilt is better looked at as providing a fermentation trend, and as such the values can and do fluctuate in the short term.
Click to expand...
 
jmark said:
I think he was referring to the Beer Bug which is tied to their cloud service.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction. That was one of the reasons I chose not to buy the Beer Bug. If they folded, all my data would go away too. :mug:
 
I'm not sure if you guys read my linked post earlier, but I've been a long time Tilt user, and by no means is it anywhere accurate/reliable enough to actually try to control a fermentation schedule. I would definitely advise anyone going down that path to read my post and the linked reviews there.
 
BurntOrngeLonghorn84 said:
Is it possible to use the tilts SG reading for the fermentation schedule?

Ex, when SG=1.046 increase temp to 68.
Click to expand...

Cascadesrunner said:
I'm not savvy enough to develop this, but I was talking to a couple of other guys about tying these two elements together. My fermentation schedule is not perfect by any means with life sometimes getting in the way. It would be nice to have some thing that you could Ron Popeil, set it and forget it. Coupling this technology to a two stage temperature controller would be a nice tool for homebrewers. It would have to be fairly robust, easy to use and have the ability to manipulate settings by the user. I would be happy to set up some different fermentation profiles or enter SG milestones to transition from cooling to heating.
Click to expand...

I've got this on the list at the moment.

The BrewPi controller effectively only has two real modes - Beer Constant and Fridge Constant. Beer "profile" is actually handled by the brewpi script which runs on the Raspberry Pi and could theoretically track any input that could be piped to it. Right now the only inputs that it receives are the time (from the Raspberry Pi) and - arguably - the temperature (from the BrewPi controller) but there is nothing preventing SG from being added as an input.
 
As other folks have pointed out, I'd think you need to use some averaged value for the SG to be of any use since it jumps around a lot. In addition, I wouldn't count on using the Tilt temperature at all for monitoring purposes... the Tilt temp is far less accurate than your typical brewpi probe.
 
I haven't perused the host-side BrewPi control code but intuitively if the PID functionality is expressed in the Arduino firmware then there's no reason for the host-side control code to ever know the beer or chamber temperature.

All that chunk of code needs to know - whether Beer Temp, Chamber Temp - or a Profile run - is what temperature setting to send to the Arduino - and in the Profile case each setting vs run time.

You may have to plumb a whole new case for that code to consider...

Cheers!
 
Thanks for the responses.

The biggest benefit I could see from the tilt is fermentation automation based on SG, but it seems like we're not there yet.

Otherwise it's something else I have to clean/sanitize. KISS.
 
While SG/temp automation is great, I just adjusted the beer profile by changing the day numbers. As soon as I saw that I was reaching TG, I moved the start of the diacetyl rest to that evening. And then adjusted the next steps accordingly. Yes, some manual work but all it took was five minutes. In the attached screenshot the '5' was originally '10', and all subsequent steps were 5 higher too, except the last

Stefan

BrewPi-Tilt2.PNG
 
BurntOrngeLonghorn84 said:
Thanks for the responses.

The biggest benefit I could see from the tilt is fermentation automation based on SG, but it seems like we're not there yet.

Otherwise it's something else I have to clean/sanitize. KISS.
Click to expand...

I think you are missing the point. The Tilt gives you the ability to "see" the SG at any point. The alternative is taking a sample, and unless you are using a conical with a tap, you have to sanitize the thief or other sample taker. Unless KISS for you means leave it for two weeks and then cold crash. That is how I USED to do it, I like having the contral now. Is it perfect, no, but it helps a lot

Stefan
 
Would be nice if someone had something that would just measure gravity like temperature contollers do, with a wired thing in the carboy and a monitor of some kind outside.
 
the tilt works okay. I think its very good for a relative reading and you know when fermentation is complete by the curve. I would buy another. I use an old iPhone on wifi to connect to google docs. It's kewl that I can watch the action from work using google docs...as you know grass can grow pretty fast at times.
 
So is a dedicated tablet needed for this? I was considering getting one, but I was just thinking I could go by my fermentor with my phone and get a reading. Would that not work?
 

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