Brewometer kickstarter thoughts - digital bluetooth hydrometer

[user 204491]

So I see a way to save my theme, but I didn't edit that. I just went with one of the first ones on the page when I clicked the button to make a new site.

I can save the individual pages as templates, but from there I don't see a way to share the page template to someone else, just that I can select it as a template when I click on a new page in my site.

Honestly, it's pretty simple. You just use the insert menu and select chart, then select your sheet, and choose the chart from within your sheet.

 

[beskone]

Racked the beer into my kegs yesterday, the brewometer was sitting between 1.008 - 1.005 for the last 2 days. Pulled a sample and my hydrometer read 1.005 on the money. So pretty good results. I'm well pleased with this thing.

Can't wait to brew the next batch with it!

 

[jpakstis]

I don't have the expertise, the tools, or the knowhow to build a tracking database, but I have to say, its a lot of fun "following along" on my phone. I check in whenever I'm in the area (I keep the fermenting bucket in the basement). Temperature has been consistent and it dropped almost twenty gravity points over the first day. Pretty fascinating stuff.

 

[jmitchell3]

so here's a question. I calibrated temp and gravity of my Brewometer in distilled water last night, it read right at 1.000 and on temp (amazing!).

I measured (via hydrometer) my post boil gravity last night at 1.046 (hydro is off by +.003 pts, so it read 1.049) at 122F and a 60F calibration temp-> this works out to 1.057 SG.

Threw my Brewometer in the fermenter after it was cool and it read 1.050 almost immediately. Which surprised me.

Got up around 3am and checked, Brewometer was at 1.049. I then checked with my hydrometer (in the fermenter) and it read 1.052, or 1.049 after correction for instrument error. Which matched the brewometer perfectly.

so here is the question: 1) could the beer have fermented 7 pts in 6 hours or 2) is something wrong with my hydrometer? I recalibrated it in distilled water this morning and the instrument error was the same, its reading 3 pts high...

 

[LBussy]

Your beer could absolutely have attenuated 0.007 pts in 6 hours. If both of them agree, the most likely answer is yes.

A hydrometer can be off. It's just a piece of paper in a glass tube. I had one that used to move around if I shook it. Crazy.

 

[beskone]

No it's possible it dropped 6 points already. It's pretty amazing how fast the yeasties go to work. My first brew using the brewometer was mostly complete within the first 72 hours, hitting FG on day 4.

 

[jmitchell3]

lol, pretty sure the paper isn't loose...that's definitely one of those preflight checks for brewday! Thanks for the feedback, just thought it was weird they were 7pts off from one another to start, then matched up at t+6 exactly. maybe the brewometer needed some time to acclimate.

 

[Murphys_Law]

I'm certainly not a wiz on spreadsheets so how would you set up a graph to only measure the AVG SG and Temp for a day, and then just use one-day plots on the time line?

 

[AF1HomeBrew]

The BrewOMeter that I purchased on 4/22 arrived on Saturday. Just had a moment to see if works with my iPhone 5S and/or my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. Works with the iPhone of course, but not my Galaxy Tab 2 tablet due to it having v3 bluetooth. I was hoping the tablet would work with it since I rarely use it anymore.

edit: Also just tried it in my Haier 7.2 cu.ft. chest freezer closed, and I was able to put my iPhone around 10 ft away and it had no problems giving updates. Next brew I will definitely give it try.

 

[BrunDog]

Per above it takes some time for the temp to catch up in the brewometer. I would give it 20 minutes or so in beer before reading it. Also remember that hydrometers need to be adjusted for the fluid temp.

 

[tiputus]

So I see a way to save my theme, but I didn't edit that. I just went with one of the first ones on the page when I clicked the button to make a new site.

I can save the individual pages as templates, but from there I don't see a way to share the page template to someone else, just that I can select it as a template when I click on a new page in my site.

Honestly, it's pretty simple. You just use the insert menu and select chart, then select your sheet, and choose the chart from within your sheet.

Ok. Roger that. I'll make my own from scratch. Learning new things isn't bad thing anyways, and as you said it seems to be quite simple. I've one question though.

Does this part update automatically?:

"Fermentation Chamber 1

Beer Name: Le Roi Jaune (Batch 2)
Beer Style: Sour Blonde
Brew Date: 2016-05-07
Grain Bill: Belgian pilsner & flaked wheat
Hops Bill: Styrian Goldings & Sterling
Yeast/Bacteria: House Bug Culture
Other Ingredients: "

or do you update it manually every time you start new batch?

 

[user 204491]

I manually update that. I was updating my signature here when I brewed stuff, so this really isn't much more effort.

 

[raysmithtx]

Amazon Fires are cheap right now. Great customer service there too, so if it doesn't work, send it back without pain.

Just a heads up....
The Amazon Fire does not come standard with Google Play installed. That is needed to download the Brewometer app. You have to kind of 'hack' the Fire tablet to get the app installed since Amazon doesn't want you to use Google. They want you to use Amazon. Imagine that.

I had a couple of false starts googling how to do it but eventually found a youtube video that explained it. It appears to be working fine now.

 

[user 204491]

So as you can see on my tracking chart (Fermentation Chamber 1 here), I'm starting to see those wild temperature swings again. When possible I've gone out and checked on these, and the temp of the beer is not lining up to the temp the Brewometer is reading. It's basically swinging 5 degrees in both directions over the course of 3-4 hours from what's actually going on.

So, for example, it will bottom out at 76F at 6 am. By 7:30 am it has swung up to 86F, only then to come back down to 76F around 9 am again. The entire time the beer is (more or less) at 80F.

Again, this was perfectly calibrated with water (after allowing it to acclimate) prior to dropping it in the beer.

My hypothesis at this point is that the fan in this fermentation chamber is causing problems with the reading. It's set to only come on when the heat does, but it's pointing at the fermenter. So I'm hypothesizing that when it does kick on it has an impact on the part of the Brewometer that is exposed to the air. When I get home this evening I'm going to unplug the fan and see if these swings go away.

If not, I'm stumped, and I'll let the developer know what is going on. I've got my second Brewometer ready to do, and I'll be putting it in some beer this weekend, so it will be interesting to see how it fares since this will be a different fermenter, different fermentation chamber, etc.

 

[BrunDog]

Just a heads up....

The Amazon Fire does not come standard with Google Play installed. That is needed to download the Brewometer app. You have to kind of 'hack' the Fire tablet to get the app installed since Amazon doesn't want you to use Google. They want you to use Amazon. Imagine that.



I had a couple of false starts googling how to do it but eventually found a youtube video that explained it. It appears to be working fine now.

Yes, I do recall changing a setting to allow "outside" app stores. If you don't mind, pls post the link how to do it here.

 

[BrunDog]

How does the fan's air hit the Brewometer? Are you doing open fermentation?

 

[user 204491]

No, not open fermentation; however, a bit of the Brewometer (which is relatively close to the temp sensor on the board) floats just above the surface of the liquid when it is in use. This part of the Brewometer has only the plastic of the fermenter to keep it insulated, while the rest of the unit sits below the surface of the liquid, so it has that thermal mass as its insulator.

Again, just a hypothesis I'll explore, as beyond that I can't explain this aside from a malfunctioning unit or that it just plain doesn't work as it should.

The odd thing is that if you check my previous fermentation (the graph below that one) you'll notice the exact same sort of flakiness once fermentation had nearly finished, which is also when this one started happening.

 

[Natdavis777]

Got a check for my birthday from the father in law, and some cash from my mother. When these monetary figures combine, they create.... A Brewometer!! Already have the app downloaded. Cant wait to put this bad boy to use.

 

[BobOki]

Welcome to the club! So far I love mine. EVen before we calibrated them, I know mine was coming in within 1-3 f of the temps and looks like pretty darn close to the proper gravity too. I threw together a quick google site off of drgonzo2k2 suggestions and sheet and already am loving the ease of that. So glad he took the time to play with this and publish his sheet, hats off to him. Feel free to look at my sitting in water readings as Sitting in water

 

[BobOki]

No, not open fermentation; however, a bit of the Brewometer (which is relatively close to the temp sensor on the board) floats just above the surface of the liquid when it is in use. This part of the Brewometer has only the plastic of the fermenter to keep it insulated, while the rest of the unit sits below the surface of the liquid, so it has that thermal mass as its insulator.

Again, just a hypothesis I'll explore, as beyond that I can't explain this aside from a malfunctioning unit or that it just plain doesn't work as it should.

The odd thing is that if you check my previous fermentation (the graph below that one) you'll notice the exact same sort of flakiness once fermentation had nearly finished, which is also when this one started happening.

I wonder if the fan was causing changes to the atmospheric pressure around the container, which would indeed change the pressure inside the vessel which very much could throw off your readings a tad. A little bit of a stretch, but when we are talking .01 of a gravity reading, not outside the realm of impossible.

 

[raysmithtx]

Yes, I do recall changing a setting to allow "outside" app stores. If you don't mind, pls post the link how to do it here.

It took me three tries on different websites but this one works. Just be sure to follow the exact order of activating the programs or it will not work. He mentions it in the video but almost in passing.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiKtPHe89LMAhWF4SYKHQmQDcQQtwIIKjAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DuAIBOXzeEk4&usg=AFQjCNGhUSqzwVQRznAlqtwkWjbM52JLIg&sig2=6STCdVY61deHLrSFrxYTLw&bvm=bv.121658157,d.eWE

 

[raysmithtx]

While testing the Amazon Fire tablet today I went ahead and added some gauges for a better presentation (at least to me) of the data.

Here's the link to the spreadsheet. Just click on the Gauges sheet at the bottom. Note this is not an actual fermentation, it's just me playing with some data with the Brewometer setting on my desk connected to the Fire tablet.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iA4FZvUYQdhhV_lyE_xAg8lkoKjlqCeMGcfa7h9G1D0/edit?usp=sharing

 

[BrunDog]

No, not open fermentation; however, a bit of the Brewometer (which is relatively close to the temp sensor on the board) floats just above the surface of the liquid when it is in use. This part of the Brewometer has only the plastic of the fermenter to keep it insulated, while the rest of the unit sits below the surface of the liquid, so it has that thermal mass as its insulator.

Again, just a hypothesis I'll explore, as beyond that I can't explain this aside from a malfunctioning unit or that it just plain doesn't work as it should.

The odd thing is that if you check my previous fermentation (the graph below that one) you'll notice the exact same sort of flakiness once fermentation had nearly finished, which is also when this one started happening.

I have one so know about the non-submerged section. What I don't understand is how the fanned air gets to it.

 

[user 204491]

I have one so know about the non-submerged section. What I don't understand is how the fanned air gets to it.

Hah, I know you have one! What I was meaning is that the fan is blowing on the plastic of the fermenter (which is not a very good insulator), and above the beer, inside the fermenter is just air.

So the impact of the fan blowing on the fermenter is probably greater on the air inside the fermenter than the liquid in the fermenter.

Hopefully that makes sense?

 

[BrunDog]

I wonder if the fan was causing changes to the atmospheric pressure around the container, which would indeed change the pressure inside the vessel which very much could throw off your readings a tad. A little bit of a stretch, but when we are talking .01 of a gravity reading, not outside the realm of impossible.

Why would a pressure change in the vessel affect the reading? The Brewometer is measuring the liquid's density. Liquid is non-compressible (comparably to a gas anyway). Density is the weight:volume ratio, neither of which are changed by small atmospheric pressure changes.

 

[BobOki]

Correct, however if the pressure is increased the air molecules in the liquid compress which causes the floating brewometer to lower a little bit, this throwing off gravity readings.

Science project, get your brewometer in water that is about to freeze. As the water starts to change to a solid gas is pushed out and the gravity should also change. This would be the same as different pressure on the vessel, but without the temperature differential that you could compensate for. Again, a long shot, but could be it.

 

[BrunDog]

Sorry Bob, that's not how it works. Liquid is non-compressible.

Also, if the density of the liquid increases, the Brewometer floats higher, not lower.

Finally, water is one of the rare birds where the density decreases when it freezes. Otherwise ice skates would never have been invented.

 

[EternalHoppiness]

Hah, I know you have one! What I was meaning is that the fan is blowing on the plastic of the fermenter (which is not a very good insulator), and above the beer, inside the fermenter is just air.

So the impact of the fan blowing on the fermenter is probably greater on the air inside the fermenter than the liquid in the fermenter.

Hopefully that makes sense?

drgonzo2k2, what is your alternate temp measurement method (temp controller?), and where is that probe? It looks possible that these are actual temp cycles of your heater/cooler, and they are just larger at the brewometer (near surface) than at the controller probe due to stratification.

As you noted, it appears that temp readings start to fluctuate after fermentation is done, and looking at your data they appear to cycle somewhat regularly. While fermenting, the wort/beer will be moving, and as a result the temperature is fairly constant throughout. However once fermentation stops, there can be large gradients across the fermenter. I see this in my better bottles during cold crashing where I'll get ice on the surface, even when the probe in a deep thermowell reads 35 degrees.

Coincidentally, ice near the surface when cold crashing could also explain odd SG fluctuations with temp, since the brewometer is definitely in that "near surface" regime. (I think you saw this problem, but apologies if I am misremembering, as that was several pages earlier in the thread).

Anyway, just a thought. My brewometer is sitting in RO water waiting for it's maiden beer voyage in my next brew on Sunday. Data looks good so far, though, and I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.

Thanks to all who posted their experiences and spreadsheets here for reference.

edit: if your temp controller probe is in a deep thermowell, you might be able to test/debunk this theory by moving the thermowell and probe closer to the surface. . .

 

[user 204491]

drgonzo2k2, what is your alternate temp measurement method (temp controller?), and where is that probe? It looks possible that these are actual temp cycles of your heater/cooler, and they are just larger at the brewometer (near surface) than at the controller probe due to stratification.

As you noted, it appears that temp readings start to fluctuate after fermentation is done, and looking at your data they appear to cycle somewhat regularly. While fermenting, the wort/beer will be moving, and as a result the temperature is fairly constant throughout. However once fermentation stops, there can be large gradients across the fermenter. I see this in my better bottles during cold crashing where I'll get ice on the surface, even when the probe in a deep thermowell reads 35 degrees.

Coincidentally, ice near the surface when cold crashing could also explain odd SG fluctuations with temp, since the brewometer is definitely in that "near surface" regime. (I think you saw this problem, but apologies if I am misremembering, as that was several pages earlier in the thread).

Anyway, just a thought. My brewometer is sitting in RO water waiting for it's maiden beer voyage in my next brew on Sunday. Data looks good so far, though, and I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.

Thanks to all who posted their experiences and spreadsheets here for reference.

edit: if your temp controller probe is in a deep thermowell, you might be able to test/debunk this theory by moving the thermowell and probe closer to the surface. . .

Yeah, ya know, I was starting to come to the conclusion last night. After unplugging the fan the temp swings didn't improve, they actually got worse! I think this is because with the fan the hot air was circulating so it was more effective at warming up the beer. With no circulation the entire chamber had to get much warmer to have the same impact.

This morning I checked and my beer was at 80F, but the Brewometer was reading 93F, and when I opened the chamber up it was definitely very warm near the top. Since heat rises, this makes sense that the top of the chamber would have much warmer air.

My current setup is a thermowell that enters my fermenter from the side, not the top. It is located about halfway down the fermenter, and the probe of my ITC-1000 goes into the thermowell with some thermal paste for good temperature transfer. I've checked the calibration on the unit multiple times, and it is always within 1F of my Thermapen, so I think it is fairly accurate.

Still though, I think this problem is exacerbated by the fact that the Brewometer measures the air temp inside the unit, instead of measuring the actual temp of the liquid, and the part of the board with the temp sensor is located very near the top part that floats above the surface of the liquid.

When I first put this particular Brewometer in this beer, allowed it to acclimate to the temp of the wort for over an hour, and noticed the temp was way off I compared it to the temp reading I took using the long "brewer's probe" for my thermometer, and that reading was within 1F of what the reading from my thermowell was reading. Of course at that point I had not gone through a series of heating/cooling cycles. And of course you are also correct that the beer is moving around quite a bit during fermentation, so these cycles show up post-fermentation as the beer isn't moving much.

And yeah, I think this temp stratification could also be causing those correlated gravity swings with temp swings during the cold crashing stage.

I think my next option is to try switching the fan so it's always running in the chamber so there's always air circulating, which will hopefully lead to less temp stratification.

It will also be really interesting to see how this graph compares to the one I get from my other fermenter and fermentation chamber when I brew on Saturday.

 

[user 204491]

Well, I've had my replacement Brewometer in fermenting beer for just over a week now and my new one for just about a day now.

Overall I am pretty pleased with my purchase/setup, and I'd highly recommend it to other folks.

The updated sheet I'm using for tracking is here, and the site I put together to show off the charts is here

I think we were correct that temperature stratification was what was causing the difference in readings between my ITC-1000 probe and the orange Brewometer (top graph on the site). You can see that when I removed the fan altogether (5/11 - 5/12) things just went crazy, and when I set the fan to be always running, on high, things were greatly improved (5/13 on). Basically the small curves we're seeing now are just the regular cooling/heating cycle of the chamber for this particular ferment. The chamber is set at 80F with a 2F differential set, and you can see as it quite regularly bottoms out at 77-78F and then peaks in the 82-83F range. Every time I've been in my brew this weekend I've checked, and the Brewometer has been reading within 1F of what my ITC-1000 was. Keeping into account the +/- 2F accuracy of the Brewometer I think this is pretty darn good.

Plus, I even learned something about my fermentation chamber, and it seems that leaving the fan running is much better for my beer as it keeps the temp stratification down. Can't beat that!

The second beer is just getting going, but it was pretty cool to see how quickly fermentation started after pitching (about 7 hours). I'm going to keep a close watch on this one and see about updating my "quick turn" fermentations, as so far I've been too lazy to actually go take readings every day, so I just leave it for 5 days, ramp temp for 2 days, then dry hop or cold crash depending on what I'm doing. Now I can see if that's a good schedule or adjust per beer.

The one thing that has been constant with both units (and I let the developer know), is that despite being calibrated to water immediately before dropping them in the fermenter, they have both had low gravity readings as soon as I drop them in the wort. The orange one was low by 12 points, and the green one was low by 9 points. This was after letting them acclimate for over an hour, jostling the fermenter to make sure they weren't stuck, etc. Both were pretty spot on for temp, but I did have to re-calibrate the gravity. Once I did that they were A-OK. For now I'll just add an "adjust brewometer" step to my brew day, but it would be good to know why that's happening or if others are running into the same problem.

 

[BrunDog]

Nice. I brewed a ~1050 Pale Ale Saturday afternoon and my hydrometer claimed 1049. The Brewometer said 1051 after about 30 mins. Temp was pretty much dead on too.

I personally could care less if the SG or the temp are off a point/degree or two. I will still probably take hydro samples pre and post to enter into my log as a matter of habit. I am more interested in trends and being able to monitor remotely, and so far this thing delivers.

Which reminds me... I rarely use dry yeast but I did on this brew because I didn't have time to make a starter. Rehydrated a packet of US-05 for 5.5 gals of oxygenated wort the in the fermenter. Damn lag time is way too much for my liking. 24 hours post pitch, but it still was showing no signs of life (Brewometer nor airlock). 36 it was starting to get going, but not with much vigor. Now at 48 hours, it's down to 1048... Gimme a break! 1500ml liquid starter would be half fermented by now.

 

[user 204491]

Yeah, totally agree with that. I will still use sample pre and post to get more accurate measurements, but this thing is great for showing trends and giving you a pretty close picture to where you're sitting at any given point. I'm sold. If I had more fermentation chambers I'd already be ordering more

Agreed on the dry yeast vs. starter, especially after seeing on my recent pale ale (sounds similar to yours) that fermentation was going 7 hours after pitch. I think it'll be done at the 48 hour mark if not sooner. That's a 2L starter for a 6 gallon batch, which is my general SOP.

It was also pretty cool to learn something about my fermentation chamber's performance from it and be able to make an adjustment leading to tighter temperature control.

 

[jmitchell3]

Nice. I brewed a ~1050 Pale Ale Saturday afternoon and my hydrometer claimed 1049. The Brewometer said 1051 after about 30 mins. Temp was pretty much dead on too.

I personally could care less if the SG or the temp are off a point/degree or two. I will still probably take hydro samples pre and post to enter into my log as a matter of habit. I am more interested in trends and being able to monitor remotely, and so far this thing delivers.

Which reminds me... I rarely use dry yeast but I did on this brew because I didn't have time to make a starter. Rehydrated a packet of US-05 for 5.5 gals of oxygenated wort the in the fermenter. Damn lag time is way too much for my liking. 24 hours post pitch, but it still was showing no signs of life (Brewometer nor airlock). 36 it was starting to get going, but not with much vigor. Now at 48 hours, it's down to 1048... Gimme a break! 1500ml liquid starter would be half fermented by now.

Pitch 2 packs or at least 22g and see how it does...

 

[EternalHoppiness]

Cool, thanks drgonzo2k2 for posting your updated spreadsheet. I definitely agree that it's great to learn things about your fermentation setup using this. I am really curious to see how much my temps swing during cold crash.

I put mine in a batch of IPA yesterday. Hydrometer read 1.063, and brewometer registered 1.065 (after calibrating zero in RO). I'm happy with that accuracy. After pitching the starter (750 ml after decanting), it dropped immediately to ~1.059. The color/cloudiness of the starter made it apparent that the starter was mostly confined to the top 2 inches of the fermenter, so that SG change makes sense. It wasn't until about 12 hours later that the yeast got things moving enough that the measured SG went back up a few points (but not back up to OG since it was now fermenting). I don't know about your setup, drgonzo2k2 but I wonder if you have similar starter stratification that is causing your initial low readings?

@BrunDog, I have similar slow starts when using US-05. At one point I had convinced myself that it was worse when I oxygenated (maybe causing a longer lag phase?), but I'm not sure this was really true. If it really is just a longer lag phase due to absorbing more O2, then I don't know if it's really a problem, but I usually avoid US-05 if I have time for a starter.

 

[BrunDog]

Pitch 2 packs or at least 22g and see how it does...

I probably should have.

 

[user 204491]

After pitching the starter (750 ml after decanting), it dropped immediately to ~1.059. The color/cloudiness of the starter made it apparent that the starter was mostly confined to the top 2 inches of the fermenter, so that SG change makes sense. It wasn't until about 12 hours later that the yeast got things moving enough that the measured SG went back up a few points (but not back up to OG since it was now fermenting). I don't know about your setup, drgonzo2k2 but I wonder if you have similar starter stratification that is causing your initial low readings?

That's an interesting theory. I pitch my yeast and oxygenate for 60 seconds prior to dropping in the Brewometer. When I oxygenate I swirl my wand around the fermenter, so I think it does a pretty good job of mixing everything up. So while I'd expect it could read a few points lower than my pre-pitch gravity, I don't think it could drop as much as 9-12 points? Looking at a dilution calculator, for my 6 gallons of 1.053 wort, to drop it down to 1.044 I would need to add 1.23 gallons of water. I'm assuming that's water at 1.0 SG, while I'm pitching in starter wort which I'd imagine is in the 1.1(ish) SG range (coming down from 1.04).

I would also expect that if dilution was causing it, after some time that things have been sufficiently mixed, it should bump back up to near what my hydrometer read, thus negating the calibration I started, but in two instances I didn't notice that happening. It'll be interesting to see what these two units read in water once I'm done with my fermentation.

Oddly enough I heard back from the developers yesterday and they completely skipped addressing this question in my last email to them. I think I'll email them back and point it out to see if they have any input.

 

[HLSheppard]

The last batch I brewed (5 gal. Westy 12 clone) read 1.085 on a standard hydrometer. I pitched my starter 1.8L starter that had a good 1/2" + of slurry (only the slurry was pitched). I oxygenated as usual (60 seconds with a wand).

A short while after I added the Brewometer, it read 1.075. The temp was right on, though.

 

[user 204491]

That seems pretty consistent with my experience these last two times as well. Once my gravity was off by 9 points and another time it was off by 12. I calibrated it to my hydrometer reading, and it remained spot on after that. It sounds like you only pitched 1/2" of slurry out of your 2L flask, so I don't see how that possibly could have diluted the gravity of your wort by 10 points.

I also left mine for over an hour (the second one for close to 90 minutes if I recall correctly), and the gravity reading never adjusted itself at all (it did bob around a point or two as usual). The temp matched up after only 5-10 minutes though.

Even if the large volume of yeast in suspension, or the low gravity starter wort, was at the top of the fermenter and throwing off gravity readings initially, I would think after 90 minutes things would start to settle out and the reading would adjust some, but for me that was not the case.

I haven't had a chance to get back to the developer yet, but I will try to do so today to see what they say. It will also be interesting to see what the units read in water when I'm done with my fermentation.

 

[LBussy]

Decisions decisions ... this or a BrewPi Spark!

 

[EternalHoppiness]

That's an interesting theory. I pitch my yeast and oxygenate for 60 seconds prior to dropping in the Brewometer. When I oxygenate I swirl my wand around the fermenter, so I think it does a pretty good job of mixing everything up. So while I'd expect it could read a few points lower than my pre-pitch gravity, I don't think it could drop as much as 9-12 points? Looking at a dilution calculator, for my 6 gallons of 1.053 wort, to drop it down to 1.044 I would need to add 1.23 gallons of water. I'm assuming that's water at 1.0 SG, while I'm pitching in starter wort which I'd imagine is in the 1.1(ish) SG range (coming down from 1.04).

Yeah, if you are oxygenating after pitching, then I would be surprised if your starter didn't mix in well. I do the opposite and oxygenate before pitching, so it doesn't mix much until fermentation starts. So yeah, I'm out of ideas.

For my case, if I assume the starter (750 ml @ 1.012) is in the top 2 gallons of the wort (OG of 1.063), then that works out to about 1.058 combined, pretty consistent with my measurements. This thing is pretty cool. I'm looking forward to using it on a lager so I know when to ramp temps.