Continuous Gravity/Temp Readings via the Internet ... Is it possible?

[CenturyStanding]

Hey Everyone,

So, I'm currently living in a small apartment in the NYC area, which doesn't allow me much room to brew. Luckily, I have relatives who own a house 30 minutes away and let me use their basement for brewing/fermenting/etc. However, because I'm not there often, checking on the beer for gravity and temp can be a REAL pain in the ass and requires an hour of travel time.

So, I'm wondering if there is some way to install a digital continuous reading thermometer and hydrometer inside the fermentor, then run it to an old PC, which will calculate the results continuously. This way, I could connect to the PC remotely at any given time from a laptop or smartphone and see what's going on with my beer in real time.

Does anything like this exist? Has anyone done it before? What are your thoughts? Any glaring problems?

 

[motobrewer]

do they make digital floating hydrometers?

 

[jaobrien6]

Temperature, definitely. A friend did it for his smoker so he could track the meat and air temp. The gravity is gonna be the tough one. I haven't seen a digital hydrometer. As motobrewer said, does it exist?

 

[CenturyStanding]

I know they make continuous reading hydrometers for fish tanks. Maybe there's something in the aquarium world like that?

 

[motobrewer]

http://fermonitor.com/fermonitor_presale_002.htm

guess it's been discussed here before:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/digital-hydrometer-100412/

 

[goybar]

How about a web cam with Brew Balls?


Chris

 

[rhltechie]

How about a web cam with Brew Balls?


Chris

Wow...thats a really good idea!

 

[lmerg]

If this hasn't been done, it should be. Sounds like a great project for a network administrator or the like.

 

[bad coffee]

Why not just do some temp control and just wait 3 weeks from pitch to rack? To me all that work/programming could be put to use elsewhere in the brewery.

B

 

[adam01]

What do you do when you know the temp/gravity ? Push the rack button ?

 

[CenturyStanding]

Why not just do some temp control and just wait 3 weeks from pitch to rack? To me all that work/programming could be put to use elsewhere in the brewery.

Because the fermentation might get stuck. Or not start at all. Or not attenuate as well as wanted. I drive an hour to check on it ever few days just to keep up on the progress. It'd be efficient because I could monitor it from my phone and only head over when I physically need to do something.

What do you do when you know the temp/gravity ? Push the rack button ?

No, but I'd know when to head to the house and take care of things.

 

[Germelli1]

What if you did the brewing at the realatives', but the fermenting in your apartment...would that require space you dont have?

 

[musick]

A HOBO Temperature Data Logger is an expensive solution ($75 for the unit + $100 for the software and you may need additional parts), but I do believe it can be wired to a computer.

Please confirm this before taking my advice as fact as I have only used them to track temperatures via internal memory.

 

[wilceaser]

I have an great idea and won't cost you a dime, your fermenting and brewing at a relatives house correct?
Why not just take this opportnuity to educate them and get them into the hobby?

 

[motobrewer]

Because the fermentation might get stuck. Or not start at all. Or not attenuate as well as wanted. I drive an hour to check on it ever few days just to keep up on the progress. It'd be efficient because I could monitor it from my phone and only head over when I physically need to do something.



No, but I'd know when to head to the house and take care of things.

how long have you been brewing?

once you have your process down, gravity readings are really just "good to knows"

 

[phatuna]

how long have you been brewing?

once you have your process down, gravity readings are really just "good to knows"

Moto's got a good point here. I have not checked gravity throughout fermentation since my first couple of brews.

Now, I pitch - check temp in a day or two, make sure I've got a few bubbles, then wait 3 weeks.

I would suggest investing in some temp control and leave it at that.

 

[Grummle]

I'm currently reading the 'Yeast' book and he referrers to how most brewers treat everything after pitching as 'magical'. I'd like to know more without danger of contamination. So I've been trying to come up with ways to do this with as little risk as possible. I've been really suprised by the number of times I get shot down as 'wasting effort and time' by people. Its disheartening really.

 

[RiverCityBrewer]

Hmm, not quite remote reading, but for the cost of this I might pick one up and see what I can do with it.

http://www.labplanet.com/mettler-to...-gravity-density-meter-mettler-toledo-51.html

 

[Vance71975]

Hey Everyone,

So, I'm currently living in a small apartment in the NYC area, which doesn't allow me much room to brew. Luckily, I have relatives who own a house 30 minutes away and let me use their basement for brewing/fermenting/etc. However, because I'm not there often, checking on the beer for gravity and temp can be a REAL pain in the ass and requires an hour of travel time.

So, I'm wondering if there is some way to install a digital continuous reading thermometer and hydrometer inside the fermentor, then run it to an old PC, which will calculate the results continuously. This way, I could connect to the PC remotely at any given time from a laptop or smartphone and see what's going on with my beer in real time.

Does anything like this exist? Has anyone done it before? What are your thoughts? Any glaring problems?

With enough money and a die hard tech geek, anything is possible. But it will cost an arm and a leg likely lol.

 

[eastoak]

the brew balls idea seems the simplest and cheapest. i would have my relative go down and see which balls are where, or the web cam if you have it like that.

 

[erikhild59]

How about a web cam with Brew Balls?

Chris

This and a fermometer in conjunction with a webcam and a remote control thermostat . No problem! Lol!

 

[LordUlrich]

This is something I have been looking into for a while. What i was thinking (and did some calcs for feasibility) is put something that will just sink into the fermenter suspended from a load cell (a bit expensive). knowing the weight suspended in pure water and the weight suspended in your wort/beer you can calculate the SG of your wort/beer.

 

[robtotten]

That's a seriously great idea. Brilliant! Stick a temperature strip on the side of the carboy so you have a decent idea of what's going on in the beer. Maybe get a cam with a flash to take a picture once every six (12?) hours, that way you can leave it in a dark room without worrying too much about light exposure. You could see when the krausen drops, the rough (since those strips aren't 100% accurate) temperature, and the rough (since the brewballs only show every 5 points or so) gravity of the batch every few hours.

How about a web cam with Brew Balls?


Chris

 

[kladue]

I think the MT densiometer price is a bit more than just the memo paper accessory quote, http://www.amazon.com/Mettler-Toledo-Resolution-Portable-Interface/dp/B003P9WRAE.

 

[Special Hops]

Just keep it simple. Teach one of your relatives how to take some readings.