New Tilt User..

[htims05]

I've googled this - why is my reading's going up. stayed flat all night after i finished the brew session but now this morning its going up quite a bit. Krausen?

I've read some people shake the carboy, others just leave it.

 

[matt_m]

Yes it will definitely do that. Krausen sometimes sticks for a long time too and floating in hop matter will affect it to. As will motion, so hopefully you don't have your carboy next to the washing machine.

Don't expect the Tilt to be a precision measuring device but rather a tool to show you where you are in the fermentation process. I calibrate every batch in Starsan to 1.0 (I know, its probably off 0.001 or 2) and then calibrate to match whatever my refractometer reads for my OG. The FG has been close enough I no longer compare to a regular hydrometer. since all I really care about is knowing the approximate ABV at that point. In between it *may* do all sorts of crazy stuff because its just a plastic tube floating in actively fermenting beer. The cloud log will show a definite profile over time though and it will be obvious on the chart when fermentation ends. I love mine since I ferment in stainless vessels and can't see anything besides blowoff activity unless I pull samples.

 

[htims05]

Right I knew it wasn't meant for precision...but I just had not read yet that it would go up as fermention gets started (I read krausen will make it read erroneously but I didn't correlate that to increase SG). Ill just let it sit and watch over time to know when it's done...

Thanks for the feedback!!

 

[Vale71]

It's most likely CO2 bubbles sticking to the Tilt tube causing it to tilt upwards and read a higher value.

 

[mongoose33]

Yes it will definitely do that. Krausen sometimes sticks for a long time too and floating in hop matter will affect it to. As will motion, so hopefully you don't have your carboy next to the washing machine.

Don't expect the Tilt to be a precision measuring device but rather a tool to show you where you are in the fermentation process. I calibrate every batch in Starsan to 1.0 (I know, its probably off 0.001 or 2) and then calibrate to match whatever my refractometer reads for my OG. The FG has been close enough I no longer compare to a regular hydrometer. since all I really care about is knowing the approximate ABV at that point. In between it *may* do all sorts of crazy stuff because its just a plastic tube floating in actively fermenting beer. The cloud log will show a definite profile over time though and it will be obvious on the chart when fermentation ends. I love mine since I ferment in stainless vessels and can't see anything besides blowoff activity unless I pull samples.

Mine almost always over-reads the gravity at the outset, but I don't much care about that--I always have a reading from the boil kettle anyway.

Where this thing really shines--at least in my experience--is late in fermentation. I primarily use it to determine when to close up my conical to allow late-fermentation carbonation. At the end, recently it's been within a point of hydrometer-measured gravity.