SG reading from tilt and refractometer

[oxonbrew]

Hi All,

I brewed a cream ale yesterday and when I took a final gravity reading I get ~1.041 with my hydrometer and by tilt read ~1.051 quite a difference. This was at ~66F (19C).

I've brewed many all grain batches now and have used the tilt for a few years, I've never seen this kind of discrepancy before. I did calibrate the tilt in water before throwing it in.

Has anyone else experienced this? Could it be stratification? I'm not sure which value to believe?

Thanks!

 

[Chorgey]

I am going through the same exact thing. My hydrometer was at 1.043 and the tilt was at 1.052. Like you, I calibrated the tilt in water before placing it in the wort. I have contacted tilt and they want me to show them the pictures of the calibration screen and a picture of the tilt but since mine is in it’s final stages of fermentation, I will wait until it’s complete. I have the second generation tilt and the tilt 2 app. I was also going to see what my final hydrometer reading would be against what tilt was reporting.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Have you checked the calibration on your hydrometer? It's rare, and usually caused by it being broken, but a hydrometer COULD be off. Check the hydrometer in water and verify it reads 1.000. Honestly, I'd ALWAYS believe the hydrometer over the tilt, as long as you know your hydrometer is accurate. You just need to check it.

Is the battery in the tilt going bad? Not sure if that would have an effect but something to look at.

With my tilt, I always calibrate in water and when I drop it in the fermenter, I calibrate to the OG of the wort. So if I know that my hydrometer reads 1.041 post boil, I'll add another calibration point at 1.041 to the tilt once it's in the fermenter. The more calibration points you have, the more accurate it is.

The only other thing I could think of is if you had a bad calibration point on the tilt when you put it in...? I always clear my calibration points after each use and reset them.

 

[wepeeler]

I've been in constant contact with Tilt for about 3 weeks now regarding SG issues. They told me not to calibrate in water and to just drop them in the wort. I will always trust my manual hydrometer reading first. One of my Tilts seems to be fairly accurate, and the other seems to be a few points low. I use the Tilts for the trend and for getting close to FG (for dry hopping), but it would be nice if a $135 piece of high tech equipment would work a well as a $15 hyrdrometer

 

[VikeMan]

They told me not to calibrate in water and to just drop them in the wort.

Are they saying you shouldn't calibrate at all, or that you shouldn't use water to do it? If the latter, what are you supposed to use? (I don't own a tilt, but am curious.)

 

[wepeeler]

Are they saying you shouldn't calibrate at all, or that you shouldn't use water to do it? If the latter, what are you supposed to use? (I don't own a tilt, but am curious.)

Quote from tech support email: "Uninstall then reinstall the Tilt 2 app. You can calibrate in water if you like. Might not be necissary (sp) though. Give it a test. I'm here to help."

 

[Rob2010SS]

Quote from tech support email: "Uninstall then reinstall the Tilt 2 app. You can calibrate in water if you like. Might not be necissary (sp) though. Give it a test. I'm here to help."

So they're not saying DON'T calibrate in water, they're saying might not be necessary but you can if you'd like. Interesting response from them. Before each use, I reset it and clear the calibration points and I re-calibrate in water first and then again in the wort when it's in the fermenter. Usually, after calibrating in water, it's only 1 point off when it's in the wort. I've never had it more than 3 points off when I first put it in the fermenter after calibrating in water.

 

[wepeeler]

So they're not saying DON'T calibrate in water, they're saying might not be necessary but you can if you'd like. Interesting response from them. Before each use, I reset it and clear the calibration points and I re-calibrate in water first and then again in the wort when it's in the fermenter. Usually, after calibrating in water, it's only 1 point off when it's in the wort. I've never had it more than 3 points off when I first put it in the fermenter after calibrating in water.

I've been calibrating in water before each use as well. My issue is I've had problems with the Tilt being consistently off on OGs. I drop in my wort, and it reads 6 points low. I enter in the uncalibrated SG and the actual SG, and then the Tilt stops relaying info to the cloud. Then the actual SG doesn't change, whereas the uncalibrated SG lowers, showing signs of active fermentation. Problem is I can't track fermentation if I'm out of my house, because the only thing that gets uploaded to the cloud is actual SG. Seems to only happen when I manually enter in SGs (uncalibrated and actual) vs letting the Tilt read them on its own.

 

[Chorgey]

Have you checked the calibration on your hydrometer?

Is the battery in the tilt going bad? Not sure if that would have an effect but something to look at.

With my tilt, I always calibrate in water and when I drop it in the fermenter, I calibrate to the OG of the wort.

Not to steal the thunder of the OP but here's what I have...

My hydrometer was at 1.000 and I also calibrated the refractometer.

When I got a reading from the Hydrometer, it was at 1.043 and the refractometer was at 1.045. I read on HBT yesterday that I should calibrate the refractometer on BeerSmith.

When I placed the Tilt in wort, it read at 1.052

The battery 'may' be going bad, since it never was replaced.

I always calibrate in water and then calibrate again when it's dropped in the wort.

What I do, is basically check the status, and it lets me know when fermentation is done, I'd just like it to be closer than 9 points off.

Cheers!

 

[Rob2010SS]

Man, seems like I'm one of the lucky ones that doesn't seem to have that many issues with my tilt!

I'm at a loss with this one.... Not really sure what could be causing the issues.

I'd be curious, those of you having issues, what would happen if you were to skip the calibration step as Tilt recommended to @wepeeler and just drop it in the wort and see what it read. I wonder if the calibration step is screwing up the readings somehow?

 

[beernutz]

My Tilt was way off a few batches ago but I calibrated in water and it has been only one point different from my manual hydrometer reading of original gravity for the last three brews.

I use a RaspberryPi running TiltPi and the web interface shows both the uncalibrated and calibrated gravities which are now .032 apart, e.g. my current brew is reading 1.022 but it shows the uncalibrated gravity as 1.054. When I put it in the fermenter Sunday the hydrometer measured 1.060 and the Tilt showed 1.059.

 

[wepeeler]

Man, seems like I'm one of the lucky ones that doesn't seem to have that many issues with my tilt!

I'm at a loss with this one.... Not really sure what could be causing the issues.

I'd be curious, those of you having issues, what would happen if you were to skip the calibration step as Tilt recommended to @wepeeler and just drop it in the wort and see what it read. I wonder if the calibration step is screwing up the readings somehow?

Technically, I would think they would calibrated going into the package, but I guess sitting for awhile, or getting jarred during shipping could affect the calibration. That being said, if we calibrate in water first, it should be even more accurate! Way too expensive to 5-6 points off.