Second brew using my tilt, is it normal to had an increase of sg? Finished my latest brew at around lunch time yesterday (Wednesday) dropped in tilt let it settle OG was 1.1 (making an imperial brown ale). Gravity fluctuated between 1.1 and 1.099 all day. Woke up next morning SG was 1.114. Any idea what’s going on?
Tilt hydrometer SG
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I just had the same thing happen. In my case it was wort stratification. I had topped off with clean cool water to hit my intended post-boil volume, thought I had mixed it in well, but after the yeast got active and mixed everything up even better then my gravity increased quite a bit.
If that's not it then I'm not sure why. The Tilt is a bit fussy, lots of variables. Carbonation, yeast activity, hops, bumping into the sides of the fermenter, all can have impacts on how it reads. Periodically I will rock the fermenter a little bit to see how the reading changes. Often it changes by several points when I do this, and I usually believe the reading after rocking more than the reading before rocking.
If that's not it then I'm not sure why. The Tilt is a bit fussy, lots of variables. Carbonation, yeast activity, hops, bumping into the sides of the fermenter, all can have impacts on how it reads. Periodically I will rock the fermenter a little bit to see how the reading changes. Often it changes by several points when I do this, and I usually believe the reading after rocking more than the reading before rocking.
The tilt FAQ s does say when fermentation starts it can increase and I do notice airlock activity but 14 points seems like a lot. I know my wart is well mixed cause mine is BIAB so I didn’t top up at all but I just wanna know that my tilt is faulty
It's likely due to carbonation and krausen material bumping into it then. I do agree though that 14 points is an awful lot of change. I might see a couple points, but 14 points is really a lot. Not sure how that would happen.
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Not sure what is going on with mine. Doing a Brown Ale 1.058 and 19 hours later showing .996- .998 I have tried shaking my conical but can’t get it to read any higher.
Did you mess with the calibration? It looks like it's off quite a bit, your uncalibrated is showing 1.048
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Yes it was showing an OG of 1.044 when the hydrometer read 1.048. I called myself calibrating it to be correct. I just went in and deleted the calibration and now it’s showing 1.044.
Yeah, you just tared it to 1.000 while it was in there at 1.048 or whatever. Miscalibrated.
My tilt does that occasionally, in fact my helles I have fermenting now went from a starting gravity of 1.044 10 hours later it was at 1.066. when it happens I usually just shake it a bit and it will settle back where it is supposed to be. I always chalked it up to krausen build up and how much co2 the yeasties are kicking out.
mirthfuldragon
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Temperature swings can also cause swings. If you pitched warmer at 1.100 and then it dropped ten degrees, you could see the Tilt read something like that. I like my Tilt and it is a nifty tool, but it is not by any means a precision tool in actual use.
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I paid $120 shipped to my door
I’m in the middle of using mine for the first time. I think it’s a good tool for getting good attenuation. Temp seems to be within 1 deg.
I’m in the middle of using mine for the first time. I think it’s a good tool for getting good attenuation. Temp seems to be within 1 deg.
I’m on my second brew with the tilt. I love it. I find it to be accurate and easy to use - especially if you like data.
I’ve got mine connected to a Raspberry Pi running Tilt Pi, which feeds data to my Brewers Friend account. I’m out of town right now and can watch my fermentation numbers pretty easily on the lager I’m making. I’ve got no complaints - plus the Tilt Pi was one of the cheapest and easiest things I’ve ever done in homebrewing.
I’ve got mine connected to a Raspberry Pi running Tilt Pi, which feeds data to my Brewers Friend account. I’m out of town right now and can watch my fermentation numbers pretty easily on the lager I’m making. I’ve got no complaints - plus the Tilt Pi was one of the cheapest and easiest things I’ve ever done in homebrewing.
mirthfuldragon
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I like it for some styles - IPAs, kviek, hefes - since it is a good indicator of fermentation activity and when fermentation is actually complete. In terms of actual usefulness, I would rank it below a pump and a good chiller and a quality boil kettle.
Checking fermentation status while at work is pretty fun though. The Tilt 2 app is much better than the initial version as well.
I think we paid $115.
Yeah, it's a fun toy. I enjoy science and math, and this is a science and math nerd thing that I'd prefer not to live without. Not essential, but a very fun toy.
I really enjoy mine. I use an old phone plugged in the same room that I keep my fermenters in with some random app I found to keep the phone from falling asleep and have it log every 15 min. Like others have said, I love checking it at work and seeing where it is. I love the data collection and graphs and it has really allowed me to streamline my process of when to drain from the primary.
I have even thought of starting a thread where we could input basic recipe info and do a tilt data dump.
Something to consider with this is that it isn't really a super precise instrument. I find it precise enough, but it is more of a tool for trends. As you see your SG curve become flat even a minute after rousing the fermenter then you can really tell when you are basically done with fermentation. I don't really think of this as a tool to grab a single SG reading, it needs to graph several points and you use the trend line.
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mirthfuldragon
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I don't think you need the tickler to keep it from going to sleep - I just leave the Tilt 2 app running and let the screen go off by itself - it keeps logging, at least with my old phone.
Also, my K97 kolsch cream ale finally started moving 18 hours post-pitch!
I played around with this old phone and I think it was just part of THIS phone. Motorola when they first started trying built in app killers during sleep mode. But the work-around app is super easy to use and will still dim the screen to about its lowest level.
Mine sometimes goes up 4-6 points at mid ferment. Love the little gizmo. Other than SG it helps me track anomalies with my temp control. Also very good to get the beer to 33F when cold crashing. Totally worth to me. I have two. I use an old Motorola phone connected all the time to log data. Screen goes black but still sends data.
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BlackDog-Brewery
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"Yes" to all of the above positive comments, but don't forget about the positive aspect of not risking an infection or oxidation just to get the latest SG measurement.
I simply come home from work, get within Bluetooth range, and log a new row of data into my Google Sheets.
I rarely travel for work anymore, so the Raspberry Pi feature is something that I don't need (but is still a very cool awesome feature).
The most surprising result of being able to get a real-time SG reading is after terminal gravity is achieved. The SG stops dropping, but yet there is some sort of nano fermentation going on. Meaning, there are still micro CO2 bubbles rising from the yeast cake, but the beer has only started to clear.
Seems like the Tilt is not able to predict when the yeast have finished clearing things up. Not that's a problem. Just interesting.
I simply come home from work, get within Bluetooth range, and log a new row of data into my Google Sheets.
I rarely travel for work anymore, so the Raspberry Pi feature is something that I don't need (but is still a very cool awesome feature).
The most surprising result of being able to get a real-time SG reading is after terminal gravity is achieved. The SG stops dropping, but yet there is some sort of nano fermentation going on. Meaning, there are still micro CO2 bubbles rising from the yeast cake, but the beer has only started to clear.
Seems like the Tilt is not able to predict when the yeast have finished clearing things up. Not that's a problem. Just interesting.
GoeHaarden
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I think mine was around ~$120 shipped. It's a pretty cool little gadget. If you take the time to calibrate it correctly it's accurate to +/- 0.001. I've kind of stopped taking actually readings after I realized how accurate it was being consistently. I, too, get that bump in gravity after fermentation kicks off, but a little jiggle of the tank and it'll settle out. It also helps to time d-rest and spunding or whatnot.
My current red Irish. You can see the first bump in OG. The second step was that the app froze overnight. The phone was next to the previous one above which was inside a freezer (cold crashing) while this one was about 25' away in a carboy.
Here's my IPA that I think finally bottomed out today. I now know that hops contain enzymes so I waited a lot of extra days after dry hopping to ensure gravity is totally steady before bottling.
Also.... wort stratification is very real! When topping up the fermenter with water after the boil, simple swirling will NOT blend the water and wort together. Fortunately, yeast activity mixes it up really well after about 16 hours.
Also.... wort stratification is very real! When topping up the fermenter with water after the boil, simple swirling will NOT blend the water and wort together. Fortunately, yeast activity mixes it up really well after about 16 hours.
augiedoggy
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I thought you were joking because it says your is uncalibrated in the screenshot... try calibrating it and it will be closer.. they are still only for reference and wont read accurately every time from what Ive read. things like krausen building on the surface and the unit itself will throw it off. I am about to by a few myself and have been watching threads on them for a while now.
augiedoggy
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unless they completely change how it works, it really wont ever be a 100% accurate tool regardless of software.
Basically what I was getting at in a previous post. I have found that the averages of 4 readings taken over an hour to be pretty reliable, other than the wort stratification issue.
That issue really could effect several kinds of calculators. I brewed a saison last night and 10 min after it was in the fermenter it had settled in 4 distinct layers. I took refractometer readings of a few of these and they were separated by 6 pts SG. I have seen similar settling before but it always seems to smooth out after the yeast really start churning.
I too have seen the big SG bump sometime in the first third of fermentation on a few brews.
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I pulled a gravity out of my conical while using the tilt and my hydrometer reading confirmed 1.024 which was exactly the same as the tilt.
As much as I love the idea of the tilt, I just cant bring myself to buy one. And trust me, I've had to resist the purchase several times.
Luckily I have a sample port on my conical. Using that, my refractometer and BeerSmith have been able to keep me from buying a tilt.. But they do seem cool!
Luckily I have a sample port on my conical. Using that, my refractometer and BeerSmith have been able to keep me from buying a tilt.. But they do seem cool!
Anyone saying that it isn’t accurate also needs to make sure they have a correctly calibrated hydrometer, I thought my tilt was off by 5 points until I had a stuck fermentation and double checked that my hydrometer was correctly calibrated, turns out the hydrometer was off and my tilt was correct
My batch pictured above finished at 1.012 on the Tilt, and 1.014 on the old hydrometer. Checked calibration of both in plain water, after cleaning, Tilt read a little low at 0.999, and I know the krausen can have a tendency to reduce the readings slightly. So then the 1.012 makes perfect sense, and in reality was of course 1.014. Expect your properly calibrated Tilt to read a point or two low when it has krausen crud stuck to it, correct for that, then you're all set. Proper calibration is the key to everything. I calibrate every gauge with every use, every time.
I've been considering getting one, and maybe you guys can answer a couple questions for me -
I don't own a smart phone or any Apple device. What's the most cost effective receiver to use with these things? I'm not interested in data logging, just remote real time SG and temp numbers. Though I do have wi-fi at home.
Also, will it fit in a glass carboy or only in a bucket?
I don't own a smart phone or any Apple device. What's the most cost effective receiver to use with these things? I'm not interested in data logging, just remote real time SG and temp numbers. Though I do have wi-fi at home.
Also, will it fit in a glass carboy or only in a bucket?
The most cost effective at the moment is to build a TiltPi with a Raspberry Pi Zero.
What is the human interface for that? Display, keypad etc?
It's a webpage.
Nah. Most cost effective is old phone with wifi that you may have.
I use a ~6-year old smart phone with Bluetooth (required) and WiFi. One older phone didn't work but this slightly more recent one did. If you don't have a smartphone.... can you get one from a friend? Or an old iPad? Something a few years old that nobody uses anymore. You need something with a non-ancient version of Bluetooth to make it work.
I use mine inside a glass carboy, works great.
Once you have the Raspberry Pi set up, you’ll receive a link to a locally hosted webpage. From there you can manage all of the changes and calibrations, etc.
I picked up a Raspeberry Pi Zero W kit in amazing for $32. It took me 15 mins to set up. Easiest thing I’ve done in homebrewing.
Murphys_Law
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What does a Raspberry set up do differently than an old phone? I've never considered going that route but I like to tinker.
Great question. I assume it doesn’t do anything different, but I don’t know. I didn’t have an old iPhone (well, I did, but it was *really* old, pre-Bluetooth 4.0)
I'd say the RPi solution is for folks that don't have an expendable phone to serve as the bridge/repeater...
Cheers!
Cheers!
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