TILT Hydrometer example

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David Teter

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Oct 30, 2020, 10:13:30 AM10/30/20
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Hey Sangres,

For those curious about the TILT, I though I’d share the chart it creates with you below. I’m making a Grisette style saison. Though my mash efficiency was higher than expected so it may be more properly categorized as a Farmhouse Ale/Saison. It will be my first time using WLP670 yeast - a sacc./brett blend. The starter tasted good, so I’m pretty excited about it.

Back to the TILT. I use it quite simply by repurposing an old iPhone connected to the house WIFi. The TILT connects to the phone through Bluetooth. As the phone logs data it is stored on the cloud and you can access it from anywhere. For example, I’ll be heading to Santa Fe later today and I can keep an eye on it if I wanted to. Note that in the chart below there is a big drop in the beginning. That is due to my phone running out of battery. One down side of the iPhone/TILT setup is that you need to turn off the screen saver for the data to continually log. This eats up battery fast. So I need to keep my iPhone on a charger all of the time.

I’m keeping the carboy in a fridge in my shop where I’m controlling the temperature around 74-76F. Since my fridge is in an outdoor enclosed shop (currently about 56F), I needed to heat the fridge with a small ceramic light the use the cooling fo the fridge to regulate. What’s nice with the TILT is that I can raise lower the fridge temp depending on how much extra heat the fermenting wort creates. As this batch has fermented, I’ve had to go out and regulate either the heater control or fridge set point. 

Anyway, let me know if you have any other questions about the TILT. It’s not necessary, but it’s a fun gadget for us scientist types who love data.

Dave

John Rowley

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Oct 30, 2020, 4:12:36 PM10/30/20
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Traditionally speaking, a grisette was a sacch only beer anyway, so the use of brett would make it a saison by default if you were actually worried about authentic classification.  In this day and age of bastardized childrens beers, this may not matter to as many as it would have in the past. 

I am not familiar with TILT, but I can speak to a new gadget we got at the brewery that will render your hydrometer mostly useless.  Check out the EasyDens from Anton Parr.  It's a hell of a device and basically is a full fledged DMA meter offloaded to a small case and you use the electronics in your phone via bluetooth connection to complete the package.  We got ours from Morebeer for 325 shipped, which may be a bit heavy for cost sensitive homebrewers, but if this was around when I was at my peak of homebrewing activity, I would have thrown down immediately.  I spent more than this on an electronic refractometer that turned out to be a piece of dogshit.

The Anton Parr density meters are world class as we use one at TA48 for analytical work that will actually see publication and costs around 20K.  The EasyDens is basically this same device without all the bells and whistles you need for publishable data. I bet Warren will be all over this.


Price has gone up since we got ours it seems.  Regardless, this device is a nice addition to your arsenal, and can complement your tool set, as can the TILT it seems. It's a hell of a time to be a homebrewer, at least in terms of toys. 

Congrats to all for their new positions in the club.  Keep the traditions proud! 

Cheers, 
John



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David Teter

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Oct 30, 2020, 4:27:27 PM10/30/20
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Good point on the style comment. But hey, since there is not likely any competition soon, this is just for enjoyment! Hopefully I can share some at a future live meeting.

I’ll have to check out the EasyDens.

Dave

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 30, 2020, at 2:12 PM, John Rowley <jro...@gmail.com> wrote:



Warren Lail

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Oct 30, 2020, 9:10:35 PM10/30/20
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Get on board with the Tilt dudes.  You don’t pull a sample (messy and wasteful) and you don’t have to squint your eyes to read the hydrometer in a glass vial.  Just drop it in your fermenter and you’re good to go.  I could probably get a publication for some novel way I could use it. Anton Parr requires a sample.  Tilt does not.  Rowley will love these when he gets his chemically-laden hands on one.  I’ll loan mine to RFA for a test run.  


Warren

On Oct 30, 2020, at 2:12 PM, John Rowley <jro...@gmail.com> wrote:



Warren Lail

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Oct 31, 2020, 6:53:51 PM10/31/20
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This immersible hydrometer gets even better reviews than the Tilt because it’s WiFi enabled. But to my knowledge it’s not available in the US yet. 



Warren 

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On Oct 30, 2020, at 7:10 PM, Warren Lail <wkl...@gmail.com> wrote:



lazy...@aol.com

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Nov 1, 2020, 7:38:47 AM11/1/20
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Warren Lail

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Nov 1, 2020, 8:20:55 AM11/1/20
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Now I’m going to have to wade into the Raspberry Pi stuff.  Rowley has used this equipment for years in his garage setup, so maybe it's time I get onboard.  I suppose I’ll need a small monitor...?

Warren


On Nov 1, 2020, at 6:38 AM, lazyeiger via Sangre de Cristo Craft Brewers <nms...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



lazy...@aol.com

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Nov 1, 2020, 8:50:06 AM11/1/20
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You don’t really need a dedicated monitor, you can set it up using your PC monitor and keyboard then when it’s all working use it as a dumb terminal and connect to it with your phone or PC. Here are a couple of pictures of my setup, fully automated re circulating mash.
Image.jpeg
Image-1.jpeg
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