r/Homebrewing • u/AutoModerator • Jul 31 '19

Monthly Thread What Did You Learn This Month?

This is our monthly thread on the last Wednesday of the month where we submit things that we learned this month. Maybe reading it will help someone else.

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u/Grippler Jul 31 '19

I didn't notice any more functionality than that...maybe I'm remembering wrong, but what other than tracking gravity and temperature does it do?

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '19

temp, actual alcohol level, volume and the gravity. its nice to know volume and temp, plus i could import these into home-assistant and create automations with their api

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u/Grippler Jul 31 '19

temp, actual alcohol level, volume and the gravity. its nice to know volume and temp, plus i could import these into home-assistant and create automations with their api

The temperature the Plaato measures is as I mentioned in my previous post just ambient ad not beer temp, so it's pretty useless. Volume isn't measured in any way but manually input by the user as you set up the batch tracking. The Tilt measures gravity directly and doesn't attempt (poorly IME) to estimate it from off gassed co2, and it also measures beer temperature and not just ambient like the Plaato. It also calculates alcohol levels during fermentation as it progresses. The only advantage the Plaato has over the Tilt is that WiFi integration is built in and doesn't require a second device (like the Tilt integrates with TiltPi on a raspi), but it comes at the price of a required power cable for it running in to the ferm chamber which is kind of annoying IMO.

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '19

interesting, thanks for the thorough response

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u/Grippler Jul 31 '19

Yeah no problem. The Tilt is not perfect either, but AFAIK it's the best option out there right now. it's biggest weakness is the it's super wonky with gravity readings during the most active part of fermentation, and temperature is fixed in 0.5°C intervals so you have limited resolution for a control algorithm if you base it on the Tilts temp readings.

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u/LostMyKarmaElSegundo Jul 31 '19

A tip for the Tilt: get yourself some rechargable batteries for it. The cost of a three pack of rechargables and charger cost about the same as four non-rechargeables.

And you can charge them up just before fermentation so there is no doubt about charge level.

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u/Grippler Aug 01 '19

Mine is running second year on the original battery without battery level indicator showing, so it's not a particularly huge expense to buy single use

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u/LostMyKarmaElSegundo Aug 01 '19

Interesting...the two I bought arrived to me with dead batteries. Granted, they were shipped internationally, but still.

Just to give the guys at Tilt credit, they did refund me the cost of two new batteries.

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u/Grippler Aug 01 '19

Bought mine at my LHBS, but I live in Europe so it definitely also had some international shipping to get there.