fermentation steps driven off SG#293

Hi, I’d love to be able to drive my conicals based on the gravity of the beer rather than a fixed amount of time.

for example, I brew an NEIPA and I pitch at 18c dry hop it at 1.030 and then step up to 22c before crashing.

I would love to be able to drive changes in the fermentation steps at 1.030 as well as a set amount of time.

Hi Dan, this is a feature we have been considering. We have come across some initial challenges that we have to consider.

For example, if a fermentation step is based off a gravity reading, say a value of 1.030. Do we change steps the first time we receive this value, or do we wait until we’ve received x number of readings that average out to this value before changing steps. What happens if that gravity value is never received, do we then fallback to a time based trigger. Do we need to allow users to pick which takes preference, a gravity reading or time lapsed. Just a couple of scenarios we have to consider.

So things can get quite complex, but we also need to balance this functionality with the everyday user who doesn’t require this level of fermentation control.

It would be interesting to hear your perspective on how you would envisage this working.

I would really like this feature for diacetyl rest. Maybe the app could be designed with an “advanced” menu for features like this.

I think taking the example Scott mentioned as the simplest working example.

Say I ferment my beer at 18c for n days before stepping to 22c for 2 days DR.

If my beer hit FG at n-2 days I could start the DR 2 days early and get to packaging and ultimately drinking faster than I otherwise would have.

I guess there would need to be some sort of hysteresis consideration.

I use tilt hydrometers to give me an idea of when I’m done with fermentation and then confirm with a manual reading.

My tilts are device calibrated with standard solutions and are fairly accurate (usually a manual read is pretty darn close to the tilt).

Perhaps a notification saying the beer has hit it’s FG would I like to advance to the next fermentation stage might work?

Regards
Dan

Thanks for your input Scott and Dan

could you not set this to trigger on an average Gravity reading for a minimum time (eiter a default or user selected, i.e. 6hrs…) and then have a notification for if you never hit that gravity for that amount of time? could also default to the timer schedule in the event that you never reach your target gravity.

RAPT has is already and it looks like a good example for you as well. This could be really a way to automate the fermentation. Gravity velocity/day as a trigger to change the temperature should work in most cases.
I guess you know it, but the link to explanation of RAPT Pill and fermentation profile linked to gravity