Tilt Hydrometer

Any hardware used for mashing, fermenting or aging.

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BlueSasquatch
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Tilt Hydrometer

Post by BlueSasquatch »

Gotta be one of my favorite purchases so far. I'm only 80% into a batch, so I should hold off until more experience, but so far I am pretty impressed.

Seems a tad steep at first for $100 but the ability to know anywhere, anytime is rather nice. Im sure the novelty will wear off eventually. I bought a Hops basket to suspend in the mash, to keep solids from messing with the readings.
https://tilthydrometer.com/


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It's currently sitting in the bucket on the left. 100% Corn. (The right is a wheat whiskey)

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Ipad plugged in nearby continuously pulls data from the Hydrometer and uploads it to the cloud, every 15 minutes.

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Some of the useful Data;

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Example of the data it uploads, again, every 15 minutes. Overkill? Sure, but doesn't take any effort on my part.
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SG reading with hydrometer was around that 1.066 mark when adjusted for temp. I pitched M-1 SafSpirits, perhaps a bit hot at 99, was worried for a bit but I used a yeast starter. 20 grams + can of starter + bottle of water on a whirly-gig thing, in a flask for 24 hours before pitching. Mash started 12 hours after yeast started. Pitched it when I did, cuz I didn't want to wait until after work (another 8hr)

Not sure why it jumped to 1.07 probably due to movement as I moved it to a different room right at the start. No sleeping bag until the temp hit 90 then I wrapped it back up. Uptick recently in temp due to ambient temps not being so damn cold. Was single digits for most of the ferment, last few days were 50F
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amh71
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by amh71 »

I use an iSpindel, same idea, use it in every batch now. Doesn't actually do anything you can't do another way but you get some pretty graphs!

Plus you can see something going wrong early, last week a sugar wash looked fine and seemed just as active but looking at the graph the gravity was dropping a little bit slower than normal, turned out the cotton holding the bag of shells had snapped and the bag was smothered by the tub so ph had started dropping, fished it out and hung it back on the side and the ferment finished in the normal time.
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by chown »

I love my Tilts. I thought it was gimmicky at first but got one for my birthday and now have 3.
I highly recommend getting a Raspberry Pi to log data. It's got more features than the iphone/android app. Logging every 5 minutes cuz i can :wink:
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BlueSasquatch
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by BlueSasquatch »

chown wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:25 pm I love my Tilts. I thought it was gimmicky at first but got one for my birthday and now have 3.
I highly recommend getting a Raspberry Pi to log data. It's got more features than the iphone/android app. Logging every 5 minutes cuz i can :wink:
I will be buying more. Been wanting to dive into raspberry pi, but for the last few years the prices are ridiculous.
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by Bradster68 »

Now that's cool. I'm betting one of those apps would give a notification if things went of track.
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by Rrmuf »

I also love my Tilts. I've been using them for months and they're great!
Given my fermenters usually need a bit of help applied by way of a heat pad, and given that I am often travelling, I plugged my heaters into a smartplug so when the Tilts data says it's done (which I can also check from anywhere), I can turn the heaters off from anywhere and let the ferments settle.

Love them!
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by BlueSasquatch »

Rrmuf wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:54 am I also love my Tilts. I've been using them for months and they're great!
Given my fermenters usually need a bit of help applied by way of a heat pad, and given that I am often travelling, I plugged my heaters into a smartplug so when the Tilts data says it's done (which I can also check from anywhere), I can turn the heaters off from anywhere and let the ferments settle.

Love them!
I do like that heat pad addition, you find a heat pad on the bottom works well enough? No temp gradient to be concerned over? Weight limit on them? Have thought a keg-wrap like heater on these blue barrels would be nice. But I'm in the process of a custom 3-keg fermentation chamber, with the wifi ink-bird controller, can keep a somewhat constant temp.
"In the silence of the study one can discuss theories, but only in practice one becomes an artist" - Meunier
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by Rrmuf »

BlueSasquatch wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:05 am
Rrmuf wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:54 am I also love my Tilts. I've been using them for months and they're great!
Given my fermenters usually need a bit of help applied by way of a heat pad, and given that I am often travelling, I plugged my heaters into a smartplug so when the Tilts data says it's done (which I can also check from anywhere), I can turn the heaters off from anywhere and let the ferments settle.

Love them!
I do like that heat pad addition, you find a heat pad on the bottom works well enough? No temp gradient to be concerned over? Weight limit on them? Have thought a keg-wrap like heater on these blue barrels would be nice. But I'm in the process of a custom 3-keg fermentation chamber, with the wifi ink-bird controller, can keep a somewhat constant temp.
Hi, I just use a seedling heat pad wrapped around each fermenters. No issues as far as I can see.
-- Rrmuf
chown
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by chown »

Rrmuf wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:54 am I also love my Tilts. I've been using them for months and they're great!
Given my fermenters usually need a bit of help applied by way of a heat pad, and given that I am often travelling, I plugged my heaters into a smartplug so when the Tilts data says it's done (which I can also check from anywhere), I can turn the heaters off from anywhere and let the ferments settle.

Love them!
I still do the same thing! eventually I'll get more wifi inkbirds. I have one on my main fermenter and one in my green house. They're super useful when the weather starts getting hot. My greenhouse will get over 110f when the sun hits it in the summer, so I can get a notification at work to kick the fans on (smart plugs)
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rubberduck71
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by rubberduck71 »

I'd totally get one of these if it could monitor pH!!!
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Rrmuf
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by Rrmuf »

Unfortunately they don't. I wish they did too.
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by Sugarshane »

So I recently bought one of these and have to say I enjoy being able to track my fermentation better. Until this thread though I didn’t know about the spreadsheet so now I really like it and want to get another fermentation goin just to see the pretty charts it makes 😂 I’ve been using an Elitech temp controller with a fern wrap heating mat. which graphs and charts temps but not SG, obviously. So to be able graph that as well and keep track without taking samples is huge. A lot of potential with this setup
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Re: Tilt Hydrometer

Post by Stump Lake »

I followed your link and ordered one. I'm a sucker for gadgets. They have gone up since you bought yours. My cost was $135.
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