Digital Wireless Hydrometer and Thermometer

A brewmaster should always have his priorities right. These priorities would enable him to brew the most excellent hand-crafted beers for himself and for the others he wants to serve. Brewing is an art, and all those who take an active interest in it, can be regarded as artists.

If you are always obsessed about brewing the perfect mix, then you should be mindful of every procedure that will influence your brewing. Having the right set of equipment is also essential. Gone are the days when the brewmaster from the village pub will brew the mead and the ale.

With the efficient intervention of technology, the task of home-brewing has become quite easy.

Best Digital Wireless Hydrometers and Thermometers You Can Buy for Homebrewing

Wireless thermometers or hydrometers are nifty devices that can take up your ante in no time. These devices help you in identifying the perfect temperatures for different processes that occur while you are preparing batches of your drafts. A few of the best devices available in the market are discussed below.

Digital Wireless Thermometer Or Hydrometer For Smartphone Or Tablet By Tilt

Product specifications :

If you are passionate about developing the perfect flavor and composition that characterizes your hand-crafted brew, then you should try this device out. The digital wireless hydrometer from Tilt has been introduced to take your brewing game to the next level.

It’s compatible with your phone or tablet and works equally well with both iOS and Android platforms. These devices are tremendously handy for your brewing needs as they can post the temperature data and store it in the cloud via Google Sheets. Worrying about maintaining the perfect temperature of your home-brew is now a thing of the past!

Principle of action:

With the advent of this patented device by Tilt, worrying about your fermentation temperatures is now passe. You can quickly drop this device within your brew or mix, and you won’t have to open your fermenter or break a glass hydrometer again. The wireless digital thermometer gets paired with your iOS, Android, or Fire device via Bluetooth and displays real-time specific gravity and temperature stats on your phone or tablet.

If your phone or tablet is within a particular range of 25 feet, the free Tilt app provides you with the datasets obtained from the wireless thermometer or hydrometer, which stays immersed in your brew or mix. The wireless digital thermometer from Tilt can also help you in preparing charts and graphs for your brewing purposes and even the unique specific gravity curve for your hand-crafted beers.

You can make the charts and graphs by transporting all the real-time temperature and specific gravity data to the cloud for free via Google Sheets. With the battery lasting 2 to 4 months depending upon your usage, this device provides you with continuous specific gravity or temperature data if you keep your Android or iOS device near the Tilt with the app open.

Advantages:

• Compatibility: The Tilt wireless digital thermometer or hydrometer is compatible with iOS, Android, and Fire devices. Connectivity occurs through Bluetooth. You can easily pair your wireless digital thermometer or hydrometer with your phone or tablet and obtain the temperature and specific gravity readings of your home-brew at will.
• Versatility: The Tilt is a specialized device that proves to be extremely beneficial for the keen brewing enthusiasts. It can record the specific gravity of your beer or wine while you are preparing them. It also provides you with the perfect temperature readings, which help you in understanding the condition of your brew.
• Hassle-free: With the presence of the Tilt smartphone-compatible wireless digital thermometer, you can always stay one step ahead in your brewing game. You can simply drop this device into your brewing or fermenting mix without taking up the trouble to open the fermenter or breaking apart any glass hydrometer.
• Longevity: The Tilt operates on the CR-123A batteries, which have an enormous lifespan and are widely available in the market. You can stay rest assured that your batteries will last for 2 to 4 months, depending upon your usage.
• Range: The Tilt offers a brilliant range of 25 feet. Its Bluetooth LE 4.0 can post continuous temperature and specific gravity data to the paired devices which are within this range. The connection occurs seamlessly even when the Tilt stays immersed in the brew.
• Accuracy: The Tilt can measure both temperature and the specific gravity of your brew to the finest degree. The extent of variation for specific gravity swings between +/-0.002. The variation for temperature swings between +/-2 degrees Fahrenheit, which is quite narrow.
• Additional features: The Tilt is a multi-faceted device. It can seamlessly send all the temperature and specific gravity data of your brew or mix to the cloud via Google Sheets. Now you can have access to all that data at any point in time and can also prepare characteristic graphs and charts which are unique to your brew.

Disadvantages :

• The temperature calibration and probing are a little complicated.

How to Setup a Tilt Wireless Hydrometer:

Tilt Digital Wireless Smartphone Hydrometer & Thermometer

Product description:

The Tilt Wireless Digital thermometer or hydrometer is tailor-made for the home-brew enthusiast in you. Now you need not worry about maintaining the temperature and specific gravity of whatever you are brewing, be it drafts or lagers or wine. This perfectly nifty device gives you hands-on experience for measuring the temperature and specific gravity of your brew. It keeps you updated about the data by posting it into your iOS or Android compatible device.

It also provides easy access to storing all the data in the cloud via Google Sheets, so that you can download them anytime according to your will and have a look.

Principle of action:

The Tilt wireless digital thermometer or hydrometer is a brilliant innovation from HBO Home Brew, Ohio. It is set to revolutionize the brewing game as well as the home-brewing industry. You can quickly drop this device within your brew or mix without opening your fermenter or breaking a glass hydrometer again.

The wireless digital thermometer is compatible with your iOS, Android, or Fire device via Bluetooth and displays real-time specific gravity and temperature stats on your phone or tablet. If your phone or tablet is within a range of 25 feet, the free Tilt app provides you with the datasets obtained from the wireless thermometer or hydrometer that stays immersed in your mix.

The wireless digital thermometer also helps you in preparing charts and graphs for your brewing purposes and developing a unique specific gravity curve for your hand-crafted beers. This is done by transporting all the real-time temperature and specific gravity data to the cloud for free via Google Sheets. With the lifespan of the battery varying between 2 to 4 months, you can stay assured about getting the most out of this device.

Advantages :

• Compatibility: The Tilt wireless digital thermometer or hydrometer from HBO Home Brew Ohio is compatible with iOS, Android, and Fire devices. Connectivity takes place through Bluetooth. You can easily pair your wireless digital thermometer or hydrometer with your phone or tablet and obtain the temperature and specific gravity readings of your home-brew at will.
• Versatility: The Tilt is a specialized device that can record the specific gravity of your beer or wine while you are preparing them. It also provides you with the perfect temperature readings, which help you in understanding the condition of your brew.
• Hassle-free: The Tilt smartphone-compatible wireless digital thermometer will allow you to simply drop it into your brewing or fermenting mix without taking up the trouble to open the fermenter or breaking apart any glass hydrometer.
• Longevity: The CR-123A batteries, which power up the Tilt, possess an enormous lifespan and are widely available in the market. You can stay rest assured that your batteries will last for 2 to 4 months, depending upon your degree of usage.
• Range: The Tilt offers a brilliant range of 25 feet. The Bluetooth LE 4.0 can post continuous temperature and specific gravity data to the paired devices which are within this range. The pairing occurs seamlessly even when the Tilt stays immersed in the brew.
• Accuracy: The Tilt can measure both temperature and the specific gravity of your brew to the finest degree. The extent of variation for specific gravity swings between +/-0.002 while that for temperature swings between +/-2 degrees Fahrenheit, which is quite narrow.
• Additional features: The Tilt is a multi-faceted device. It can seamlessly send all the temperature and specific gravity data of your brew or mix to the cloud via Google Sheets. Now you can have access to all that data at any point in time and can also prepare characteristic graphs and charts which are unique to your brew.
• Safety: The US-FDA approved polycarbonate casing is free from BPA and is certified to be safe for touch and handling.

Disadvantages :

• The temperature calibration and probing are a little awkward.
• App connectivity is questionable.

Plaato Airlock Wifi Fermentation Analyzer For Home-brewing

Product specifications :

The innovative wifi fermentation analyzer from PLAATO is the world’s first non-invasive fermentation analyzer that measures specific gravity, fermentation activity, alcohol content, and temperature of your brew or mix. It provides you with all the necessary data through wifi. Each batch is uniquely analyzed, and batch reports are generated, which help you in leveling up your brewing game.

Principle of action :

The PLAATO Airlock is a unique product that has been designed to take care of the needs of passionate homebrewer. [Read our Full Review here]

Developing relations between CO2 and fermentation allows this device to non-invasively analyze the fermentation activity, alcohol content, and specific gravity of your mix. The Airlock helps you in monitoring all the progress of your fermentation from the start till the end. The additional flexibility of accessing your data from virtually anywhere with the Plaato app proves to be useful.

The app is compatible with both iOS and Android and can be connected on multiple devices. The remote access to your ongoing fermentation activity keeps you on your toes and allows you to produce great products with superior quality repeatedly.

Advantages:

• Design: The sophisticated and sleek design not only enhances the appearance of the Plaato Airlock but also gives the product a technical advantage over its peers.
• Non-invasive: The Plaato Airlock can be regarded as one of the first fermentation analyzers which analyze the progress of your fermentation without being invasive.
• Compatibility: The wifi connected fermentation analyzer allows you to connect it seamlessly with any of your iOS or Android devices- be it smartphones or tablets.
• Versatility: The Plaato Airlock develops a relation between CO2 and fermentation of your mix. Therefore it can effectively display the temperature, specific gravity, alcohol content, and the fermentation activity of your mix.
• Distant monitoring: Now, you can do your daily chores and office work while the Plaato Airlock takes care of your brewing activities. It allows you easy access to the fermentation data like activity, temperature, specific gravity, and alcohol content and helps you in delivering the most excellent batches of products repeatedly.

Disadvantages :

• The wifi connectivity is questionable, and it gets disconnected frequently.
• The product is fragile and not robust enough for rough, commercial usage.

Inkbird Thermometer And Hygrometer Smart Sensor Data Logger With Waterproof External Probe Magnet Alert

Product specifications :

The Inkbird thermometer and hygrometer with intelligent sensor and data logger is a homebrewer’s delight. Offering access to multiple iOS and Android compatible phones, the sensors are built to perfection. They can easily monitor the ambient temperatures as well as the temperature of the brew with the utmost precision.

The new generation humidity and temperature sensors mean minimum power consumption and fast response time. This device will also secure your data and store it for a more extended period and even allows you to choose various sampling intervals and modify your saved data accordingly.

Principle of action :

All in all, an Inkbird thermometer and hygrometer is one of the best products that you can get for your home-brewing requirements. The temperature and humidity sensors are state of the art and offer you distant monitoring experience through the Engbird app in the paired devices. The Inkbird provides exceptional compatibility with all your Android and iOS devices and allows you to ideally monitor the temperature and humidity of your home, children, pets, and even your brew or mix.

The data record interval is adjustable to your will, and you can also view the recorded data history anytime you want to. The external and internal probes are tremendously useful, and the support for adding and selecting application scenarios increases its versatility. The alarms help you notify of temperature and humidity fluctuations.

Advantages :

• Compatibility: The Inkbird temperature and humidity sensor cum data logger is compatible with both your iOS and Android devices. You can pair more than one device and monitor the data on a single sensor, and you can even watch multiple sensors from a single device through the Engbird app.
• Rapidity and precision: The presence of the external and the internal sensors allow you to measure the ambient temperatures. You can also measure the temperature of your brew with the utmost precision. The fast response time is demonstrated in measuring temperature and humidity data of any scenario with ease.
• Storage: You can conveniently store your temperature and humidity data records. The data record interval is also adjustable according to your will, and you can view the data history at any time.
• Versatility: The app supports multiple languages and displays temperature readings in both degrees centigrade and degree Fahrenheit. You can also select various application scenarios and add them according to your will. These include recording the temperature and humidity patterns of your home, children, pets, and your home-brew mix.
• Alarm: The alarm feature notifies you if the temperature and humidity fluctuate.

Disadvantages :

• Calibration is difficult, and the temperature reading accuracy is questionable.
• The alarm does not inform you of the fluctuations until you keep the app open.

Tilt Digital Wireless Hydrometer

Product description :

The red Tilt digital wireless thermometer or hydrometer brought to you by HBO Home Brew Ohio gives you hands-on experience for measuring the temperature and specific gravity of your brew. It keeps you updated about the data by posting it into your iOS or Android compatible device. The device also provides easy access to storing all the data in the cloud via Google Sheets so that you can download them anytime according to your will and have a look.

Principle of action :

The Tilt wireless digital thermometer from HBO Home Brew Ohio is compatible with your iOS, Android, or Fire device via Bluetooth. It displays real-time specific gravity and temperature stats on your phone or tablet. If your phone or tablet is within a range of 25 feet, the free Tilt app provides you with the data obtained from the wireless thermometer or hydrometer while it is immersed in your mix.

The wireless digital thermometer also helps you in preparing charts and graphs for your brewing purposes and developing a unique specific gravity curve for your hand-crafted beers by transporting all the relevant data to the cloud for free via Google Sheets. With the lifespan of the battery varying between 2 to 4 months, you can stay assured about getting the most out of this device.

Advantages :

• Compatibility: The Tilt wireless digital thermometer or hydrometer from HBO Home Brew Ohio is compatible with iOS, Android, and Fire devices via Bluetooth. You can easily pair your wireless digital thermometer or hydrometer with your phone or tablet and obtain the temperature and specific gravity readings of your home-brew with ease.
• Versatility: The Tilt can record the specific gravity of your beer or wine while you are preparing them. It also provides you with the perfect temperature readings, which help you in understanding the condition of your brew.
• Hassle-free: The Tilt will allow you to simply drop it into your brewing or fermenting mix without taking up the trouble to open the fermenter or breaking apart any glass hydrometer.
• Longevity: The CR-123A batteries, which power up the Tilt, possess an enormous lifespan and are widely available in the market. Thus 2 to 4 months of service is guaranteed.
• Range: The Bluetooth LE 4.0 of the Tilt can post continuous temperature and specific gravity data to the paired devices, which are within the range of 25 feet, even when the device is immersed in the brew.
• Accuracy: The Tilt can measure both temperature and the specific gravity of your brew to the finest degree of +/-0.002 for specific gravity and +/-2 degrees Fahrenheit for temperature.
• Additional features: The Tilt is a multi-faceted device. It can seamlessly send all the temperature and specific gravity data of your brew or mix to the cloud via Google Sheets. Now you can have access to all that data at any point of time and can also prepare characteristic graphs and charts which are unique to your brew.
• Safety: The US-FDA approved polycarbonate casing is free from BPA and is certified to be safe for touch and handling.

Disadvantages :

• The temperature calibration and probing are a little confusing.

Transcript: Welcome to the video in this video, we’ll be looking at and comparing floating hydrometers. This will include the, tilt, the float, and the ispindel. Because this is a video involving products in my opinion, here is my full discloser declaration. Feel free to pause the video now to read it in full, but in short, I do not take sponsors and I am totally independent. Let’s move on.

Let us begin by looking at the pros and cons of actually using any of these in the first place. Firstly, I have to say that I’m very keen on these gadgets. They offer me a very convenient way to keep a track of my fermentations.

Part of this convenience is that there is simply no need for gravity samples during the process. And if there is a problem, then I can see it quickly. And if needed, find a solution. It should be understood that these are not going to be super precise instruments.

And some are a little bit more accurate in my experience than others. More on this later. During high fermentation, you will not be getting much accuracy at all because the yeast is very active and will move the floating hydrometer around. This effect will vary between different strains. Some yeast will also coat areas of the devices.

And if there’s more than a certain amount of this on the device, then this could be weighted down more in one direction, which would of course, skew is reading. After lots of continuous use over the years of these types of products, I’ve come to some pretty accurate readings. And everything down to what I were class as totally inaccurate too.

Much of this will depend on the conditions inside of your fermentor. Of course, what they do provide though is a fair guide as to how things are progressing. You will see the gravity score moving down and later on, you will see that it becomes stable.

We have this functionality alone, you are given what you need in terms of knowing your fermentation is in progression. And also that it has a stable final gravity. If you are looking for something super, super accurate though, then these floating hydrometers are simply not going to relyably give you that at toll.

In fact, such devices do exist, but they are super silly, expensive. And I would imagine not going to be realistic for any home brewer.

Let’s now look at these separately for some background and thoughts before doing a direct comparison. First stop here is the tilt. I started off with the version one and had various problems with it, which I reported to the manufacturer very quickly.

And without me actually asking for a replacement, I was sent to version two and that cured the issues I was having, which were mainly poor battery life related. The tilt uses a lithium CR 123 a battery.

And despite these not being exactly cheap, I find that they last for up to one year of my constant use. So frankly, I’m actually happy the tilt measures, temperature and specific gravity and beams, this information via Bluetooth to the smart app.

If you’re using a stainless steel ferment, and that is good to have an old compatible device close to the fermentor for uninterrupted measuring. I use an old iPod touch personally, and this is simply plugged in all the time, but maybe have an old phone or tablet that is not in use. Otherwise a key part to the main plus of the tilt is simply how good the smartphone app is. Or at least that was the case until Brwefather started rolling out support for other devices.

At least the tilt is included in this support though. So that’s nice. You can also set up the device so that it sends its data every 15 minutes to Google sheets, making it then checkable via wifi, which is very handy.

I recalibrate my tilt before using it for every new fermentation. This I believe is very key to all of these devices really.

Next out. We have the Ispindel. The Ispindel is described on its website as a DIY electronic hydrometer. It can be bought in kit form for around 30 euros or 30 US dollars. To put one together. You will need some electronics and computer skills. Some are reselling these ready to go for a fee on top.

Also, there is actually a nice guy on my YouTube channels, Facebook group, who offers these. And this is where I obtained mine. I found the setup to be pretty straightforward and not exactly time-consuming. Calibrating this took a bit more time, but it wasn’t too bad at all. Really. There is an Ispindel website that has documentation in German, English, Spanish, and Portuguese though. The last three languages are offered as a work in progress unlike the German.

This information will be key if you’re going the DIY route. Looking at the logs, there was a lot of firmware updates between 2016 to 2019, where the last one being in November, 2019. The default software is very basic stuff, but support is also offered in brewfather, which makes it much more pleasing to look out with the plotted graph offered.

There is a capital difference between the tilt and the, Ispindel though. And that is, that is not communicating by Bluetooth, but actually by wifi. I have a mesh wifi network in my house and we have good coverage. So this did not present a problem for me. Just be sure that the area you have for fermentation has reasonable wifi signal and all will be good.

Where I did hit a problem was when I used it with the much thicker stainless steel products like keglands, keg mentor. Despite my router being within a couple of meters distance, no signal was found.

This is a shame because I use this very regularly though. I suspect that this could be resolved with a wifi extended that is placed on the top lid, like a need to do with the tilt for the Bluetooth sygnal to be picked up. No such issues were found with thinner stainless steel products though, including the grainfather conical fermentor.

Let’s now move onto the float. The float is offered by a company called brew brain who are based in the Netherlands. And this is the latest design of these three floating hydrometers.

At this current point, it is available in certain countries in Europe and the Nordics, but this could be different now, depending on when you’re watching this video, of course. This company at one point was supplying Ispindel units, but wanted to take matters further. So being a team of engineers, they developed their own product based around the technology.

The end result to start with is a higher quality product, which is evident the moment you pick it up. There is also a great supporting website that offers very good data, as well as data storage for your various fermentations within your own private account. You can choose to share your data or keep it private.

Support within brewing software like the grainfather platform and brewfather is also on its way. As you will know, from the circuit board in his container, compared to the Ispindel, there is much that has changed for the better. What I really appreciate though, is how good this website is. So let’s have a look at that now.

Here is an example of a public shared fermentation. Personally, I really liked the uncluttered graphs with seperate ones offered for temperature, gravity, and battery life. All important stuff. You will also know that there is the facility to show this data in various different time formats as well.

Another very useful feature is that you can add notes that are dated and timed throughout the fermentation, as well as save the data as a CSV file, as well as see it in raw form. The way this is all presented is very easy to read and thus react to should you ever need to.

Clearly much experience and thought has gone into this side of the product. And yet more is also being added soon. Like the Ispindel, the float communicates via wifi on once again, this presented a problem for readings without extra equipment for the kegland, keg mentor. But not for anything else, including the Juul skin Grainfather conical fermentor. So in the end, this is the evolved version of the Ispindel, which is not a bad thing at all.

So let’s now look at how these compare to each other, by looking at some key considerations. The first consideration I feel is the warranty side.

This is going to vary depending on where you buy these items, but because you cannot buy an assembled, Ispindel from a store this will naturally vary even more greatly and should really be part of your consideration. Next up we have accuracy. Do keep in mind what I said at the start of this video about expectations. But these products do have areas that can have an effect on this further.

Let’s take a closer look, certainly for the busiest part of the fermentation is the top lids of these floating hydrometers that will have the most contact with yeast. The danger here is when this lid and top area become coated with yeast, that then dries and starts weighing the floating hydrometer down.

Naturally, once this occurs, then the device will be potentially inaccurate until it is cleaned. Again, the tilt perhaps due to its much smaller size is for sure the most effected by this, the largest of these three, the float, in my testing proved to be the least effected.

You will also know that the lids on the Ispindel and float stick up above the liquid level much more. So generally I noticed this meant that whilst the tilt would have coatings on the very top and side, the Ispindel and float tended to be less coated in general.

Build quality is also a key area in both the flow and tilt have this better cover compared to the Ispindel in general, as you might expect, seeing as the Ispindel more of a hobbyist product, rather than a full on commercial entry though, naturally both the tilt and float are sold at a higher cost. So weigh this one up in your own mind for yourself, but there should naturally be part of the equation, not the full equation or at least to my mind. The reporting experience side of these products is also an area that is very important to me.

I enjoy comparing the fermentations later on and generally find the data interesting and useful for understanding different types of yeast. However, if you are someone who, for example, just plans to use brewfather for readings at the start and end, then essentially once the float has support, then these will all be on an even playing field. But perhaps you like, I appreciate the floats you like and the extra features offered.

So if this is the case, then the float has a plus from you here. One area that is certainly not even as the battery side, firstly comes the part of opening the devices themselves. Here is how easy it is to unscrew the flow. And then the Ispindel. It is fair to say that the caps on both of these are very easy to remove. Even if you close them very tightly, there is simply no stress or problems with either of these in terms of removing the batteries.

With the tilt, however, you’re going to need gloves, and patience, and then some more patience, I guess we’ve all seen angry forum posts about this. You might get lucky and the caps will take mercy on you, but frankly like most of us, they do get more grumpy with age.

Both the Ispindel and float use rechargeable batteries, 18650’sa, to be precise, which you may or may not have already along with a suitable charger. Whereas the tilt uses CR123A batteries, but thankfully you do not need to open any of these devices very often. In terms of monitoring battery levels, with both the, Ispindel and float, the battery level can be precisely monitored via software. These readings are constant as long as they are switched on. So, you know, when you need to recharge.

The tilt, however, it has an led light system that activates when it is not sitting perfectly flat, that tells you how much charge is left.

Essentially, have you see a green led, then all is good. If you see a blue led, then you have about one month of battery charge left. If you see neither, then you have about two weeks and it is probably sensible to replace the battery. Within this comparison, I’ve provided what I hope is complete information relating to each of these hydrometers. I have completed a great deal of testing of each of these.

So if you have any questions further, then please feel free to ask questions within the comments section. What I cannot do is tell you which one you should buy, or if you should buy one at all. In fact, what I hope you can do though, is use the information supplied in this video to work out what will be best for you based on your own needs and situation.

Happy brewing.

Conclusion :Though primarily designed to take care of your home-brewing requirements, the wireless digital thermometers/hydrometers are useful devices that can take care of monitoring the temperature and humidity data of any other scenario like home, pets, or children.

This functionality makes it an essential device that you can possess to monitor the relevant data you need.