I just bottled a 3-gal black IPA from an all-grain kit I bought from NB. This was my first time using my new Tilt Hydrometer. I mashed per instructions at 152 F for 75 mins and then mashed out at 168 F for 10. I also did a 3-pass vorlauf every 15 mins during the mash. I sparged to boil volume using 170 F water. Once boiled, hopped, cooled and in the fermenter, I aerated for 10 mins with an aquarium pump and stirred the foam down. Then I pitched dry US-05, stirred that in well and then dropped in my sanitized and calibrated Tilt device and sealed her up.
I connected to the device easily with an iPad and it showed an OG of 1.064. I screwed up a bit because I did not get all the Google Sheets business set up until after that so it did not include all of my readings from the very beginning in the spreadsheet, but I finally got all that working and began taking readings at regular intervals and they began to be tracked and graphed. Eventually after about 12 days I reached a FG of 1.005 for the third day in a row and bottled on day 14. I did not use a secondary on this batch because the fermenter has a concave bottom and keeps the yeast bed sloped away from the spigot enough so it's not a problem to bottle right from the primary using carbonation drops.
Once I bottled down to the point where I could see the Tilt was about an inch from the bottom, I opened the lid and removed the Tilt so it wouldn't bottom out and stir up the sediment. The end of the unit that floats upward (can't remember if that's the top or bottom of the device) had a thumbnail size gob of yeast on it. It was caked on pretty good and took some scrubbing and rinsing to get it off. Now, what I am wondering is, can I trust the SG readings as accurate even with the gob on the end or would something like that throw them off? And if so, would that tend to throw the reading off as high or low? I was kind of surprised it went all the way to 1.005 and was expecting something like 1.008. I know there is a margin of error involved. I have also read in the FAQs that the krausen is not normally a problem for the device.
I'm sure I'm over thinking it, but the weight of the stuff stuck to the unit was more than I expected. Overall, I like using the Tilt. I am way too lazy to pull samples and float the old hydrometer, so this Tilt thing was very interesting to me. I haven't taken a hydrometer reading of a batch of beer in probably 20 years. I feel all scientific and s**t.
I connected to the device easily with an iPad and it showed an OG of 1.064. I screwed up a bit because I did not get all the Google Sheets business set up until after that so it did not include all of my readings from the very beginning in the spreadsheet, but I finally got all that working and began taking readings at regular intervals and they began to be tracked and graphed. Eventually after about 12 days I reached a FG of 1.005 for the third day in a row and bottled on day 14. I did not use a secondary on this batch because the fermenter has a concave bottom and keeps the yeast bed sloped away from the spigot enough so it's not a problem to bottle right from the primary using carbonation drops.
Once I bottled down to the point where I could see the Tilt was about an inch from the bottom, I opened the lid and removed the Tilt so it wouldn't bottom out and stir up the sediment. The end of the unit that floats upward (can't remember if that's the top or bottom of the device) had a thumbnail size gob of yeast on it. It was caked on pretty good and took some scrubbing and rinsing to get it off. Now, what I am wondering is, can I trust the SG readings as accurate even with the gob on the end or would something like that throw them off? And if so, would that tend to throw the reading off as high or low? I was kind of surprised it went all the way to 1.005 and was expecting something like 1.008. I know there is a margin of error involved. I have also read in the FAQs that the krausen is not normally a problem for the device.
I'm sure I'm over thinking it, but the weight of the stuff stuck to the unit was more than I expected. Overall, I like using the Tilt. I am way too lazy to pull samples and float the old hydrometer, so this Tilt thing was very interesting to me. I haven't taken a hydrometer reading of a batch of beer in probably 20 years. I feel all scientific and s**t.
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