When do you consider fermentation to be complete

[Hawkbox]

Yeah for a normal beer 1.002 would make me think infection, but as Bob said the other factors really matter.

 

[AHarper]

Well thanks for all your inputs. I have checked the beer. No abnormal growths, it smells fine and also tastes pretty normal and as strong as the low SG would suggest. If I am violently ill during the night I will struggle back on here and let you know. I have also just checked the SG using a normal hydrometer and that read 1.010. This is exactly what the recipe predicted. I noticed that there was a dolop of Krausen on the Tilt which, as Bob suggested, would be affecting the reading - The Moral of the story? DON'T SPRINKLE HOPS ON THE WORT THEN DROP THE TILT INTO FROM A HEIGHT. I suspect this is what has allowed the Tilt to have a coating of yeast on the top altering it's COG.
This beer will be cleared and bottled as I think it is fine. I shall be more careful with my Tilt in future - which, for a Scotsman, is a difficult thing to control.

 

[Craigerrr]

Just my humble opinion, but I wonder if these electronic gravity gadgets are better suited as a rough indicator as opposed to an absolute measuring device. I would think that even a bit of dried up krausen would create a slight reading error. Just my humble opinion.

 

[Craigerrr]

Just my humble opinion, but I wonder if these electronic gravity gadgets are better suited as a rough indicator as opposed to an absolute measuring device. I would think that even a bit of dried up krausen would create a slight reading error. Just my humble opinion.

 

[BOB357]

Fishing for double points Craigerrr?

I'm with you on the TILT and similar devices. It appears that they're great for monitoring fermentation trending, but not so much as far as accuracy is concerned. I just can't see "precision instrument" and "hostile environment as being compatible.

 

[Group W]

That’s right Craigerrr. Agree totally. Tilt is a great learning tool for visualization of your fermentation process. It helped me take my fermentation time on basic ales from 14 days to 8 days, not including cold crashing. I could never get the absolute gravity Tilt reading to match a hydrometer reading, but never did a 2 point calibration. Tilt’s eat batteries and when the power to the unit is low the data is impacted or sometimes missing. Fun gadget, educational, but not a substitute for OG or FG readings.

 

[Craigerrr]

Fishing for double points Craigerrr?

I'm with you on the TILT and similar devices. It appears that they're great for monitoring fermentation trending, but not so much as far as accuracy is concerned. I just can't see "precision instrument" and "hostile environment as being compatible.

I don't know what you mean, I don't know what you mean!

 

[Group W]

 

[Bubba Wade]

It is not unusual for some of the Belgian yeasts to ferment to a low number. I just kegged up a Saison that went down to 1.001. The Danstar Belle Saison yeast seems to ferment about 0.003 below calculated target.

Incidentall, I have been using a Tilt for about 2 years. I've only had one battery change in that time. My Tilt vs. hydrometer comparisons have stayed within about +/-0.002.

Given that, there are some peculiarities in the operation. Early in the fermentation, I'll often see the SG go up, probably due to CO2 bubble sticking to the Tilt. A day or so later, the SG reading drops and trends down.

To @Craigerrr , I have found the most valuable information to be the trend graph, not the absolute value, as you have mentioned. There are lots of factors that can affect FG, but when the curve flattens out, you know fermentation is complete, whether it's at 1.016 or 1.002. I think it has been a worthy investment.

 

[Nosybear]

That’s right Craigerrr. Agree totally. Tilt is a great learning tool for visualization of your fermentation process. It helped me take my fermentation time on basic ales from 14 days to 8 days, not including cold crashing. I could never get the absolute gravity Tilt reading to match a hydrometer reading, but never did a 2 point calibration. Tilt’s eat batteries and when the power to the unit is low the data is impacted or sometimes missing. Fun gadget, educational, but not a substitute for OG or FG readings.

I built a spreadsheet to do roughly the same thing as a Tilt using a refractometer. It was cool to watch fermentation progress for a few beers. Now I only use it when I need to know something specific about a fermentation.

 

[Grey Cat Brewing]

I've done many, many Belgian/Trappist/Biere de Garde batches (90% of them) that almost always exceed the expected yeast attenuation by quite a bit. Only in the last couple of years has this really been a trend for me and I attribute it to the strain of yeast and better efficiency (up to 75-78% efficiency from my original low 60s ), but also having a better fermentation environment by adding a glycol chiller to really dial in the ferm temps, oxygenating before pitch, and using at least a 1L starter. I actually got to the point where some of my FG numbers were ridiculously lower than expected (1.001 instead of the expected 1.009 or something like that). I attributed that to over-pitching so instead of ripping a 2L started for every batch I scaled back and based the starter size on the expected OG and now I've been hitting close to expectation.

This year I haven't been under 87% attenuation on any of my Belgian styles. Conversely, the two non-Belgian styles I've done this year were mid 70s attenuation. Keeping track of my actual attenuations has helped as I plug it back into the recipe and recalculate it (and sometimes reformulate) to get a more accurate FG expectation. I let the yeast work and it does it's thing.

I gave up on the Tilt/Brewometer (I got one of the first iterations!) for the same reasons everyone's listed above. Good for trending but not exact, getting covered in yeast during high-krausen and moving to stainless fermenters which hampered the signal from it. I'm confident enough in the yeast now to just let it go

Ross
GCB

 

[west1m]

It is not unusual for some of the Belgian yeasts to ferment to a low number. I just kegged up a Saison that went down to 1.001. The Danstar Belle Saison yeast seems to ferment about 0.003 below calculated target.

Incidentall, I have been using a Tilt for about 2 years. I've only had one battery change in that time. My Tilt vs. hydrometer comparisons have stayed within about +/-0.002.

Given that, there are some peculiarities in the operation. Early in the fermentation, I'll often see the SG go up, probably due to CO2 bubble sticking to the Tilt. A day or so later, the SG reading drops and trends down.

To @Craigerrr , I have found the most valuable information to be the trend graph, not the absolute value, as you have mentioned. There are lots of factors that can affect FG, but when the curve flattens out, you know fermentation is complete, whether it's at 1.016 or 1.002. I think it has been a worthy investment.

I'm 100% with you on every point.