We are going on kickstarter

[Stener]

Hi guys!

We are PLAATO from Oslo, Norway. We have recreated a digital airlock that track the fermentation process.
It gives you key stats as SG, Fermentation rate, alchole level and much more.

We have gone on kickstarter today. Check out our page here:

http://bit.ly/KickstartPLAATO

Best,

PLAATO Team

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Does it count kittens?

Serious question - how does an overflowing fermentation effect the reading? Many healthy ferments I do these days spill some yeast into the blown off jar so there would be yeast getting inside the Plaato. Would it need to be cleaned mid ferment or would the readings be accurate until the end of ferment when I can disassemble and rinse/sanitize? Also can it be soaked in PBW (sodium percarbonate and sodium metasilicate)?

Nice looking piece of kit and interesting concept!

 

[wide eyed and legless]

What sort of retail price would one be looking at?

 

[Bribie G]

Should get a good reception in the USA where carboys with bungs are popular.
In Australia we nearly always use plastic screw top barrel type or clip lid bucket style fermentors that often have sealing problems. Many home brewers have switched to using cling film secured with a rubber band.

Might appeal to the new crop of brewers using SS .

 

[Roosterboy]

I would like to see a proper review of this , there must be a lot of assumptions in the algorithm.
I don't want to be negative but I think at best it would give guesstimates .

 

[klangers]

I imagine it would be as accurate as the initial data supplied to it. It's just a flow meter that I'm guessing you enter the OG and volume of wort, and it then infers the alcohol etc from the amount of CO2 released.

That said, I'd prefer if there was an option of converting it to an inline flowmeter, so I could use it on my conical. I don't use airlocks.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

What sort of retail price would one be looking at?

USD$149

 

[malt junkie]

I would like to see a proper review of this , there must be a lot of assumptions in the algorithm.
I don't want to be negative but I think at best it would give guesstimates .

Not really the amount of Co2 produced is directly related to the amount of sugars eaten, if you have an accurate OG, extrapolating current gravity is simple math. This isn't an original idea, a bloke in the states has been using a mass flow meter to do this for 3 or four years now and claims accuracy of better than 1 point.

 

[Mardoo]

I'm curious whether the amount of CO2 produced would be somewhat yeast dependent. I mean, some of us fart more than others... But seriously, it seems logical that some sub-species might produce more CO2 than others.

 

[Leyther]

Nice idea, save me trudging to the garage fridge every night to check the refrac readings but I also use the plastic tubs rather than carboys and sealing is definitely an issue, my current ferment has no airlock activity at all but its chugging along fine.

USD $149 is far too steep in my opinion, even the $99 for the kick starters sounds expensive enough

 

[earle]

Does it count kittens?

Nice looking piece of kit and interesting concept!

I can just see the new threads - my Plaato is not bubbling

 

[mtb]

Maybe it's my baby-induced sleep deprivation, but does the following graph mean that I can expect a .005 margin of error without "manual calibration"? And is manual calibration a matter of taking a hydrometer reading to correct the Plaato?

 

[Droopy Brew]

I'm curious whether the amount of CO2 produced would be somewhat yeast dependent. I mean, some of us fart more than others... But seriously, it seems logical that some sub-species might produce more CO2 than others.

Im thinking not. The yeast may provide a different rate of fermentation but in a balanced chemical equation, the amount of CO2 produced from the fermentation of sugars to alcohol should remain constant. Whether the volume of CO2 is expelled in 24 hours or 24 days, shouldn't matter. It is a measurement of volume not flow.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

 

[Mardoo]

Im thinking not. The yeast may provide a different rate of fermentation but in a balanced chemical equation, the amount of CO2 produced from the fermentation of sugars to alcohol should remain constant. Whether the volume of CO2 is expelled in 24 hours or 24 days, shouldn't matter. It is a measurement of volume not flow.

Good point. The by-products of the chemical reaction of converting sugar into "energy" and alcohol by a particular means should be constant. (Pardon the woefully inadequate description.)

 

[wobbly]

Be interested if it would/could work when fermenting under pressure

Wobbly

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

In principle the flowmeter is measuring CO2 flow at atmospheric pressure so if it was discharging through the plaato at higher than atmospheric pressure the plaato would need to measure the pressure and compensate for this to measure actual mass flow. So from what I can glean this won't work for pressure ferments and the actual device I doubt is rated to physically withstand any pressure.

 

[moonhead]

Maybe it's my baby-induced sleep deprivation, but does the following graph mean that I can expect a .005 margin of error without "manual calibration"? And is manual calibration a matter of taking a hydrometer reading to correct the Plaato?

That seems like a rather large margin of error, that would pretty much remove any benefits in using this device, in my eyes...

I wonder if it's time that is the cause the margin of error, or volume of CO2?

 

[moonhead]

Hrmm. Just noticed on the reddit post of this kickstarter, the makers of this device have stated it's a cloud service, that will require their servers for this device to function. So, if, or perhaps when given recent history, this company goes belly up, and the bills for their servers aren't getting paid, this device will cease to function. That's a pretty big red flag for me.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewin...rlock_fermentation_monitoring_device/djj9ufk/

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

That seems like a rather large margin of error, that would pretty much remove any benefits in using this device, in my eyes...

I wonder if it's time that is the cause the margin of error, or volume of CO2?

It would be because the flow meter is working in its lower range of flow capability. At the lower gravitates for each hour there would be far less gas mass being passed through he flowmeter.