Beer Forum

Does anyone here have a Beer Bug?

I received one as a gift for graduation and tried it out for the first time on my last brew. It seems like something is going wrong as it was reading at 1.015 yesterday after about 2 days of fermentation and a hydrometer reading I took was at about 1.030. Additionally, it read at .997 this morning and this beer (Janet's Brown) should be nowhere near that. Now it is reading just above 1.000.

Any help would be appreciated.

How and when did you calibrate it? I had problems with m last brew but the wort was cold (low 60s) when I put the float in and I didn't give it time to equilibrate before calibrating. Haven't checked this current batch but the numbers I'm getting look reasonable.

-- Scott

animaldoc wrote:How and when did you calibrate it? I had problems with m last brew but the wort was cold (low 60s) when I put the float in and I didn't give it time to equilibrate before calibrating. Haven't checked this current batch but the numbers I'm getting look reasonable.

-- Scott

I calibrated it to the wort right after i pitched the yeast i believe. I realized i hadn't followed the wait an hour instructions. would that play that large of a factor? Also, when I went to dry hop, I saw that there was krausen remain on the clip which I hear can be an issue. Idk how to solve that one though as this was really a relaxed fermentation.

I don't think the krausen can change the reading that much, and there is no way to avoid that aside from getting a taller fermenter. The last batch I did my gravity was off 10 points presumably because I didn't wait ...... it tracked perfectly, just off.

The problem I'm having right nor is keeping the f**ker level. I have the silicone universal bungs because I have several different fermenter opening sizes and the silicone is slipping and tiliting. That will throw it WAY off if the line is touching the side of the nosecone.

You could always re-calibrate by taking a hydrometer reading .... but you'll only get good data from that point forward.

I was planning on buying another one because I have been doing multiple batches, but the website has been glitch and support has been non-existent for the last 2 weeks so I question the long-term viability of this product since we are beholden to the website for our data.

animaldoc wrote:I don't think the krausen can change the reading that much, and there is no way to avoid that aside from getting a taller fermenter. The last batch I did my gravity was off 10 points presumably because I didn't wait ...... it tracked perfectly, just off.

The problem I'm having right nor is keeping the f**ker level. I have the silicone universal bungs because I have several different fermenter opening sizes and the silicone is slipping and tiliting. That will throw it WAY off if the line is touching the side of the nosecone.

You could always re-calibrate by taking a hydrometer reading .... but you'll only get good data from that point forward.

I was planning on buying another one because I have been doing multiple batches, but the website has been glitch and support has been non-existent for the last 2 weeks so I question the long-term viability of this product since we are beholden to the website for our data.

I submitted a claim and I have received a few emails but one said that the website is down and they are experiencing difficulties. The beer is definitely done fermenting at this point, so I am just going to give it another try next time and calibrate it more carefully. The person I spoke with said that if it does not start working, I could send it in for a new one which I appreciated.