Fermenting

Log fermentation readings, track gravity and temperature, and monitor progress to completion.

When you have finished your brew and transferred your wort to the fermenter, you can move on to the fermentation stage. To do this, click the Fermenting tab at the top of the page, then click the Change Status to Fermenting button at the top.

Changing the status of your brew to Fermenting

Under the fermenting tab, you can attach devices such as iSpindels, Tilts, Rapt pills, and other electronic hydrometers to measure and update your brew if you have them. Doing so will produce a graph for you that looks like the example below

Fermentation Graph created using an iSpindel

This can also be replicated if you take manual readings and enter them in by hand, for example if you are working in a commercial brewery and take daily readings, just click the to add a manual reading. This opens a dialog box that lets you set the date and time of the reading and add details including gravity, temperature, pH, pressure, and a comment.

Add Reading Dialog

The Readings section header includes several management buttons:

• Toggle Raw Values — Switch between the chart view and a raw values list, which is useful for inspecting individual data points

• Export — Export your fermentation readings as CSV or Brewfather Readings JSON (requires Premium)

• Edit — Open the readings editor to edit or delete individual readings

• Devices — Configure connected fermentation monitoring devices (appears when a device integration is enabled)

• Add Reading — Manually add a new reading entry

After the reading/progress graph is the fermentation profile section

Here you can see your fermentation profile set for your batch, including the relevant dates of any changes that need to take place. It also allows you to modify the profile here, should your fermentation have proceeded faster than expected or the cold crash need longer as the beer hasn't clarified as much as expected for example.

Following this in the process is a section listing your fermentation start date and the planned bottling date. This is followed by a section listing additions during the fermentation process, including yeast, finings, etc. This also has an edit button, allowing you to modify the recipe to include auxiliary finings, for example, if you decided your beer wasn't clear enough.

Measured Values

There is a section to record important measured values. The Original Gravity, Fermenter Top-Up, and Fermenter Vol values carry over from the Brewing tab. The following measured value fields are available during the Fermenting stage:

• Original Gravity (OG) — Carried over from Brewing, or can be entered here

• Fermenter Top-Up — Water added to the fermenter, carried over from Brewing

• Fermenter Vol — Total volume in the fermenter, carried over from Brewing

• Final Gravity (FG) — The measured final gravity of the finished beer

• Bottling Volume — The volume of beer going into bottles or kegs

• Peak Ferm. Temp — The highest temperature reached during fermentation (used for carbonation calculations when bottle or keg conditioning with sugar)

• Carbonation Temp — Appears when using Keg (Force) carbonation type, for calculating the required CO2 pressure

Custom measured values can be added with the +Add button for any additional data you want to track.

The Measured Values section

Carbonation

Carbonation Section

The carbonation section gives you a chance to work out how much priming sugar you need or the pressure you need to set your CO2 to carbonate your beer to your desired level. This automatically uses the highest temperature your beer reached during fermentation when using bottle or keg conditioning with sugar, and defaults to the carbonation level recommended for the style of your beer that you chose when designing your recipe.

The carbonation type can be selected from three options:

• Sugar — Bottle priming with sugar. Shows the amount of table sugar needed for your bottling volume and peak fermentation temperature to reach the target CO2 volumes. You can add the calculated carbonation sugars directly to the batch recipe.

• Keg (Force) — Force carbonation in a keg. Shows the required CO2 pressure at a given carbonation temperature to reach the target CO2 volumes. Instead of Peak Ferm. Temp, this mode uses a Carbonation Temp field.

• Keg (Sugar) — Keg priming with sugar. Similar to bottle priming, but calculates the sugar amount for keg conditioning rather than bottle conditioning.

Stats

The Stats section displays calculated values based on your measured data:

• ABV — Alcohol by volume, calculated from your measured Original Gravity and Final Gravity

• Attenuation — Apparent attenuation percentage

• Conversion Efficiency — Appears when enabled in experimental settings and when the recipe has a first wort gravity defined

• Mash Efficiency — Efficiency of the mash process

• Brewhouse Efficiency — Overall efficiency from grain to fermenter (shown when the equipment efficiency type is not set to "Kettle")

These values are automatically calculated and read-only.

Conditioning

When fermentation is complete, you can move to the Conditioning stage by changing the batch status. The Conditioning stage is a sub-status within the Fermenting view — the batch shows as "Conditioning" in its status, but you continue to use the same Fermenting interface with all the same features including readings, carbonation calculations, measured values, and stats. From Conditioning, you can advance the batch to Completed.

Related docs

• Brewing

• Completed

• Devices

• Notifications