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Fermenters
The Fermenters tab is the main operational view of OurBrewbot. It shows live readings and controls for each of the four fermenters and is where day-to-day brewing is run from.
Each fermenter has its own card containing live readings, identification fields, temperature setpoints, power and control toggles, profile assignment, and brew-service routing.
Across the top of the admin page is a row of tabs and a thin auto-refresh bar with a pause button (⏸). The bar runs down over 10 seconds; when it empties the tab re-renders from the device. Editing any field marks the page "dirty" — the bar turns red and pauses auto-refresh for 30 seconds so your edits aren't blown away mid-typing. Click the pause button to stop refresh entirely.
The Fermenters tab shows one card per fermenter (0 – 3), in index order.
Each card's header shows the fermenter index, status badge, and active profile badge.
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| OFF (dark grey) | Power switch is off — temperature control is not running. |
| Idle (grey) | Powered on, within the target band, neither heating nor cooling. |
| Heating (red) | Hot-side plug fired; temperature is below the floor. |
| Cooling (blue) | Cold-side plug fired; temperature is above the ceiling. |
| ALARM (yellow) | Sensor fault or out-of-range condition. |
| Standard (grey) | Running plain hysteresis control with no profile. |
| Profile name (purple) | A fermentation profile is assigned to this fermenter. |
The line under the header shows real-time data:
- Beer — current temperature of the beer probe (with source name in parentheses, e.g. Beer (Tilt Red) if a Tilt or iSpindel is supplying it).
- Ambient — current temperature of the ambient probe.
- SG — gravity reading from the assigned hydrometer, with the source name.
- Att — calculated attenuation (only shown if OG and current SG are both set).
- Est.ABV — estimated alcohol by volume (only shown when SG and OG are available).
- Step / Hour — current profile step and elapsed time, when a profile is running.
-- means no reading is available for that field.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Friendly name for the fermenter (e.g. Left Fridge). Used in logs, MQTT topics, and brew-service uploads. |
| Beer | Name of the beer currently in this fermenter (e.g. NEIPA #14). Sent to Brewfather / Brewer's Friend as the batch name. |
| Ceiling Temp | Upper limit of the target band. The cold-side plug fires when the temperature rises above this. |
| Floor Temp | Lower limit of the target band. The hot-side plug fires when the temperature drops below this. |
| Hysteresis | How far past the limit the temperature must recover before heating/cooling stops. Applied at the stop point — e.g. with Floor = 18 °C and Hysteresis = 0.5, heating starts at <18 and stops at ≥18.5. Larger values mean longer plug runs and fewer cycles. |
| Compressor Delay | Minimum minutes between successive cooling events. Protects the fridge compressor. Cooling will not restart inside this window even if the temperature exceeds Ceiling. |
| Yeast | Free-text yeast strain (e.g. US-05). Reported to brew services. |
| OG | Original gravity, used to calculate attenuation and Est. ABV. |
| TG | Target / terminal gravity for this batch. Informational; not used as a step trigger (use a profile for that). |
| Power | Master switch for this fermenter. When off, the status becomes OFF, both plugs are forced off, and no profile progresses. |
| Temp Control | Enables the heating/cooling state machine. When off, the fermenter still reads temperatures and runs profile timers but does not actuate plugs. Useful for monitoring-only fermenters. |
| Profile | Dropdown selecting Standard (no profile) or one of the four profiles defined on the Profiles tab. Changing this assigns the profile but does not start it. |
Each card has its own Save button. Saving sends every field on the card at once and acknowledges with an inline ok/error message. The card re-renders within ~½ second.
When a profile (1 – 4) is selected, a Profile Control row appears with up to five buttons. The buttons shown depend on the profile's state:
- Start — begin the profile at step 1, time = 0. Shown when the profile is selected but not running, and has no preserved elapsed time.
- Pause — freeze the active step and elapsed time. Shown while the profile is running.
- Resume — continue from the paused step at the saved elapsed time. Replaces Start when the profile is paused (i.e. not running but with non-zero step / elapsed time preserved).
- Restart — start the profile over from step 1, time = 0. Appears alongside Resume when paused, for the case where you want to start fresh rather than continue.
- Stop — end the profile and return the fermenter to the Standard target band. Clears the saved step and elapsed time.
- « Prev / Next » — manually jump to the previous or next step. The new step's elapsed time resets to zero.
While a profile is running its card is locked on the Profiles tab — to edit the steps you must stop the profile first.
When a profile is assigned, an extra Test Mode toggle appears. With Test Mode on, the profile clock advances one simulated hour per 10 seconds of real time. Use this to dry-run a profile and confirm step ordering, ramps, and triggers without waiting days. Temperature control still runs normally — only the profile-elapsed counter is fast-forwarded.
Turn Test Mode off before running a real batch.
Below the controls are per-service routing switches. They appear only for services that are enabled on the Reporting tab.
| Toggle | Effect |
|---|---|
| Brewer's Friend | Upload this fermenter's data to your Brewer's Friend stream. |
| Brewfather | Upload this fermenter's data to your Brewfather custom stream. |
| MQTT | Publish this fermenter's data over MQTT (also required for Home Assistant). |
If no brew services are enabled, a hint message points to the Reporting tab.
If Fermenter Debug Mode is enabled on the System Settings tab, an extra purple "Debug Overrides" card appears under each fermenter. This lets you inject synthetic readings for testing — useful for verifying control logic, profile step triggers, or alarm behaviour without real probes or hydrometers connected.
| Field | Effect |
|---|---|
| Enable | When on, the override values below replace the real sensor readings. |
| Beer Temp | Synthetic beer temperature (°C or °F per global setting). |
| Ambient Temp | Synthetic ambient temperature. |
| SG | Synthetic specific gravity. |
Overrides are runtime-only — they reset on reboot. Click Apply to push them. Turn debug mode off (or reboot) to return to real sensor readings.
- Power off both Power and Temp Control on a fermenter you aren't using — this stops it from triggering plugs even if probes are still wired.
- Compressor Delay of 5 – 10 minutes is sensible for most fridges. Set lower only if you understand the risk of short-cycling.
- Hysteresis of 0.3 – 0.5 °C is a good balance for most fermenters. Higher values smooth out plug activity but widen the actual temperature swing.
- OG must be set for attenuation- and ABV-based features (and for profile step types 4, 7, and 9) to work.