More information is always better!
It is no mystery that observing the gas escaping from a fermenter is a sign that the
fermentation is underway and that there are chemical reactions occuring. Watching for bubbles
in the blow-off bucket is the indication to the brewer that everything is going as planned.
But, what if you could measure the amount of gas that is coming off?
Fermentation can be described simply as yeast creating ethanol and carbon dioxide from
grain sugars. For a given starting amount of sugar, the ending volumes of ethanol and
carbon dioxide are precisely defined. Thus, knowing the volume of carbon dioxide gas
(by measuring the gas that evolves from the fermenter) allows you to calculate the
concentrations of the other two chemicals.
The BeerBotz device allows you to measure the fermentation gas. This volume can then be used
to display a graph of how the starting sugars are being consumed.
This is better than just watching the blow-off bucket! If you see bubbles in the bucket, you
know that the fermentation is still going. You don't have a graph of history of the process.
Without physically pulling a sample of the liquid, you don't know how far along the process
is.