Homebrewing & Fermentation Tracking

The "I make beer / wine / mead / cider / kraut / sourdough" page. For tasting notes after the fact see Wine, Beer, Spirits & Cocktails Tracking; for coffee roasting see Coffee Roasting & Tracking; for HA-side fermentation chamber automation see Home Assistant Add-ons; for ESP-based DIY hydrometer / temperature controllers see ESPHome / Tasmota; for the data that drives recipe scaling and tracking see Recipe Import & Scrapers.

Beer recipe / brew-day tracking

• ★ BrewFather — paid (~$30/yr) + free tier; web + iOS / Android; the modern default; recipe scaling, water profile, brew-day timeline, fermentation log, BeerXML import / export. Indie team; sustainable. Default in 2026.
  • https://brewfather.app
• ★ BrewTarget — FOSS; desktop (Qt); BeerXML; long-running; recipe-design-flavored. The OSS pick if you don't want a subscription.
  • https://github.com/Brewtarget/brewtarget
• Brewer's Friend — paid + free; long-running web; large recipe database; BeerXML; older UI than BrewFather.
• BeerSmith 3 — paid (~$30 one-time); desktop; the oldest comprehensive brewing software; Windows-flavored; large legacy user base.
• iBrewMaster — paid; iOS-flavored.
• Grainfather Connect — paid; ties to Grainfather hardware; closed.

Wine / mead / cider

• BrewFather supports mead / cider recipes adequately.
• WineMaker recipe DB — community.
• MeadCalc / MeadMakr — niche tools.
• Cider Maker / iBrewMaster — niche.

Hydrometer / SG tracking (the killer modern feature)

• ★ ★ Tilt Hydrometer — paid (~$130); Bluetooth-floating-hydrometer; reports SG + temp every minute during fermentation. The category-defining product. Pairs with BrewFather, Grainfather, Plaato. Closed but well-supported.
  • https://tilthydrometer.com
• ★ iSpindel — DIY OSS hydrometer; ESP8266 + accelerometer + temp; ~$20–30 in parts; reports to BrewFather / a Grafana stack via WiFi. The hacker / right answer if you have the patience to build it.
  • https://github.com/universam1/iSpindel
• Plaato Airlock / Plaato Pro — paid; airlock-flavored gravity / activity tracker; closed cloud.
• RAPT Pill — paid; Tilt-shape; cheaper.
• Float (BrewFather Float) — paid; smaller form-factor hydrometer.
• Inkbird IBS-TH2 — paid; just temp, but cheap and reliable for fermentation chamber monitoring.

Fermentation chamber control

• ★ Inkbird ITC-308 / ITC-310 — paid (~$40); two-stage temperature controller; the budget homebrew chiller / heater controller. Plug-and-play; not connected.
• Inkbird IBT-2X — connected version with app + WiFi.
• ★ CraftBeerPi 4 — FOSS; Raspberry-Pi-based brewery automation + fermentation control; Python; community-supported.
  • https://github.com/PiBrewing/craftbeerpi4
• BrewPi — older OSS Pi brewery control; project status varies.
• Fermentrack — fork of BrewPi; OSS; HA-friendly.
• ESPHome + DS18B20 + relay — DIY; the right path if you're already in the HA ecosystem.

All-in-one electric brewery hardware

• Grainfather — paid (~$1,500); connected; closed app; cult.
• Anvil Foundry — paid; manual; cheaper.
• BrewZilla / Robobrew — paid; budget Grainfather-shape.
• Spike Solo / Trio — paid; premium kettle systems; HERMS.
• Picobrew — sunset; ignore.
• Pico C — sunset; ignore.

Sourdough / bread

• ★ The Bread Code (Hendrik Kleinwächter) YouTube + book — free + paid; the modern sourdough teacher.
• Sourdough Tracker apps (multiple, varying maturity) — log feedings + activity.
• Trello / Notion / a notebook — what most serious sourdough bakers actually use.
• Cooklang — recipes-as-code includes sourdough timing well.
• King Arthur sourdough hub — free reference.
• Modernist Bread — Nathan Myhrvold's reference work.

For the technique reference / education see Culinary Education & Courses.

Kraut / kimchi / vinegar / koji

• Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation / The Art of Fermentation — the canon.
• NoMA Guide to Fermentation — Redzepi / Zilber; modernist reference.
• MIYO Fermentation (paid + free) — small log app.
• A whiteboard / notebook — what most ferments actually need.

Tea / kombucha

• Kombucha Mamma / Cultures for Health — free reference.
• Kombucha tracking apps — niche; varying.

Cheese / dairy fermentation

• Cheese Forum + Cheese Making (Ricki Carroll) — community + book reference.
• Spreadsheet logs — the standard.

Honest pricing landscape (mid-2026)

Practical guidance

• ★ Log gravity readings or you can't troubleshoot. Tilt / iSpindel are night-and-day vs. opening the fermenter for sample-and-flask.
• Calibrate hydrometers in distilled water at the listed temp once. Big surprise on accuracy after.
• Two-stage temp control beats one-stage. Heater + chiller, not just one.
• Water chemistry is the unlock. Once you've nailed yeast and process, water is the next dial. BrewFather's water tool is right.
• OG ↔ FG vs ABV math is automatic in any tool above; don't trust hand math.
• Ferment cool, dry-hop warm. Cellar temps matter; the cheap chiller pays for itself.
• Sourdough doesn't need an app. It needs a notebook and consistency.

Pick this if…

• Default modern brewing tracker: BrewFather.
• OSS-only, desktop: BrewTarget.
• Wireless gravity log, paid hardware: Tilt Hydrometer.
• DIY gravity log: iSpindel.
• Cheap fermentation chamber control: Inkbird ITC-308.
• Pi-based brewery + ferm control, OSS: CraftBeerPi 4 or Fermentrack.
• Sourdough: a notebook + The Bread Code.
• Wild ferments: Sandor Katz, no app.