An IoT-based beer fermentation monitoring system

A correct fermentation process is essential to obtain a good result in the production of beer. At this stage, the sugars contained in the wort are converted, thanks to the yeast, into ethanol, carbon dioxide and other by-products. In industrial breweries, fermenters are equipped with sensors in order to monitor the main parameters of the fermentation process. This kind of systems are usually too expensive for craft breweries, therefore verifying the fermentation conditions is achieved with off-line measurements, taking beer samples from each fermenter at regular intervals of time. Low-cost systems would be ideal for these companies, in order to permit monitoring of the fermentation process. In this paper, an on-line monitoring system for the beer fermentation is proposed. The sensor modules placed on each fermentation tank and the monitoring interface unit communicate by means of the MQTT protocol using a WiFi network. The paper focuses on the design of the measurement system describing the choice of the monitoring parameters and the system architecture.