There are people that like to drink beer.

Then, there are people that like to taste beer. People that can tell the difference between different kinds of water, hops, malts and yeasts. Perfectly balanced, those basic ingredients can form fabulous, unexpected flavour combinations.

Everybody knows the world-famous citrus aroma of American Pale Ales. It comes from hops, carefully selected from North America’s best plantations. And there’s nothing better than a refreshing German Weizen with aromas of bananas and cloves. Those come from yeasts which also make our beer fresh by producing carbon dioxide. We mean bubbles.

We could talk about it for hours. We are the people that go a step further and have created our own beer—Monterale! We enjoy the nature of beer: the community, the craft and the taste.

Monterale

At Monterail, we believe that precision is a key to perfection. This is why we struggle to improve at every step and every aspect of our work, hobby and life. Also, we’re obsessed with Internet of Things and the tinkering possibilities that it brings to all software DIY projects.

That’s why we decided to build something to help us brew better batches of Monterale—Breweree system.

Prototype

There are many challenges when making beer at home. Amongst them, proper equipment, hygiene, good recipes, and temperature stand out the most. Temperature measurements are present at every step of brewing. From mashing, through boiling and up to fermentation. Temperature is one of the most important factors that impact the taste, clarity, smell, and strength of the beer. We knew we had to find a better way to monitor its values over time to better understand, compare and improve the taste of our batches.

At first, there was simple hardware to be designed. Definitely not something Monterail would do on a commercial basis at this stage. But why not use our hobby-based skills here?

Then came the time for some prototype engineering. Wires, sensors and connectors got connected together with a soldering iron. And we made it. It was alive!

#iot #product design