Better Brewing App Now Includes Yeast Pitch Calculator

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Yeast Pitch Calculator

Wildau – Oculyze GmbH has integrated a dynamic upgrade for its Better Brewing yeast management tool: the yeast pitch calculator. This will allow users to choose their Find a Craft Brewerydesired pitch rate directly in millions of cells or use the degree plato of the wort and a pitch rate factor to set the final desired pitch rate automatically. And voilà – based on the user’s yeast  concentration and viability measurements performed through the app – the ideal pitch rate is automatically calculated.

There has been a strong push in the last year from the craft beer world to focus on the importance of quality in the brewing process – more often than not – this includes the fermentation process. Many argue that the key ingredient in making beer taste great is none other than – YEAST! It’s not just about putting in some yeast and calling it a great beer – it’s about careful management and control of yeast. Micro- and craft breweries are often faced with time consuming and expensive yeast analysis processes. To simplify the brewing fermentation process, Oculyze (GmbH) has developed a system that allows brewers to take control of their yeast analysis and improve the taste and quality of beer: Better Brewing.

Who Said Yeast Can’t be Fun? With an easy-to-use, handheld microscope and integrated, cost efficient yeast counting that can be done in a matter of minutes, Oculyze – Better Brewing aims to redefine the fermentation process. Yeast counting can be a daunting task – it requires patience, attention to detail, and often more time than necessary. The integrated yeast pitch rate calculator aims to make yeast analysis even easier for brewers. “After ongoing discussions even from the beginning of our research and development phases with various experts in the field and reaching out to people in the craft beer community, it was obvious for us that we needed to integrate this feature”, Uli Tillich, CTO at Oculyze explains. “…for us, this is another step in our goal in becoming the one-stop-shop for all yeast counting needs”, he adds.

Here is how it works:

  • Once a user has conducted their measurements, these results are automatically integrated into the pitch rate calculator
  • The user has the opportunity to enter the volume of wort and the desired final concentration.
  • Final concentration can be calculated in a number of ways. Some may choose to manually enter this based on past experiences; there is a list of suggestions they can select based on different types of beer; the advanced settings allows for them to enter the degree plato and pitch rate factor (again, suggestions are available)
  • Taking the user’s measurement results, the calculation shows which volume of yeast is needed to add to the wort — depending on which type of beer (degrees plato) and what volume the user wants to brew

What’s next? Kilian Moser, CEO at Oculyze GmbH speaks about the upcoming year. “2018 will be an exciting year for our team and our customers. As we continue to expand our customer base worldwide, we are working towards an even bigger product offering — including separate device for contamination detection for filtered beer, a wider range of viability staining options, a jump into the  homebrewing market and more!”

For more information on the system, please visit our website or visit us at our booth at the Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America 2018 in Nashville from April 30 – May 3, 2018. You will find us at booth 2929. We would love to meet you there.

About Oculyze: Oculyze GmbH is an award winning image recognition company that was founded in 2016. It has developed a mobile microscope with a magnification of ~400x and an automated image recognition software. It enables the user to take a microscopic image and get results within seconds, from anywhere – without specialized expertise needed. As a first application of their technology, Oculyze created the Better Brewing application – an app that allows breweries to manage their yeast. Future applications in various stages of development range from agricultural  monitoring to a point of care diagnostic tool. For more information visit https://www.oculyze.net/.