Announcing: Fermentrack 2

Over the course of the past year, I've been busy working on an update to Fermentrack using what I learned working on TiltBridge, TronBridge, and KegScreen. Despite two of these projects still awaiting release (ahem, Espressif?) the lessons learned from working on them were enough to make me realize that I needed a true, fresh start for Fermentrack. That fresh start is almost at the point where I'm ready to start allowing other users to take a peek.

Why Fermentrack 2?

Since being released in 2016 Fermentrack has evolved significantly. Originally intended as a simple BrewPi-www replacement, Fermentrack initially only assisted with monitoring BrewPi temperature controllers. Over time it evolved to include features like Tilt Hydrometer and iSpindel support and added data export capabilities to services such as Brewfather. These features greatly expanded Fermentrack's utility (and resulted in spinoff projects such as TiltBridge, BrewFlasher, and BrewFlasher Web Edition!) but this organic growth had the side effect of making the codebase cumbersome to work in and resulted in numerous bugs.

Drawing insights from my experience building TronBridge and KegScreen, I realized the potential that could be unlocked by rebuilding Fermentrack to take advantage of features such as a modern, RESTful backend combined with a single-page interface. This inspired a complete overhaul of Fermentrack, enhancing the user experience and minimizing bugs.

The result is Fermentrack 2.

What new features does Fermentrack 2 bring?

Cloud Support

Fermentrack 2 can now - optionally! - be run completely in the cloud. Using the latest (v16+, currently in alpha) version of BrewPi-ESP, temperature controllers can be located on a different network - or even in a different country - from Fermentrack, while still retaining the same features as if it was installed locally.

New, Modern Dashboard

The dashboard and user interface has been redesigned to focus on the features people use in Fermentrack, and has been rebuilt as a fast, easy-to-use single page web-app using modern, mobile-first, responsive frameworks. It works as well (or better!) from your phone as your desktop!

Quality of Life Improvements

As part of the redesign, I've added several features that have been commonly requested, but weren't able to be implemented in legacy Fermentrack. One of these - shown above - is the ability to save graph display preferences, and hide unused graph lines between visits. Other features such as the ability to use specific gravity sensors to trigger temperature changes in profiles are being developed.

Localization Support

Fermentrack now supports your language! Launching with initial support for English, Spanish, and German, new languages can be easily added and maintained both using the magic of AI as well as through manual edits via CrowdIn. Interested in helping to translate Fermentrack to a new language, or fixing issues with an existing translation? Let me know!

Is Fermentrack 2 now a "cloud" app?

Yes - but only if you want it to be, and for as long as you want it to be. Fermentrack 2 supports the cloud – and indeed, the main way that I expect people to use Fermentrack 2 is in the cloud at Fermentrack.net. Fermentrack 2 will be open source at full release where what is provided on GitHub will be the exact same code running Fermentrack.net in the cloud. Fermentrack 2 will support full import/export functionality, meaning that if you want to transition from the cloud to a local installation (or vice versa!) you can, easily.

When will Fermentrack 2 become available? How can I start using it?

The initial, alpha version of Fermentrack 2 will be available soon for testing in the cloud at Fermentrack.net. To stay in the loop and be one of the first to try it out, I encourage you to join the email list by submitting the form below, or by signing up on that website (they're the same - the form below is just ugly).

The alpha is not yet fully featured, and will initially only support temperature control via beta versions of the BrewPi-ESP firmware which support the new, REST interface. It does not yet support gravity sensors, but will support Tilt Hydrometers via TiltBridge and TiltBridge junior soon. As new features are completed and made available for testing, notification will be sent to the mailing list as well.