Contents of the Sensafe iDip Smart Brew Water Test Kit
Updated: 5/21/2024
This review is by Homebrew Finds Contributor Brad Probert. Brad is an engineer, expert homebrewer and experienced reviewer. Grab a link to Brad’s website at the end of this review.
Sensafe Smart Brew iDip Water Test Kit
One of the first all-grain brewing books I bought when I moved from extract to all-grain left an impression on me of the importance of your brewing water when doing all-grain mashes. To make it easy to hit my target profile I bought distilled water from the store and then added the appropriate brewing salts to it. That worked well for several years until I got tired of buying and hauling water around and decided to use city water run through some carbon filters.
My filtered water on its own tasted good, but the beer made from it had lost its pizzazz. I knew that to gain it back I needed to figure out my base water and then add the appropriate minerals to hit the target water profile like I used to target when working from distilled water. Knowing my target profile was useless to me if I didn’t know what I was starting from.
App screenshot showing test results – this is one screen of results, scrolling down shows more information
Sensafe makes water test kits targeted to the beer brewer. There is a Smart Brew Starter Kit that contains their iDip digital tester, and test strips for different measurable aspects of your water important to brewing. Once you install the free App on your Android or Apple device, you’ll see you only have access to pH, Chlorine, and Total Alkalinity. To actually use all of the 6 different test strips provided in the kit, you need to pay an additional $18.99 through the App to unlock the full set of beer-centric tests.
Through use of the 6 different test strips (25 strips of each type), and some calculations performed in the App, you are able to get the following readings on your water from the Starter Kit: Total Alkalinity, Calcium, Chloride, Total Hardness, pH, Sulfate, Magnesium, Residual Alkalinity, and Sodium. The Advanced Kit measures the same things, but instead of measuring pH by dissolving a test strip in the iDip reader, it comes with a separate pH/temperature meter.
The heart of this system is the eXact iDip photometer. It is a small hand-held, waterproof (IP67) tester. It has a small sample container that you fill with your test water, then stir around the test strip for whichever test you are running. A push of the button on the iDip gives you a countdown to ensure you mix the test strip in the water for a long enough time, and then it uses a 525 nm light source and a photometer to measure the amount of light that can transmit through. The results are then displayed on the meter’s digital screen as well as transmitting via Bluetooth to your paired smart device running the App.
Ready for testing
Limited Time DEAL:
This has dropped to $238.40 at Amazon. That’s just $1.89 shy of the best historical direct from Amazon price I found, notwithstanding Lightning Deals or coupons. Shipping is also free to many US addresses. Prices and availability can change quickly. Check product page for current info – More About Prices
Industrial Test Systems Exact® iDip® Photometer 486101-SB-K Smart Brew Starter Kit with Meter, Blue – affiliate link, note that multiple variations of this product may be available, as such a different version may appear at this link
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Industrial Test Systems Exact® iDip® Photometer 486101-SB-K Smart Brew Starter Kit with Meter, Blue – affiliate link, note that multiple variations of this product may be available, as such a different version may appear at this link
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