$349; easydens.com
The Austrian company known for making much of the beverage industry’s lab-testing equipment recently released a new version of its digital hydrometer, aimed at homebrewers and potentially useful for smaller brewing operations. We never tried the first-generation EasyDens, but the company advertises these improvements over the previous model: a more compact design, faster measurement, higher accuracy and stability, faster Bluetooth connection with your smartphone, and better protection from dust and water droplets.
The attraction is obvious: The ability to get quick, accurate gravity measurements using very little liquid, track your fermentation on your smartphone or other device over time, and save that data to compare with future batches. Speaking for ourselves, the appeal of being able to easily chart and consult fermentation over time on our phones is a great incentive to take more readings—to simply know more about what’s happening with our next beer.