GOfermentor: a Revolution in Small Batch Winemaking

GOfermentor

FOOD AND BEVERAGE

Automated wine production technologies

GOfermentor is a unique award-winning wine production system manufactured in the USA and marketed worldwide. Fermentation engineer Dr. Vijay Singh and his wife, winemaker Meera, developed a system that delivers superior quality wine with much lower investment. This entirely new approach to making artisanal wine automates labor-intensive “punching”. This “punch” process mixes the fermenting wine in a manner reminiscent of foot-stomping, providing better extraction of color and flavors. Use of single-use biodegradable liners eliminates wash water wastage, and exclusion of air permits the production of sulfite-free wines. With 7 US and International patents, hundreds of units are currently in use since commercial introduction in 2015.

Challenge

The traditional winemaking technology is surprisingly tedious and environmentally unsound. Conventional equipment is very expensive and requires extensive cleaning. The cleaning requires labor and generates large amounts of waste wash water that must be treated. The GOfermentor provides a solution to address these issues and started looking for a robust IoT platform to help:

Develop an app that would allow remote monitoring, control, and data recording
Monitor and control GOfermentor remotely via iPhone and Android apps
Work with ESP32 devices
Make it easy for users to add devices and log in

Solution: Smart winemaking technology

GOfermentor started using Blynk White Label offering in 2019 to allow users to monitor and control their fermentations remotely. Typical wine fermentations take 8 to 14 days and the Blynk IoT solution allows the winemaker to monitor fermentation conditions, such as temperature, from home or anywhere in the world with an internet connection on a 24-hour basis. For example, they can change the temperature setpoint or punch parameters. The app can also send alarm messages using email or SMS. Not having to travel to the winery to manage their fermentations is a huge benefit. Also, there is no need to have monitoring personnel present at the winery 24/7. This is a large cost saving, especially for small wineries with typically 2-3 staff.

Results

Using Blynk White Label, GOfermentor has built mobile IoT apps for iOS and Android, giving users full remote control over their wine fermentation systems, allowing them to monitor, control, and store data to increase the efficiency of the wine production process.
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Built a user-friendly app for GOfermentor end-customers with easy device activation process
Enabled remote access to save users from having to travel to see their wine fermentations
Enabled historical data storage and recording of blend characteristics
Provide logs of alarms with email and SMS notifications of alarm conditions
Product continues to receive excellent customer feedback ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Dr. Vijay Singh, Founder of GOfermentor

Blynk IoT platform helped us to significantly improve the efficiency of the whole system and access essential functions remotely. The app is easy to use for our customers, and we have got a lot of positive feedback from them. Blynk provided excellent customer support and we obtained good insights from the forum and community.

Reasonable cost for cloud services, good integration with ESP32 and Arduino IDE. It can be used with Android and iOS. Reliable service. I love the dynamic provisioning - it makes it easy for users to manage their devices with any network knowledge

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