Home Assistant Podcast Brewing With Home Assistant: From Modbus PIDs to ESPHome Fermentation Control with Greg Martin
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Nov 11, 2025 Greg Martin, a passionate homebrew enthusiast and electronics guru, shares insights on building brewery control systems using ESPHome and Home Assistant. He explains how he retrofitted Modbus PIDs for seamless temperature and pressure control. Greg also reveals his journey into brewing automation, turning his project into a scalable business. Discover innovative uses of AI for metering, clever home automations like fish-feeding sensors, and how he celebrates sports at home with dynamic LED lights. His expertise blends brewing with automation for a smarter setup!
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From Modbus Retrofits To ESPHome Controllers
- Greg retrofitted Modbus PIDs and later built full ESPHome controllers to manage brewery tanks using one-wire probes and 24V valves.
- He deployed testbeds, then migrated to ESP32-based multi-tank controllers and installed them in five breweries.
Bluetooth Gravity And Pressure Sensing
- Greg added Bluetooth gravity sensors by placing the BLE probe in the tank and reading it via an ESP proxy mounted above the tanks.
- He also integrated pressure monitoring and fermentation control to expand beyond temperature control.
Data Accessibility Transforms Small Breweries
- Small breweries lack accessible data and often assume they need costly systems to get it.
- Greg found affordable sensor and Home Assistant setups can deliver actionable temperature and gravity data for a fraction of industrial costs.