A short log of how this went from "my Airlock is dead" to a working public service.
When Plaato shut down their cloud in November 2025, my own Airlock stopped working like everyone else's. Instead of throwing it away, I decided to fix it — and then figured other people were probably in the exact same spot. Here's roughly how it went.
Rented a small VPS, set up Docker, deployed the open-source open-plaato-keg backend, pointed a subdomain at it, and got HTTPS working. Added a firewall, daily backups, and connected my own real Airlock to confirm the whole chain worked end to end.
Built a token generator so anyone can get a unique, collision-free ID without touching a terminal. Built a personal dashboard showing live temperature and fermentation activity. Confirmed the Brewfather integration works end to end with a real account.
Added rate limiting, password-protected the admin pages, set up public uptime monitoring, wrote an honest FAQ (including what happens if this project ever shuts down), and added a Ko-fi link for anyone who wants to help with server costs. Posted about it on homebrewing forums and got the first real users trying it out.
Added full support for Plaato Keg (not just Airlock) — the server now auto-detects which device you have. Added the ability to see multiple devices under one saved link, and let people rename their own devices right from their dashboard. Reached out to Brewfather about potentially documenting this as an official recovery path.
Still very much a work in progress, run by one person in their spare time. If you find a bug or have an idea, the FAQ page has ways to reach me.