Rivenin

Recipes 

my thermometers are all about 2ish off, bought some i can finally recalibrate, so i do that, and its about as close as i can get.
as long as i hit my temps within 2*, i'm happy, but honestly, i prolly couldn't tell the diff if i tried to mash at 155* vs 152, all i know is if i want a drier beer, i go to the other side, if i go to the higher side, it gets sweeter

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Bruised knee brewing, CO. - For the crazy non-normal brews.
12 Bridges Brewery - For the normal, every day ales.
Est 2010 - Clackamas, Oregon
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punk_rockin2001

Recipes 

I think the most eye opening part of everything I've been reading, is how inaccurate most thermometers actually are. I doubt most people realize it. Even thermometers upwards of $1000 still have to be professionally calibrated regularly. And there are basically NO exceptions. No, not even the super-hyped thermapen!... but that doesn't make me not want one.

mcaple1

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I have checked the thermapen I have for calibration several times over a one year period. I have never had to recalibrate......NEVER. Now with that said....I'm not saying I never will....but damn is this trustworthy.

bdjohns1

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Here's a perspective - part of my day job is developing protocols for accuracy of measurement systems used on a cheese plant. Every critical measurement thermometer is validated versus a NIST-traceable reference at least monthly. We generally don't accept error >1 degree, and for food safety, it always has to read higher (ie, tolerance versus the traceable reference is -0 +1).

punk_rockin2001

Recipes 

Excuse my ignorance (too much homebrew??) but I don't really understand your post. The thermometers at your workplace must read higher than the NIST-traceable thermometer?

Also a person like you deals with very high end temp reading tools daily, what do you use for your homebrewing?

RM-MN

Recipes 

He probably uses his thumb to estimate the temperature of his mash.

bdjohns1

Recipes 

For food safety, yes. Generally, we calibrate the devices to read 0.1-0.2 degrees high if they're digital.

Nah, I just eyeball it. I have a calibrated eyeball

In all seriousness, there's still a lot of art going on. One of my best cheese-related stories was when I was working with one of our plants that was having yield problems (like mash efficiency in brewing-speak). No one could figure it out until we brought in the head cheese maker at one of our other plants. He watched he operator run a few vats, then said "let the tank agitator run backwards another 3 or 4 turns at the end of the tank fill". It worked. Everything else was being done to spec, but he could tell that there was still milk moving in the tank when it was supposed to be turning into curd.

At the end of the day, your system is only as accurate as your least accurate measurements/controls.

Guess42

Recipes 

I'd be interested to see a professional brewers take on how accurate they need to be on mash temperature.

punk_rockin2001

Recipes 

+1

benzy4010

Recipes 

Are thermapens really that great? I think I want one I dunno much bout it