why have a thermometer on a brew kettle

I have never done all grain, i was looking at various equipment (for the future), and noticed that a number of nice brew kettles have 2 valves, one for the spigot, and one for a thermometer.

What is the purpose of the thermometer on a brew kettle?

Is it for when using a wort chiller that one will know when the wort is cool enough to transfer to the fermentation container?

Is it for using the brew kettle as a mash tun? If so, where do you put the wort you are draining from your nice kettle, into another kettle? Why do it that way, as opposed to using a mash tun made out of a cooler (RubberMaid , Igloo, etc)

If you use a mash tun/liquor tank made from coolers, then I don't see why you need a thermometer on your brew kettle, except for knowing how the cooling is going.


It occurs to me that if doing BIAB (Brewing in a Bag) you could use you brew kettle as a Mash Tun, transferring the first batch of wort into a smaller pot, then after batch sparging, lift the bag out, and pour the contents of the smaller pot (I have a 5 gallon pot I use for Extract brews) back into the big brew kettle.


For doing a 5 gallon all grain brew in a bag (BIAB), would a 9 gallon pot with a ball valve be sufficient, given that I already have a 5 gallon pot?


If you did get a thermometer mounted on your kettle, what type do you use?
AIH 2 inch? 6 inch? Brewmometer? Other? Any suggestions?

(sorry for all the questions)

Well; you can use it for checking your cooling. You can use it for for a mashtun made out of stainless steel so you can do temperature adjustments during the mash. You can use it for when you kettle is capped and approaching boil so you can know when to take it off to avoid a boil over. You can use it to heat water to add to your cooler mashtun and to know what temperature your infusion water is. You can use it because it looks cool.

In short; it's good to have one.

It's good to have one, not really necessary.

You want to know when the boil is about to happen. I'm usually poised about a foot away with the Fermcap-S.

It's also good for chilling, although if you use a counterflow it's far better to have the thermometer at the chiller exit instead of the pot.

Also, my HLT and boil kettle are identical. If either one ever fails, the other can replace it. My system is all electric, so this might be more important to me than to someone with a non-electric system.

I'm putting one on mine for chilling and to know when the boil will happen. Also using it for extract with plans to upgrade later on and use it as a mash tun.

I have a cooler for a mash tun so I use my kettle for heating my strike and sparge water as well as for cooling the wort via an immersion chiller post boil. So the temp gauge comes in handy on multiple fronts.

Just ordered one for my keggle - mainly because its a pain in my a$$ to check boil temp. Sticking my arm through the steam rolling out of a 15 gallon keggle in order to reach 5.5 gallons worth of hot liquid is not fun, IMHO. Convenience, for me.

Oh, and I ordered a six inch. Buying the parts to install on the keggle from Home Desperate...figure I can piece the thing together with washers / nut / gaskets for a couple of bucks.

How do you avoid snapping your thermometer when you put the wort chiller in? Are there thermometers that you can somehow remove while your kettle is still full?

I just made the switch to BIAB and on my new 15 gal kettle I added a ss ball valve, a Blichmann thermometer and a sight glass (from BrewHardware.com).

NoiseDamaged said:

How do you avoid snapping your thermometer when you put the wort chiller in? Are there thermometers that you can somehow remove while your kettle is still full?

Click to expand...

You will need to use either a plate chiller or counterflow chiller. Something you can attach to the spigot on your ball valve.

I have a Blichman 15 gallon that came with a ball valve, a sight glass and a thermometer. I put a plug in the thermo hole and have never actually used it. Afraid it would snag the bag, don't you see. I use a thermal industries meat thermometer with the probe waterproofed for all my wort temperature needs.

While I don't have a thermometer on mine yet, I will say that if you ever reach into a hot kettle (while the wife distracts you with another question) and have your glasses steam so bad that you dip not only the probe thermometer but the tip of three of your fingers into almost boiling sugary wort you will see the advantages of one.

NoiseDamaged said:

How do you avoid snapping your thermometer when you put the wort chiller in? Are there thermometers that you can somehow remove while your kettle is still full?

Click to expand...

Mine doesn't stick out that far (that's what she said) and I have plenty of wort chiller room....

NoiseDamaged said:

How do you avoid snapping your thermometer when you put the wort chiller in? Are there thermometers that you can somehow remove while your kettle is still full?

Click to expand...

guess it depends on your coil diameter vs kettle diameter, mine fits just fine, thermometer sticks into the kettle about 2", and is pretty sturdy. I normally do bump into it when putting in the chiller but no real problem getting past it. And I love having it in there while immersion chilling. Much easier than messing with a floating thermometer while stirring the wort.

Can you submerge your kettle with the attached thermometer in cold water? Is it waterproof?

petro102 said:

Can you submerge your kettle with the attached thermometer in cold water? Is it waterproof?

Click to expand...

Pretty much any dial thermometer is hermetically sealed and can be submerged. Check with your particular product to be sure.

Welcome to HBT!

Got to have something to look at while I drink beer!

But seriously it helps me get ready for the hot break and when to stop the chiller.

^ and that's what happens when you reply to a thread that's 8 years old.

I remember this thread from all those years ago, because I thought “well of course you need a thermometer” I have one on all my vessels.

PhelanKA7 said:

You will need to use either a plate chiller or counterflow chiller. Something you can attach to the spigot on your ball valve.

Click to expand...

I use a Jaded Hydra immersion chiller and have a kettle thermometer. No big deal, I hug the opposite side when I lower it into the kettle. Those thermometer probes are pretty beefy...I don't think you'd snap it off unless you were putting the chiller in with so much force that you'd be splashing boiling wort all over the place.

As far as uses:

• monitor temp while heating strike water
• monitor temp while heating sparge water
• monitor temp when approaching boil
• monitor temp for whirlpool
• monitor temp for chilling

I started out with a turkey fryer kettle that had no temp probe....drove me nuts. I love having a temp probe on my kettle.