Why put a thermometer on a boil kettle?

**uwjester** · 02-20-2009, 05:26 PM

Thread title says it all. I can't for the life of me figure out why I would do this. I can definitely see wanting one for a mash tun, but why would someone care what the temperature is in the boil. You are just boiling right? I guess I could see it as a way to make sure you have cooled enough to transfer to the fermenter and pitch yeast, but that hardly seems worth the investment. Anyone care to educate me?

WitsEnd · 02-20-2009, 05:33 PM

When coming up to a boil, it might be nice to see if you're close to boiling or not.

Closer to boiling, the closer you need to watch for a boil over.

keelanfish · 02-20-2009, 05:35 PM

Mine doesn't have one, but I wish it did. I use an immersion chiller and it would be nice if it had a built in thermometer to let me know when I'm down to pitching temp.

brown_dog_us · 02-20-2009, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WitsEnd

When coming up to a boil, it might be nice to see if you're close to boiling or not.

Closer to boiling, the closer you need to watch for a boil over.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

We have a winner!

When I switched to a cooler for a MLT my boiling kettle became my old keggle MLT and I am now addicted to the thermometer to help me keep from boiling over. Would I spend $50 to add one to an existing pot? probably not.

**remilard** · 02-20-2009, 05:36 PM

The temperature you pitch the yeast at is at least as important as anything you are doing in the mast tun.

**uwjester** · 02-20-2009, 05:42 PM

I don't know. I can pretty much tell when the wort is about to reach a boil. It is pretty obvious. As for pitching temperature, I'll agree that is is pretty important, but a simple $5 thermometer is sufficient to tell me if I'm below 80F or so. It isn't like I am trying to make a distinction between 152F and 154F in the MLT.

missing link · 02-20-2009, 05:44 PM

I have one in my boil kettle. I watch to see how close I am to a boil and I use it to know when it is done chilling. I suppose a $5 thermometer would do the same functions but I can see the needle on mine from across the room so I don't have to stop what I am doing and go look.

Linc

**david_42** · 02-20-2009, 08:15 PM

Most useful when cooling, but I decided a thermometer would get in the way of the immersion chiller.

jgln · 02-20-2009, 08:57 PM

I don't have one I just use a pot, but if I did would't I use the same pot for boiling that I use for heating the mash/sparge water and then it would serve another more useful purpose?

**uwjester** · 02-20-2009, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgln

I don't have one I just use a pot, but if I did would't I use the same pot for boiling that I use for heating the mash/sparge water and then it would serve another more useful purpose?

Yeah, I gave that a lot of thought, but I batch sparge. I need the boil kettle to catch the runnings and a separate pot to heat the sparge water.