Probe Placement with out herms/rims

Getting ready to pull the trigger for my electric build and was curious to where the probe placement should in a converted keg for HLT-MT-BK if I dont intend on using HERMS/RIMS? I cant seem to find a thread that has this type of scenario.

Pros' or Cons to the 4" or 6" probes?

You mention a combo HLT-MT-BK--how are you mashing? I'm going to guess BIAB? If so, then the shorter probe would probably be in order.

Will you be adding a sight glass? If so, then the kind with a tee, like this and you'll be able to put the probe right through it.

Of course, I have no experience with BIAB...so, if that's your preferred route you may want to find other people doing the same thing and see how they do it.

I had not intended on BIAB, but my original plan was so just go with a false bottom.
Single tier.
No combo though, 3 separate keggles.
I do intend on using sight glasses.
Do you think a 6" probe will fit in there and not leak? Along with protrude through the tee enough for an accurate reading?

Sorry, misunderstood your setup in the op. I have sightglasses on my BK and HLT, but don't need one on the MLT. If you use them, that will influence your probe size.

That pic is a six inch probe through a sightglass tee. It sticks about 2.75" into the kettle, 3" or so is used up in the tee, compression fitting, gasket and crimp. Some people don't like them to go in as far as mine as they fear something happening to them. I'd bet you find people with preferences either way. Initially, I went with longer probes as I boil electric and was worried about stratification but now I recirc everything with pumps. If you wanted to move the probe in or out a bit, the compression fittings give you some wiggle room and they don't leak at all.

Hope that helps a bit

Big help and thank you!
How far away should the probe and heating element be from each other in the BK and HLT?

Where did you get your probe, tee, compression fitting, gasket from - you mentioned the crimp, crimping it together?

This pic shows the top down of my setup.


Today, I have two 120v elements. They are all located on the same horizontal plane as the dip tube entry and probe--and they are probably about 7-8" from the probe. If it were a 220 setup in this pic and using a ripple or foldback style element, the element on the right could be an issue. When I switch to 220, just going to plug one hole and use the hole toward the top of that pic. It will always be about 4" away

I think you're OK as long as the elements are more than 3" away and not right below your probe.

Some sort of recirc or stir motor is always a good idea to keep the water temp consistent and ensure that the probe readout is accurate.

I bought the sightglass/tee/weldless setup and compression fittings from brewhardware.com. I bought the BCS probes a few different places: got a few from ECC and a few from brewershardware.com (yes, they are different sites).

I am a huge fan of mounting the probe at the output of the coil in a HERMS system and not putting it in the HLT at all.

What Walker said.

Except he does not want to do a HERMS or RIMS...

I do not use a HERMS or RIMS and have mine like shroomzofdoom and it works well.

TheAleMaster said:

Except he does not want to do a HERMS or RIMS...

I do not use a HERMS or RIMS and have mine like shroomzofdoom and it works well.

Click to expand...

You can do what he said even with a direct-fired system. Especially with electric, it's a good idea to recirculate the mash, and since he's going with a single-tier setup, he should have a pump available anyways.

Thanks shroomofdoom, that's pretty much what I was looking for.
@emjay - as far as probe placement in the valve goes, would I just be recirculating the mash for the entire 1 hour then to get a constant reading?

dutchb said:

Thanks shroomofdoom, that's pretty much what I was looking for.
@emjay - as far as probe placement in the valve goes, would I just be recirculating the mash for the entire 1 hour then to get a constant reading?

Click to expand...

Yes. And in addition to evening out the temperature of the mash, circulating also helps clarify the wort and even increases efficiency a bit.

dutchb said:

Thanks shroomofdoom, that's pretty much what I was looking for.
@emjay - as far as probe placement in the valve goes, would I just be recirculating the mash for the entire 1 hour then to get a constant reading?

Click to expand...

Yes, a recirculated mash system should generally circulate for the full hour, or until full conversion if that's what the recipe calls for.

You mentioned in the OP that you don't want to do HERMS or RIMS? My only concern is mash recirc without adding any form of heat input. Recirc is inherently lossy as the wort goes through hoses, pumps, fittings--and loses a lot of heat to a keg MLT.

If you are going to recirculate, you may want to consider RIMS or HERMS. If you don't want to deal with those, a cooler style MLT or very well insulated (and preheated) keg MLT would probably be in order.

ahhh, i didnt really think about losing temperature through the hoses etc;
My original plan was to insulate the keg.
Just did some reading and I see people are just adding hotter water into keg for pre-heating, letting it cool to strike temp, then adding grain - is that your version of pre-heating?

Oh, my bad. For some reason I thought your MT was direct-fired.

dutchb said:

ahhh, i didnt really think about losing temperature through the hoses etc;
My original plan was to insulate the keg.
Just did some reading and I see people are just adding hotter water into keg for pre-heating, letting it cool to strike temp, then adding grain - is that your version of pre-heating?

Click to expand...

This helps, more so with a cooler than kegs though. When I was worried about heat loss I just filled the vessel with hot tap water, on some occasions I preboiled some charge water. Ultimately though, it's much easier to calculate dough in temps, hit your mark, and then keep it steady through the wonders of technology.

These graphs represent the heat loss of my 2 layer reflectix insulated keg tun when my heat source was not working during some recent testing. They drop off pretty quickly. Keg skirts and handles are huge heat sinks





My crummy old cooler held heat better than my insulated keg tun.