Corny Keg Thermowell

Has anyone made or purchased a corny lid with a thermowell?

I am switching over to fermenting in 10 gallon cornelius kegs and would like to be able to take internal temperature readings.

Thanks

I'd just suggest a sticky thermometer on the side. It should be very accurate through the thin stainless walls. Unless someone manufactures a corny lid with a built in well, you'd have to punch a hole in there and make it able to hold pressure.

I have one on my 15 gallon corny lid. Made my own, although if I was to do it again I'd attack it differently.

I have a stick on thermometer now. It gives a general idea of temperature. I am looking for something more accurate. Previously with my carboy I was reading 3-5F warmer in the middle with a thermowell than the stick on was showing.

I am building a heating/cooling jacket for the keg. So I would really like to be able to put my controller probe right down in the middle of the fermentation.

@samc, what would you do differently?

If you're using it to ferment, I'm assuming that you have an airlock or blow-off tube coming off of one of the posts. If that's the case, you can always unscrew the pressure relief valve and see if you can find (or make) a thermowell that would mate with those threads. That way it would be centrally located in the keg and would be easily replaced with the pressure relief valve if you need to use the keg for pressurized kegging duty.

(Edit: Not being familiar with 10 gallon cornies, I am assuming they have lids similar to the 5 gallon versions with the pressure relief valves. If not, ignore this suggestion.)

ace, that is a good idea. I have a pressure gauge, bleeder valve and blow off tube on the gas post to vent co2. The lid I am currently using is the racetrack style with a welded (non threaded) relief valve. I'll look at my spare lids and see if any have a threaded opening.

I bought a thermowell with the temp controller a while back, and all it was is the dip tube crushed and sealed on the bottom end. Maybe take the popet valve out of a post and run the probe through that.

cascadia said:

@samc, what would you do differently?

Click to expand...

I had a short piece of 1/2 ss tube welded into the lid. Then I attached a longer tube with some silicone tubing as a hinge point. The Therm sits inside of all of that. Too complex for what I needed. I would just order a longer probe (Derrin @ http://www.brewershardware.com/12-Temperature-Sensor-for-BCS-460.html) and drill a smaller hole in the lid or run the cable through the PRV hole. You can just cover the cable with some Silicone tubing.

The easiest way, I would think, would be to just drill a hole, install a grommet, and slide a long turkey fryer thermometer through the grommet.
It should be relatively air tight, removable (So you can still tip the corny lid to get it out), and best of all, cost about $0.10

Good point about being able to tip and remove the lid!
Might have to rethink this one..