Weldless Thermometer for BIAB Kettle

Does anyone use a kettle with a thermometer on it for BIAB? I was thinking of putting one on my kettle but unsure how much the stem would interfere with the bag. I could place it below the false bottom but feel that might not be the best location. Anyone have anything they've tried yet?

I just brewed my first all grain, BIAB, full boil, using a propane burner, batch. I still need to refine my technique, so take this into consideration as I explain what I did.




My 6" thermometer sticks about 3" into the kettle, and I didn't like the idea of letting the bag fall on it, so I built a false bottom out of some scrap SS(in the top left of the first pic). You can see it is slightly bent to get it through the keggle opening. It ended up resting nicely against the top of the valve/diptube bulkhead, which gives enough support to keep it from hitting my thermometer probe. I forgot to look as I added water, but I'd guess there were 1-2 gallons below the false bottom.

My mash efficiency was ~70% and brewhouse efficiency ~65% with my 11.5lb grain bill. My kettle thermometer was 5F higher than readings taken from the top of the mash. Mashed in at 153F, about 30 minutes later it was under 150F, so I turned the burner on to add heat. Misread the thermometer and turned off the burner at 170F, ending up with a 40 minute mash @148-153F, and a 20 minute sparge. The bag handled the burner heat just fine thanks to the false bottom.

Overall, I'm pretty happy my first AG and just want to get my efficency up. I don't know the low numbers were due to the deadspace below the false bottom, me not stirring very much, screwing up my temps and times, underestimating my boil and final volumes, grain crush, etc. I plan on doing my 2nd AG once this one is out of the fermenter, and things will hopefully go smoother with better results.