Blichmann Brewmometer sucks!

Second time using one today and that's how many batches of beer it ruined for me. This time it got stuck at 130 and before I realized it and checked with another thermometer my mash temp was at 190. Now I got that worthless piece of garbage bolted into my mash tun.

most people ruin their kettle therms from the exterior heat from the burner. the maunufactoerererer has some crap about using a heat shield under direct fire mashing or boil kettles.

IMO its not accurate enough anyway.


http://www.thermoworks.com/products/thermapen/

I do not use any dial thermometers when I mash anymore. I don't trust them. I moved to using only a spirit lab thermometer. Traceable for calibration. I calibrate all of my thermometers that I use for other brew things to this thermometer. Luckily my floating dairy thermometer is spot on as well.

I agree it's a piece of crap, which is a shame because their other stuff is pretty nice. I have adjusted mine ad nauseum. It seems like maybe it's accurate in the mash temp range (the range I care about most), except that's not really true, either. It basically "sticks" around 150 when the temperature gets in that range. I have then subsequently raised the mash bed temp to 168F for a mash out, while continuously recirculating RIGHT OVER THE PROBE, and it still stays around 150.

I'll stick with my thermapen.

And, actually I keep meaning to put a plug in that hole instead of the Brewmometer so that pulling the bag out during a BIAB is a little easier.

Call me paranoid. I have two thermometers that stay in the mash and a third hand held for spot checking different locations.


Edit to say:
I would never trust any one thermometer. Too much to loose!

Northern Brewer is crediting me for the price of the Brewmometer and the ale kit it ruined today, and they're sending me a hole plug for my mash kettle. Honestly wasn't expecting that, but wow. Great guys there, everyone should buy from them. Just ordered a Thermapen, any other thermometers that people like?

You set yourself up for this type of failure any time you apply outside heat to your mash tun.

The problem is your mash is thicker than water and the temperature stratifies. And when you apply heat from the bottom the mash heats from the bottom up. The mash next to the heat can easily be at 200 F while the temperature at your Brewmometer or hand held digital thermometer still shows 155 F. Blichmann won't tell you this because they want to sell more stainless steel pots.

This is also why when I step mash I raise the temperature by pouring in small amounts of almost boiling water while stirring the mash, and I make sure that I stir from bottom up so that the temperature is as even as possible. I also mash in a cooler - I have no use for a mash pot because I will never apply outside heat to my mash tun.

This is why many brewers move on to a RIMS type system. With a RIMS type system the liquid circulates to a outside tank where it is heated & the temperature is monitored. And with a RIMS type system, make a temperature change and shortly the entire mash is at that temperature because the heated liquid circulates through the entire mash.

But if you stir the mash, wouldn't the warmer water from the bottom mix with the top and make it more of uniformed temp?

Yes, but with pots that don't have trimetal bottoms local heating is still a issue. Plus you would need to apply only low heat and stir continuously to distribute the heat. I stir continuously when I pour hot water into my mash and I'm still worried about temperature stratification. More than once I thought I had stirred well enough then I stirred more, pulling mash up from the bottom and watched the temperature drop by more than one degree.

This is where side mount thermometers like the one Blichmann sells comes in handy. Once you know that the side mount is calibrated you can compare the top temperature and the temperature half way down the mash tun. The difference tells you that you have a temperature stratification problem even though it does not measure the temperature at the bottom.

I have a tri metal pot that I plan to mash in. Trying to decide to recirculate in the mash pot or recirculate through my hlt back to the mash pot. Any advise?

richbrew99 said:

I have a tri metal pot that I plan to mash in. Trying to decide to recirculate in the mash pot or recirculate through my hlt back to the mash pot. Any advise?

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I recirculate back through the hlt, keeps the mash at the exact temp I want.

What's the longest period of time where you should start worrying if temp fluctuations on the thermometer have ruined your mash. I mashed in the other day at 162 and after a few minutes after I stirred the temp kept climbing to 180 so I quickly added cool water to compensate got it down to 155 and then after a few more minutes it climbed again to 170 so I left the lid off and stirred like crazy. Took about five minutes to get it down to 153. I didn't compensate for the burner and bottom extra metal which gets super hot at the bottom of my keggle mash tun which is fully insulated with mineral wool. after the drama I lifted my mash tun off the burner and set it on my table. It only dropped 4 degrees in 90 minutes but now I am questioning the accuracy of my thermometer.

If I were to choose between RIMS (recirculate back to the mash pot) and HERMS (recirculate through the hot liquor tank) I would choose HERMS.

Reason #1 - Because I have to heat up the sparge water anyways and why not use the water as a additional buffer between the heat source and the mash tun.

Reason #2 - I could continue to use the cooler style mash tun that I like because it's thermally efficient.

Reason #3 - I don't have to buy another expensive pot or chop up another beer keg.

wildwest450 said:

I recirculate back through the hlt, keeps the mash at the exact temp I want.

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thargrav said:

If I were to choose between RIMS (recirculate back to the mash pot) and HERMS (recirculate through the hot liquor tank) I would choose HERMS.

Reason #1 - Because I have to heat up the sparge water anyways and why not use the water as a additional buffer between the heat source and the mash tun.

Reason #2 - I could continue to use the cooler style mash tun that I like because it's thermally efficient.

Reason #3 - I don't have to buy another expensive pot or chop up another beer keg.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the responses, sounds like herms it is.

I use the brewometer as a "rough" gauge of when I need to start using my digital thermometer to start checking.

I just a brewmometer last week, wish I had seen this post first. I also bought a 2 in thermometer from bobby_m, maybe that one will be better.

richbrew99 said:

I just a brewmometer last week, wish I had seen this post first. I also bought a 2 in thermometer from bobby_m, maybe that one will be better.

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It will be fine, just make sure you calibrate (frequently) it at the temp it will be used for. The only dial I've found to be half way accurate was a Taylor. I have a $20 Taylor digital from Target that is right on with my Thermopen. My Brewmometer works on my HLT, but I had to calibrate it with my digital. It was like.....uh.....way off. I bought a bunch of dials when I built my rig. Wish I had that money back. I would have bought some Love controlers with a thermowell.

thargrav said:

If I were to choose between RIMS (recirculate back to the mash pot) and HERMS (recirculate through the hot liquor tank) I would choose HERMS.

Reason #1 - Because I have to heat up the sparge water anyways and why not use the water as a additional buffer between the heat source and the mash tun.

Reason #2 - I could continue to use the cooler style mash tun that I like because it's thermally efficient.

Reason #3 - I don't have to buy another expensive pot or chop up another beer keg.

Click to expand...

I think RIMS satisfies all those things. Maybe we are thinking about 2 separate things, but an electric RIMS system would work in your case. I use neither HERMS or RIMS, but this spring I'll be building a RIMS toolbox.

I have been direct heating my BIAB while recirculating the last couple of brews. Seems to be working fine. So far it's been manual, but I will eventually get a solenoid valve on the burner and control it with a PID or similar.

I had the same issue with my Brewmometer I just installed.

First time using it this past weekend - on my first BIAB - and it never registered accurately once I refired the burner for a couple of minutes to bump up my mash temps a degree or two. It shot up from 151 to 170 and stayed there until boil. I used a Thermapen, which registered what seemed to be realistic mash temps, and it helped keep me sane.

I guess I'm a little disappointed in Blichmann on this...

I HATE to say it but I just bought 3 Brewmometers off of eBay. I was walking around for days patting myself on the back for getting one for each of my 3 vessels for the insane price of $142 plus $20 for shipping, basically got 3 for the price of 2 at retail.

Drilled all 3 my insanely awesome 60 qt Vollrath tri-metal bottom SS pots with the holes for each. Then during the wet tests, I am noticing they are all over the place. I calibrated to a digital and retested. Better. Then during a wet test of the weldless ball valves I added, they are back to being all over the place. I am going to have to calibrate before EVERY use...which BLOWS. They will work but for that much (even with the great price) I am disappointed.

Sigh.

I've been using my Brewmometer in my 15Gal Kettle for a few years, and it still works great (Checked with other thermometers. I always use the heat sheild, and when I fire the kettle to raise mash temps back up I constant move the bag up and down, then once the heat is off I put the bag back in place and stir. Never had an issue with it.

Use it or any other thermometer without a heat sheild in place and you just created an expense plug for the hole.

Where did you get your heat shield for the Brewmometer?

Pointyskull said:

Where did you get your heat shield for the Brewmometer?

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It came with my Kettle, but you just need a scrape of sheet metal to put under the pot to keep the heat from going directly towards the sight glass and Brewmometer

I am pretty sure I sold or traded mine at some point over the past year. I know I certainly didn't want to keep it.

Analog dial thermometers are not very accurate. I see manufactures saying within +/- 2% but I don't believe it. They are good for giving you a ball park number. A good digital thermo is what you should trust.

I've had a total of three of these for my one and only boilermaker. The first one that came with the pot would stick and then jump to a new temperature. It would not rise and fall smoothly.

The replacement from Blichmann would stick at about 130. It simply would not go any higher. I could see the needle touching the dial. When the temperature would drop, the needle would rise off the dial, going higher with lower temps.

That was before I ever put it in the pot. I tested it by putting it in a cup of water heated in the microwave and comparing it to my thermopen.

The third one finally worked correctly.

IMHO, I believe Blichmann has a QA problem with their supplier. BTW, it took numerous prompts and from my retailer and 4 weeks to get Blichmann to send the third one after I returned the second one.

lamppa said:

most people ruin their kettle therms from the exterior heat from the burner. the maunufactoerererer has some crap about using a heat shield under direct fire mashing or boil kettles.

Click to expand...

thargrav said:

You set yourself up for this type of failure any time you apply outside heat to your mash tun.

Click to expand...

I have the same problem with the blich therm on the mash tun -- no external heat on mine though. Also, the glass face has become cloudy for some reason, making it difficult to read.

I also got one from Bobby_M that was terribly inaccurate.

I've decided to never buy a bi-metal again. Digital from now on.