Keggle Thermometer vs 5G batches

So I set up my new keggle last night, getting ready to do my first 5G batch in it.. I wanted to test how it drains to make sure the dip tube picks up 'all' the liquid as I drain into the fermenter, so I fill it with 5 Gallons of water...

Drains great.. perfect in fact.. but there's a problem.. With 5G of liquid in the thing, (IC installed), the liquid level is 'just below' the thermometer shaft.. rendering the thermometer useless...

Now, when I do a 60min boil, I will start with 7G aiming for a 5.5G brew... The 7G initial level will immerse the thermometer, and the 5.5G final level 'might' immerse it, but it'll be close...

Then there's using it as an HLT when I start doing 10G AG batches in a week or so... Again, the mash water is gonna be cutting it close.. as well as the sparge water... Worse yet.. my first AG brew is going to be a 5G batch..

So, how to remedy this, so that the thermometer is useful for something other than bling when doing anything other then a full 10G boil?

I thought maybe I could find some rocks or something to put in there, but I'd be afraid of leaching some mineral or another out of them into the brew when I boil... Maybe some large quartz or obsidion stones?

I dunno... The guy who welded the bungs for me, does these things all the time.. is a reputed member here and owner of the LHBS, so I'm assuming he put the thing in the right place.. ie, knows what he's doing...

Do any of you face the same problem? If so, how do you deal with it... I'm kinda hating the idea of taking it back and having him weld in another nipple... delaying everything yet again...

I'm gonna give him a call later, but I'm just wondering what others have to say before I do...

Thanks...

I don't use those Bimetal Thermometers that screw into your keggle. They are notoriously inaccurate. I would leave the thermometer in the coupler just for show and use an accurate thermometer to measure temperature.

Why does everyone use them then? I wish I'd known that before I spent the money on it....

I have a ten dollar digital meat thermometer that I haven't used yet.. I still have to put some heat shrink on the probe.. Is that a better option? (But now I'm back to holding a thermometer again)...

It's positioned for brewing 10 gallon batches. When your brew that size it will work perfectly. Sorry but one size does not fit all.

who put the thermometer so high up on the keggle?

I'd position it lower so that it could be used for 5, 10, 13 gallon batches.

-=Jason=-

Any recommendations for long thermometers? Is it safe to leave a candy type glass thermometer floating in the wort while it is 'cooking'? The longest shafted thermometers are the ones supplied with turkey fryers.

I do have a digital probe that would probably work. It also has high and low temp alarms.

I'd use the digital probe. But your just boiling wort in there so why do you need the temp?

maida7 said:

I'd use the digital probe. But your just boiling wort in there so why do you need the temp?

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It's also my HLT..... And I will need it for steeping grains with extract brews...
And I also need to know when to stop cooling the wort...

r8rphan said:

It's also my HLT..... And I will need it for steeping grains with extract brews...

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then use the digital probe.

Just measured exactly.. 7G of water 'barely' touches the probe...

So the 'only' thing it can be used for is monitoring when to turn off the chiller, and then only for 10G batches?

Seems like a waste that anyone bothers to put these things in at all... Yet even the supposed 'experts' all have them in their brew stands... What's that all about?

Did a five gallon batch of Pale Ale last nite (extract)... Used 7 gallons of water, hoping to get 5.5 gallons of ale, as was the case with my Bayou classic kettle..

Temperature gauge is reading about 2 degrees colder than the temp that the digital meat thermometer reads..

Temperature gauge is submersed during the steeping process, as well as most of the boil.. The churning of the wort as well as the hops bag seems to keep the probe submersed...

After flameout, and during chilling, the temp guage still seems to read correct temperature even though it is an inch or more above the wort...

So I'm not gonna worry too much about that... and will double check with the digital, which I'll be using for the mash tun during AG brews anyways...

Even though, with water only, the dip tube siphoned out every last drop of water through the scrubby... With the wort and trub in the kettle, it left about a quarter gallon in the kettle before siphoning stopped... I guess this is due to the scrubby getting clogged around the bottom.... Hoping a false bottom, when I can afford it, will solve this problem.. can anyone comment on what to expect with the false bottom vs the scrubby?

Quite a bit of trub still got through.. Hoping this is reduced with the false bottom.. I understand that I won't get 'all' of it.. but I'm hoping that the false bottom will filter out more than the scrubby.. Again, can anyone comment on what to expect?

Finally, I ended up with about 4.75 gallons in the carboy.. about 3/4G less than I would have with the Bayou classic kettle.. Part of this is the 1/4 gallon left in the keggle, but what about the other 1/2 gallon? Is this due to increased surface area, or what?

It also took considerably more heat to heat the wort in the keggle vs the bayou classic kettle... I guess this is due to all the extra heat sink on the keggle.. ie the lower and upper rim, the taller sides, etc..

One thing that alarmed me in the beginning, was occasional sizzling sounds on the gas burner.. liquid was dripping onto it.. At first I thought I might have some sort of leak, but then I realized it was just condensation from the very cold water that was put in it, and that it would go away in a few minutes, which it did...

But the 'best thing'.. is that it sure is nice to just open the valve and drain it all directly into the carboy! Beats the heck out of lifting a five gallon kettle and pouring it into a bucket, then draining it into the carboy.. 'FAR' less hassle, energy, strength, time, and mess involved with the keggle...

Boil off rate will be different for every pot. So you should adjust your recipes to suit your new pot.

maida7 said:

Boil off rate will be different for every pot. So you should adjust your recipes to suit your new pot.

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Thanks.. what can I expect to be different with a false bottom vs the scrubby (besides being easier to install/clean)?

r8rphan said:

Thanks.. what can I expect to be different with a false bottom vs the scrubby (besides being easier to install/clean)?

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I would not use a scrubby. It's gonna get clogged and you may have only lost a small amout this time but it could easily get clogged early on and your stuck with several gallons in a pot that won't drain. It's not really sanitary to reach your arm in there and mess with the scrubby. So I'd recommend not using a scrubby.

The false bottom is much less likely to get clogged. It also will not do as great a job in filtering out trub. If the it did get clogged it's fairly easy to reach in with a sanitized spoon and scrape a section to get it flowing again.

Have you tried a whilrpool? It's easy. You just stir the liquid in a circle for a minute or 2. Then give it 20-30 minutes to settle. A good deal of the trub will settle out in a cone in the center of the pot. Then slowly drain the pot from a valve on the side. Drain slow from the side so you don't suck up the trub cone in the center. With a bit of practice this method can be relatively successful. It's hard to get all the trub out and it's not really necessary.

Mine is mounted right at the bottom, so 3 gallons of liquid will immerse it. I've got one on my HLT and one on my BK, but since I mash in a cooler, I will measure that with a handheld thermometer.

I would use the thermometer hole as a whirlpool recirculation port and put another hole in lower for a digital probe.

Sorry to highjack the thread.

So, for those just getting ready to drill their keggle and weld in bulkheads, can the experts please let us know where to drill the holes and weld them in? What's your suggestions? I plan to have two bulkheads welded in on each keggle.

As low as possible and not directly above the holes in the skirt.

klyph said:

As low as possible and not directly above the holes in the skirt.

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^^^ What he said.^^^