Keggle accessory placement help...

[Stuntman1]

I'm new to all-grain brewing, and am getting more and more confused as I read how others have configured their keggles. I have a keggle with the top cut.. and no holes drilled yet. I have a false bottom and a dip tube with 1/2" weldless bulkhead.

I want to automate the keggle so that I can turn a recirculating pump on and off as needed to maintain mash temperatures by pumping through coil in HLT and putting back into keggle.

My question is.. where is the best place to put my temperature probe? Is there a tee that exists that would let me thread in my 1/4" thermometer probe before the ball valve so I can get temperature of wort as it flows past on its way to the ball valve?

I thought this method might be better than putting the probe through the keggle as it would keep the inside free of things the paddle could bang into.

If anybody knows of or can point me to a part that might allow me to do this, I'd sure appreciate it.. or if this seems like a bad idea, that information would also be great! I don't want to do any drilling until I have this figured out for certain! Ultimately I want a 3 tier RIMS type system.. so I don't want to make any decisions now that will cause me trouble later..

Thanks!

 

[Drake9]

For recirculation I think you are thinking right with putting the probe outside the kettle. I have seen debate as to put it right at kettle exit or after pump before going back in.

As for the T there are things out there and Bobby at Brewhardware has some

http://www.brewhardware.com/thermometers/153-probecompression2

I built the tee at the bottom of the page after seeing it and love it. I use it on the output of my plate chiller but could easily put it inline with recirculation if I was doing that. That would give me multiple uses from the same piece of equipment which is nice.

Hope that helps.