Cold side Temperature Measurement

[Farside]

Hi all,

I'm slowly putting together a brewing system and at the moment I'm making the various temperature probes. The pre-boil probes are pretty easy, but I also want to measure the wort temperature as it comes out of the chiller.

I'm not all that keen on sticking the probe directly into the fermenter, and I figure that the probe needs to be made in such a way that it can be easily disassembled and cleaned, and have no tiny cracks where bacteria can grow.

What are peoples solutions to this?

Thanks!

 

[ImNoExpert]

Here's a couple:

http://morebeer.com/products/inline-thermometer-stainless-quick-disconnects.html

http://morebeer.com/products/blichmann-thrumometer-38-inline-thermometer.html

EDIT: I think you can also get that last one in a 1/2" size.

 

[Farside]

Have you had any issues with having threaded connections on the cold side or do you disassemble it and clean it after each use?

 

[ImNoExpert]

I only have one brew under my belt using the top photo (not mine, it's from theelectricbrewery.com), but I and many others have many threaded connections on the cold side.

I don't plan to break the connections down more than once every few years. From my research, it seems that as long as you clean right after brewing (i.e. don't give it time to dry and stick) you should be fine as long as you properly sanitize. I use heat and pump my hot wort through the chiller prior to flame out. This gets everything (pump, chiller, hoses, etc.) sanitized prior to cool down.

 

[Bobby_M]

You're going to want to pump boiling wort through the entire cold side loop prior to turning cooling water on so you'll be heat sanitizing. I'm going to recommend NOT using any dial thermometers for this purpose because they are too slow to easily dial in your flow rates and resulting output temp. You want a digital solution. Check out our PCOMP1 fitting which would thread into a tee and allow you to install any variety of digital thermometer probes.

 

[ImNoExpert]

I'm going to recommend NOT using any dial thermometers for this purpose because they are too slow to easily dial in your flow rates and resulting output temp. You want a digital solution. Check out our PCOMP1 fitting which would thread into a tee and allow you to install any variety of digital thermometer probes.

That's what I need. I need a large display faced digital thermometer. Something easily readable from straight on that is digital.

 

[maierhof]

Another answer - is that I don't measure the output at all anymore - I just put the flow right into the keg and put the keg into the fermenter fridge then pitch the next day once I have had a chance to bring the yeast and the beer to the right temps for pitching...

You could also just use a therma-pen too after you sanitized it of course...

Not trying to dissuade you from buying from BrewHardware - just saying that there are multiple answers for almost anything.