First All Grain Batch, What do you use to measure Temps

[kmacva]

Well, After a week of getting everything ready and built for My first All Grain Batch, I started yesterday. I had one floating thermometer, two digital cooking thermometers, and one old candy thermometer. The brand new digital cooking thermometer/timer Made by LUX was reading 20 deg too high, My old digital cooking thermometer was reading 20 deg too low, The floating thermometer was very close, and so was the 30 year old candy thermometer. I have an Infrared non contact thermometer to give me an idea of which ones might be close but readings aren't accurate with liquids. So all this was just for trying to get the brew water to right striking temp . What do you more experienced All Grainers use to measure your brew water and mash temps with. I was not happy to getting readings all over the place, but the Wort hit the OG. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Kazi

 

[BrewNinja1]

I use the 2 thermometers in my brew keggles, and a CDN digital thermometer for the mash tun. I know on all of my thermometers, you can adjust them so they read correctly (the CDN came with an instruction sheet on how to use ice water). They were all pretty cheap too.

 

[Killercal]

What you need to do is boil some water on your stove top/burner, once it starts to boil stick your thermometers in and you should get a reading of 212 deg F. Then make an ice bath and stick the thermometers in there and you should get a reading of 32 deg F. When doing the ice bath, make sure you have lots of ice in there, as long as there is ice and water at the same time the temp will be 32 deg F. (wow grade 9 science class really did come in handy!) You really should do this every once in a while to make sure your thermometers are calibrated.

Good luck.

 

[Revvy]

After monkeying around with all matter of cooking, digital, candy and what have you, I went back to the el cheapo 12" scientific thermometers on the lowershelf of the homebrew shops.

The best part is that they have an little eye at the top that a coat hange hook can fit in, and can hang from the top of the kettle.

 

[kmacva]

Hey thanks for the replies. Since my budget has just about run out (Keezer, Kegs, etc + Wife not happy). I decided to go with these. $4.00 each + S&H. I also bought an armored tube for one of them to use in the Brewpot, since it get stirred, etc. I'll check the calibration as Killercal mentions. I'll see how they work out.

http://www.novatech-usa.com/Products/General-Glass-Thermometers/80521

Again Thanks, Kazi

 

[Revvy]

Yeah they look pretty similar to the ones I use. Hassle free.

 

[curlyfat]

I gave up on digital a long time ago. They would always show something different from each other, and different from all the "analog" thermometers. Now I too use the cheapo lab grade thermo, and a "brewmometer" installed on my MLT...I still trust the lab one more.

 

[kmacva]

After Getting readings all over the place with digitals, I started using these inexpensive lab thermometers and you can get and armored case for them. I checked the calibration on them using ice water and boiling water and the ones I got were right on.

http://www.novatech-usa.com/Products/General-Glass-Thermometers/80521

If you download the vee-tech.pdf catalog at the above link, the first page of the catalog, at the bottom explains that the major cause of analog failures is column separation and how to fix it.

 

[Scimmia]

I'm with the majority here; after messing with digitals for a while, I switched to a trusty old alcohol lab thermometer. Sure, it doesn't read instantly, but at least you know it's going to be right when it gets there.

 

[COLObrewer]

What you need to do is boil some water on your stove top/burner, once it starts to boil stick your thermometers in and you should get a reading of 212 deg F. . . . . .

Or 202F at my elevation, depending on barometric pressure.

 

[Revvy]

Wow, I didn't realize how many of us after having so many issues went back to those oldschool long lab thermometers.

 

[Killercal]

Or 202F at my elevation, depending on barometric pressure.

Yes you are correct, you should check what the temp would be at your elevation which is easy to find in Google.

 

[Beerbeque]

I use a CDN digital pro. About $16 @ Amazon

 

[swankyswede]

I'm a chemist, and I can vouch for the fact that the good ol' glass thermometer with the red stuff inside is the most accurate. We tried digital in my company and found that they drift so bad it's not worth the hassle since we had to calibrate pretty much every time we turned the suckers on. Glass is cheaper too, so you don't feel so bad when it gets messed up beyond help.