Thermowell for brew kettle

[balazs]

I am in need of a thermowell for my kettle. I was wondering if anyone that uses digital probes and thermowells for there vessels could tell me if this one would work.

http://www.coleparmer.com/catalog/product_view.asp?sku=9043381

I am using a propane burner so I do not know if there would be a problem with heat coming up the side and screwing with the probe wire. I am using a 15 gallon B3 SS kettle so the thermowell would be installed in the standard thermometer port.

 

[Catt22]

Looks like it should work OK. You will need to protect the probe wires from excessive heat. The location of the thermowell on the kettle has a lot to do with that. Obviously, the higher up on the kettle it is, the less it will be exposed to the burner heat coming up the side of the kettle.

Now then, I do have one question for you. Why do you want to go to all this trouble to monitor the boil kettle temperature. Boiling is boiling. I can understand using thermometers on mash tun and HLT's, but never understood the need on the BK.

 

[balazs]

Until I get a dedicated HLT I am going to be using this kettle to heat my strike and sparge water therefore I need to have accurate temps to get my numbers right. I also saw ther thermowell from brewershardware that would work and it has a heat shield. It is also like 25 bucks more than the one I linked above. Maybe I just need to chalk up the extra money for the one with the heat shield.

 

[PTisch]

I use a thermometer in my BK because I use an IC. It also lets me know how my progression to boiling after the sparge is going.

 

[Catt22]

Until I get a dedicated HLT I am going to be using this kettle to heat my strike and sparge water therefore I need to have accurate temps to get my numbers right. I also saw ther thermowell from brewershardware that would work and it has a heat shield. It is also like 25 bucks more than the one I linked above. Maybe I just need to chalk up the extra money for the one with the heat shield.

OK, now that makes more sense.

 

[Catt22]

I use a thermometer in my BK because I use an IC. It also lets me know how my progression to boiling after the sparge is going.

I've been using one of the Infra-Red remote reading thermometers to check the status of the wort when chilling, but usually only near the end of the process. I've learned that if the kettle feels at all warm to the touch, it's over 100F. I also use it to check the temp of my fermenters sometimes. I'm never much concerned about the progression of the wort to boiling during/after the sparge. I'm pretty sure it will get there sooner or later. If I'm in a hurry, I just turn up the burner, although this seems to use significantly more fuel. I'm using a CFC and the Infra-Red thermometer works well for checking the temp on the output.