weldless thermometer

[jeremy586]

I am looking at buying a new weldless thermometer for my keggel. Any suggestions, or at least products to stay away from? Looking to spend around $30-40. I have a nice sight glass from brewhardware.com and like their gear but kinda leaning towards blinchmans thermometer.

Many thanks,

 

[LuiInIdaho]

I have two Blichmann Thermometers, one each on two different boil kettles. I like both of them, but, to be honest with you, the only uses that I get out of them is to measure the temperature of my strike water before I mash in, and to measure the temperature of the wort when I am cooling down to pitching temperatures. Having said this, I would not necessarily recommend the Blichmann Thermometer for the Boil Kettle. The Blichmann has all the step temperatures for each step of the process. Of all those steps, most of them have to do with mash resting steps: Protein Rest, Saccharification Rest, Sparge Temperature, etc. The only two that relate to activities outside of mashing are the Pitching Temperature and the Boiling Temperature. It is clear from the dial on the Blichmann Thermometer that it is designed to help with Mashing, and not so much with Boiling.

So, my recommendation is that if you plan to use this on a boil kettle, buy a decent thermometer that will meet your needs, and perhaps you might save a few dollars.

I like the Blichmann's, but for my purposes, the additional information on the dial is not all that helpful.

I hope that this might help you. Mark

 

[Golddiggie]

I've not bothered to install a thermometer in my current boil keggle. I also removed it from my mash tun keg. I'm using thermal probes/sensors connected to my Fluke 52ii thermometer to get temperature readings. For me, the thermometer in the mash tun was getting in the way of mixing the grain in. In the boil keggle, it wasn't all that useful. You can tell, visually, when it's boiling. I also use the Fluke setup as I'm chilling, since I do a recirculation through my plate chiller before sending it to the fermenter. The sensors on the Fluke give me a much better reading, so I can better decide when to switch over. I also have a sensor/thermometer at the plate chiller, so I know what the chilled wort temperature is.

I would advise getting a waterproof, long stem, digital thermometer for use. That way you can use it in more than just the boil keggle. One like this would do the job.

While I do like the Blichmann products, thermometers included (they look sweet) I [also] cannot recommend them in good faith. Especially since it seems like you have a tight budget.

BTW, you can use the thermometer I linked to above with the fitting sold by Brew Hardware to use it in the keggle. I have one of those (from a different vendor) in the assembly that comes off the wort out side of my plate chiller. It allows me to send the long stem thermometer all the way to where the wort is coming out of the chiller. I can also use different o-rings and use one of the sensors connected to the Fluke thermometer.

 

[certaut]

you really don't need a thermometer in your brew kettle, and you can get by with wireless JLR Gear wireless BBQ thermometer from wally-mart for about $16. I set mine to 208° so when it beeps I get there to prevent a boil over. If you have a anheuser sanke 7.5 gal is at the seam, which is a good target if you use 6.5 gal carboys (you can leave the boil slop behind). the only critical place for a thermometer is the mash tun which you can use the $16 thermometer also