Is My Digital Thermometer Correct?

[Clutch]

Mashing in and lagging at 66c and losing less than 1 degree after 60 minutes.
I wrap two foam yoga mats, another layer of foam mat with foil and then towels over the top.

I'm using a $19 Bunnings meat thermometer.

 

[kelbygreen]

cant make sense of that lol maybe because I have only had half a beer so far today :S

 

[Diesel80]

Mashing in and lagging at 66c and losing less than 1 degree after 60 minutes.
I wrap two foam yoga mats, another layer of foam mat with foil and then towels over the top.

I'm using a $19 Bunnings meat thermometer.

I used 3 thermometers on saturdays brew in the mash. 2 manual ones and a digital meat thermo like you have.
The two manual ones were showing 65 and 66 respectively, the digital one was showing 74!

Fark knows what one was right. I disregarded the digital one as i had no way of calibrating it (spewing if it was right and the others were reading low!)


Cheers,

D80

 

[szopen]

Very quick calibration check:
1. When measuring boiling water thermometer should show close to 100C.
2. When measuring ice water (fill the cup with ice cubes, top with cold water, wait a few minutes, mix well ) should show close to 0C.

 

[Dribs]

Very quick calibration check:
1. When measuring boiling water thermometer should show close to 100C.
2. When measuring ice water (fill the cup with ice cubes, top with cold water, wait a few minutes, mix well ) should show close to 0C.

Any idea what temp a gentle simmer would be?

 

[Muscovy_333]

Simmer = boil = 100 degrees C (of fresh water)
Unless you are in the Himalayas where it may be a little lower.

 

[Dave70]

On calibration:

The temperature inside the human rectum is 36-37 deg c. Unless you have a fever I guess.


I always keep a couple on hand and test one against the other.

Ones like this.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Digital-Cooking...=item19c5acecb0

 

[QldKev]

On calibration:

The temperature inside the human rectum is 36-37 deg c. Unless you have a fever I guess.


I always keep a couple on hand and test one against the other.

Ones like this.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Digital-Cooking...=item19c5acecb0

Just got to make sure you brew a chocolate stout afterwards

 

[DU99]

or a chocolate porter..

 

[pk.sax]

Don't people own kitchen kettles any more? Mine gets to a rolling boil before it gets cut off and its quite simple to slide the thermo into it.

 

[super_simian]

Not a hazelnut porter then?

 

[twizt1d]

for calibrating,
100c is the temp of steam *just* above boiling water not the actual water itself
0c is the temp of melting pure water

may seem pedantic but i bet a lot of people read to 1/10th of a degree when the thermometer could be +/-1c if not more

 

[Nick JD]

My thermometer takes about 4 minutes to get to 100C when in boiling water. I'm at sea level.

Some of them need a bit of time to give their reading.

 

[RobW]

I have a lab certified mercury reference thermometer and when I measured a coupe of cheap digital thermometers they both consistently measured about 1.5 degrees lower than the ref thermo in the 50 - 80oC range. That's the range you mostly use them in and its OK if you know and allow for the difference.

At 0 and 100 they were out by up to 6 degrees so I don't think you'd want to try to calibrate them using just iced and boiling water.

I don't use them much.

 

[Spork]

Given most of us are interested in calibrating around 66c, rather than 100c or 0c, would I be right in assuming that 200mL of boiling water and 100mL of ice water should be close to 66c (66.6) if added together and temp measured straight away?
For better accuracy I guess the vessel the water is mixed in should be pre-heated to around 66c.

Hmm. Must try, as my "good" spirit thermometer reads a rolling boil as low 90's, so I never know which thermometer to believe when I'm mashing.

 

[mika]

Or does thermometer accuracy matter that much ? I think precision is more the key. If you mash at what you're thermometer tells you is 66C and the beer comes out too dry, next time you'll mash at 67C. Doesn't really matter if the thermometer's a degree out, as long as you're not using a different thermometer each brew. It's more or less a self healing process.

 

[Nick JD]

Take your themometer into a shop that sells them and compare them all.

 

[twizt1d]

most of the thermometers we'd use wouldnt be that accurate but calibrating them to the higher end of the scale would at the very least put your mind at ease knowing that its going to be reading pretty close at mash temps
it wouldnt make much sense to calibrate at 0c when its going to be spending most of its time 65c+

im not really saying to get super accurate and technical about it but its probably a good idea to know how far off the mark it actually is, as Rob said, some of the digital probes can be a long way off and the kitchen kettle only takes 5 minutes to boil

 

[felten]

mine reads 100c in boiling water and 37c in bodily orifices, that's calibrated enough for me.

 

[Nick JD]

Reminds me of a Mozambique torture method.

Insert poly tube into prisoner's rectum; insert barbed wire into poly tube; remove poly tube.

Whoever originally thought that up is currently stoking the fires of hell, I hope.

Back to orifices.