Rolling boil, temp gauge only reading 97.5deg?

[rp665]

I have recently started AG BIAB, and when I get the wort to a rolling boil the temperature is reading only 97.5 deg.. Should this be something to worry about? Or might it be that the thermowell is towards the outside of the urn? It is a buffalo 40L urn with a brauduino controller...

Thanks!

 

[Cocko]

Have you calibrated it? As in, run the probe in boiling water and adjusted to 100 deg.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

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What he said

 

[TheWiggman]

What's your altitude? Water boils at lower temperatures the higher you are up (the air pressure is lower)

 

[Mozz]

A couple of possible factors at play. Do you live at elevation? Then boiling point will be less than 100C. Also a wort is not pure water- this would increase boiling point. Then it might just be a calibration problem too....
Try test pure boiling water and adjust for elevation above sea level. There is heaps of info on the net about what temp water boils at different elevations.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

or

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Yeah but it colder at elevation.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

it sure is

 

[MastersBrewery]

Yeah but it colder at elevation.

Not in western sydney in summer

 

[Cocko]

Wear a jacket if it is cold.

If it is boiling - it is boiling - adjust your thermometer to 100 degrees and unless you are skiing down a mountain, dropping massive amounts of altitude, while brewing it will be right yeah?

It is not rocket surgery...

Calibrate it.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Carefull Cocko. There are people on here who have been to school and will probably want to argue for the next 12 pages about **** us mortals will never understand.

Personally, if you got a rolling boil, your doing well

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

How about a boil under vacuum , does it require heat ?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

How about a boil under vacuum , does it require heat ?

Bloody troublemakers

 

[Mr B]

You just have to be careful the vacuum doesn't fall in?

 

[rp665]

Hi guys, thanks for all the help. We are <50m above sea level, so doubt that's the issue. I have just assumed my old man calibrated it as he tested it out with just water, but he now can't remember if it reached 100deg or not. Hehe.

That said, we have also used a temp logger and a normal thermometer which also show the same thing.

One thing I noticed today whilst brewing was that when the hop bag (no hop sock yet) was in the middle of the urn (above the element) that it got up to 98.5+.

Could this be a heat loss issue/not enough heat input issue? Or something else like the ones mentioned earlier?

 

[TheWiggman]

What's the issue exactly? If it's boiling, then job done. The temperature being read by a device matters naught if you're boiling wort.

 

[Bomber Watson]

How about a boil under vacuum , does it require heat ?

I would think more importantly if your bloiling under vacuum with no heat does it:

A) sterilize the wurt and

B) dissolve the Alpha acids of the hops?

What kind of hop utilization would you use for a 0 degree boil under sufficient vacuum?

The head boggles.

 

[yum beer]

You wont get any gravity points in a vacuum so the whole process is pointless.....and possibly weightless.......so a 1053 brew would be 1000, no more no less.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

I believe they use a vacuum boil system to make extract.