Suitable Brewing Thermometer

[Gough]

Thanks for that Boots. Think I might give it a go as well if I can get it past the financial controller

Shawn.

 

[Boots]

Thanks for that Boots. Think I might give it a go as well if I can get it past the financial controller

Shawn.

[post="54237"][/post]​

Hold off on that Gough. I've found a few different Australian suppliers (with help from Roach) and I'm looking to see if I can source them through work. I'll post back to let anyone interested know....

 

[Borret]

Boots,

I'd also be interested in knowing what's about but I too must get it past the accountant.

Borret.

 

[pint of lager]

Hey Borret, after all the money you saved by making your own very impressive mill, you could spend the savings on some nice shiney gear for the brewery.

 

[Darren]

I have a small digital thermometer although these days I really don't worry all that much about mash temps. (Ferm temps i feel are much more important)
How many times have you set your mash to 66.7 C only to stir and move the thermometer half a centimeter to the left and find its 72. Stir and move again and find 62.
Unless you have a mash stirrer running almost constantly I doubt you could ever acheive consistent results (Ie heat rises).

Few things to think about
37 degree C will feel hot if you put your hand in it.
50 degree C most people can hold their hand in it for a short while.
You will not be able to hold your hand in 55 degree C
Mash temps will be just above that
Hows that for a cheap reliable thermometer!
(PS please don't plunge your hand into boiling water. Slowly is the key)

 

[pint of lager]

Darren, I found the same results when using a digital thermometer with a probe. You could stir, take a reading, move the probe a few centimeters and it would be way off.

So I went back to my stem thermometer which does not give such weird results.

I give the mash a stir, immerse the thermometer to the 0 deg mark, wait till it stabilises after about 20-30 seconds and use that as my reference temperature. Have found in my brews it is very important to get the temp in the right ballpark.

 

[Gough]

OK, now the thread has shifted a little, this is something that has been bugging me as well, and was partly why I was looking to buy a digital therm in the first place.

POL, I have also been using a stem therm (till I broke it on Saturday...) and had been using a similar technique to the one you've just described. It has an 'immerse to this line' mark near the 0 degrees which I have been going from, however even with a good deal of stirring this is generally a diff temp to what is down the bottom of the tun well into the grain bed. I was a little concerned as to which was the best reading to take - I think you've just cleared that up for me but can you confirm that this reading (immersed to the line NOT pushed right to the bottom of the tun) is indeed the correct one?

I've assumed so thus far but this thread has got me thinking... perhaps too much :wacko: My beers have all performed as I'd expect for the diff temps I've mashed at so far, so something must be going right...

Thanks in advance,

Shawn.

 

[Borret]

POL

As impressed as SWHBO was with my mill efforts- the mere 28 bucks from the bearing joint was still scrutinised when it came up on the credit card. I keep telling her grain is cheap and that it's all heading toward cheaper brewing. I'm also slowly breaking her in on time factor for mashing. I can see that my brew timing will fast become reliant on her doing night shifts ( which is more conducive to hastle free brewing.)

Borret

 

[Darren]

{Darren, I found the same results when using a digital thermometer with a probe. You could stir, take a reading, move the probe a few centimeters and it would be way off.

So I went back to my stem thermometer which does not give such weird results.}


POL, Stem thermometers take too long to compensate (especially drop to a cooler temp). Thats why it seems more stable, not because it is. The thin wire of the probes allow rapid measurement of temperature change.


{Have found in my brews it is very important to get the temp in the right ballpark.}



I agree. But if you have just dropped/broken your thermometer at mash-in the "guide" I posted in the last post can be quite helpful.
You will not be able to hold your hand in 55 degree water or hotter

 

[warrenlw63]

That's why step mashes over direct heat kind of spook me.

Heat the mash, stir, drop the heat. Mash sits at 66c. Take a further reading and be horrified to the fact that it's crept up 2-3c in differing spots via heat from the bottom of the vessel.

Only one answer in any mash be it single temp infusion, step infusion or decoction. You've got to stir like a real bugger and get even distribution. Cover take a reading, correct (if need be) and cover again.

These days I always take at least 5 mins. to mash in. Borne from paranoia of an uneven mash. If I could rig up some sort of mechanical mixer I would.

Warren -

 

[Boots]

Darren, I personally am aiming to use the one thermometer for HLT, Mash, and possibly even fermenter. It would be good to get a second probe to permanently mount in the fridge for fermenting temps etc. Then the head unit can come outside for brew day, and just plug back into the fridge probe... I like to squeeze all the value i can out of my brewing dollar.

I understand what you mean about the variability of temps in the mash, but I'd rather spend $50 than burn my hand every brewday

 

[Darren]

No need to spend $50 or burn your hand. A simple water-resistant hand held digital thermometer is all you need ($25 in Adelaide). Can be moved from mash, HLT and ferm too.
I was really trying to point out that what ever you measure is only ever a ball-park measurement unless you are constantly stirring.
cheers
Darren
(BTW one day you will need to test the temp by hand)

 

[pint of lager]

It's a long way to the shop for a new thermometer, so I have about six stem thermometers from Livingstone, a digital thermometer from HLP plus a couple of other digtal, weather and medical thermometers around the place. The digital medical thermometer has great accuracy around the 40 degree mark.

Have only broken one stem thermometer which magically broke all by itself, while in the presence of two rugrats.

 

[Darren]

If I look sideways at a glass thermometer it breaks

 

[Boots]

(BTW one day you will need to test the temp by hand)

[post="54273"][/post]​

Unfortunately, I did this on Tuesday, however, I prefer to use the stomach rather than my hands - I find it more accurate :blink: I knew the strike water was roughly about right (broke the thermometer as I was about to take it's final temp reading), so went ahead anyway .. long story short .. ended up tipping a litre or two down my front as I was mashing in.

Judging by the appearnce of a red scald mark, and pain, but the lack of blistering, the water was somewhere between 60 and 80 degrees I should end up with a beer somewhere between dry and sweet.

EDIT: sp. correction

 

[Guest Lurker]

POL, Stem thermometers take too long to compensate (especially drop to a cooler temp). Thats why it seems more stable, not because it is. The thin wire of the probes allow rapid measurement of temperature change.

[post="54266"][/post]​

I like stem thermometers exactly because of their averaging effect. I know the temperature varies a lot from point to point and from time to time cos I did an experiment with some thermocouples which respond instantly which I posted here
another old thread
But I am calibrating the taste of the beer against "the averaged temperature in the middle of the tun after 5 mins of mixing" and a probe thermometer is the best way to measure that.

 

[Goat]

Great thread on the testing GL ! - that is very illustrative of what is actually happening in the murky depths of the mash tun. I guess it comes down to surface area and the air mass above the mash and the merits of HERMS (etc) are pretty obvious...

not wishing to hijack the thread, I've added some questions in the other one.

 

[Doc]

I've been using a Digital Multimeter with Temperature function for the last couple of years.
Here is the model and where I got it from
Works well for me.
I do keep a stem thermometer as backup though

Beers,
Doc

 

[Tony M]

The $38.00 thermometer from morebeer has the same probe as the $25.00 Ibrew one.
ie. braided non-waterproof wire and not to be immersed.

 

[dicko]

And,
The one I got from I Brew has an alarm for when it reaches the set temp as well as the timer.

If the mash temp and conditions are the same, everything being equal, it is only the speed of the reading that changes between the digitals and the stems.

I have a Herms system and I cause the return wort to discharge through a pipe that I hold just under the top level of the mash at the horizontal plane and so as to direct the discharge around the tun.
This causes a circular flow around the tun similar to a stirrer and I find it works very well.
I had this same digital temp unit fitted into a s/steel keg type mash tun and I fitted it by silver soldering a piece of 3/8" copper pipe through the wall of the tun at an angle down into the mash grist and then fitted a piece of plastic tubing inside the pipe that the temp probe slipped inside of.
This allowed me to remove the probe for cleaning and to use the temp guage somewhere else if I wanted to.
If you could come up with a pipe on a compression fitting or similar for an esky type tun then you could do the same.

When I first started mash brewing I was told by many learned gentlemen that your system must be good enough to allow you to reproduce the same beer consistently and as long as you are achieving that, then it doesn't really matter what type of temp guage you are using.
I found when I first started, that you could stuff with the mash in an attempt to obtain the correct temp for the entire mash time if you wanted but after you get to know your system then you can confidently mash with little mucking around and with good results.
The best improvement I have made is my Herms.
Cheers