Question about Thermometer in kettle for biab

[Zooesk]

I am thinking about installing a thermometer in the side of my brew pot but I am worried it may rip a hole in the bag or would I be better putting one in the lid with a long prob. Any feed back would be appreciated thank you

 

[RM-MN]

I made a hole in the lid of my pot and use a long stem dial thermometer or a shorter digital thermometer. It doesn't help much. If my strike temperature is accurate, the mash temp is too. I don't go for long mashes any more since I found that I get the same results from shorter mashes and then the temperature stay pretty constant.

 

[Foosier]

I have had the same thought. I would seriously worry about adding anything which might cause a snag. I think the conventional wisdom is that adding a temp probe through the side could create issues, though some others have used their spoons to make sure they clear the probe while pulling the bag. I'd be too worried about a snag to do that though.

I guess the real question is what do you want to accomplish by adding a thermometer to the side? If you just want to monitor temps, I like RM's suggestion of the hole in the lid with the long stemmed probe. Another option is using a waterproof electronic probe thermometer with a flexible lead. Personally, I just use a hand held electronic thermometer to check temps every 15 minutes when I open the pot to give the mash a stir. I have yet to have my mash lose so much temp (maybe 1-2 degrees in an hour) that I am worried I need to monitor it more closely.

Are you seeing bigger temp losses? If you are, you might ry insulating your kettle during the mash to keep your heat loss down. I use a large moving blanket which I can wrap around my pot and burner to keep heat in. It works, even in the cold.

 

[Rdom]

I have one on my kettle but it's not always accurate. It has a short probe so it doesn't snag the bag. I find that I have to stir the grain and then let it sit a little while to get a reasonably accurate temp so I've just been putting my probe thermometer in there anyway at 15min. I usually have to heat the kettle a little and then just let it ride the rest of the 60 min. I then just use the therm on the kettle to monitor how quickly the temp is dropping. I only check it again with my probe thermometer if the kettle therm shows it dropping by more than about 3 degrees. Once I started wrapping my kettle with multiple towels, that rarely happens.

 

[haeffnkr]

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/41185-oneida-digital-thermometer-timer.html

Put this in the kettle.
Works great, put the lid on then wrap it up and mash for an hour but you can still see the temps.

thanks Kevin

 

[Zooesk]

Thanks for the input I just thinking it would be easy and quicker to get strike temp then having to lift lid check temp all that I'm not dropping any more then 2degrees in my mash so it's no big drama just looking to make life easy I do like the digital one though thanks for the help