Thermometer for boil keg/kettle

[billybushcook]

Iv'e been using one of those spike type meat thermometers for monitoring temps in the kettle when heating strike & sparge water, now finding that my right hand is slowly being turned into a DIM SIM from the heat while I hold it in there & wait for the read out to tick up to temp.

My prefered method is to get hold of one of those digital themometers with the remote thermocouple like a multimeter so I can leave the probe/thermocouple in the kettle & just read the temp at a glance.

Do any of you guys use this method?

Where do you get e'm?

Most I have seen at Dick smiths, Jaycar etc are close to $100.
I have seen a few on Ebay for around $30 but without a Paypal account, they are not available to me at present.

Cheers, Mick.

[Trough Lolly]

For my 10 Gallon Rubbermaid cooler mashtun, I use and recommend a Mashmaster Thermometer. You can get short stemmed versions for pots and kegs:

http://mashmaster.com.au/p/923730/-weldless-bi-metal-thermometer-3-dial-face--short-thread---for-pots-and-kegs.html

I think Ross still sells them? Pretty good value for around $50 and easy as pie to install...

Cheers,
TL

[Clean Brewer]

+1 on Trough Lollys advice, best bit of kit ive bought... Get the weldless and it only takes a hole to install it, it shows you all your temps for Protein rests, mash temps, mash out temps, sparges etc etc...

Just have to ensure its calibrated to the right temp, but it will save you holding the Dig. Stick thermo..... But I still use the stick aswell for my hlt as I only have a MM Thermo on my Mash tun which I think is more important...

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=3027

[billybushcook]

Thx guys, that would be good in the kettle but with something sticking through the side I probably wouldn,t be able to get my chiller in & out so I got the father in law to order me one of these.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/2-K-Type-Digital ... 7C294%3A50

With the dual thermocouples I can monitor the mash & my sparge water heating up at the same time....too easy.

The only issue might be accuracy, they rate them @ +/- 2 deg up to 1300C but a calibration check with the meat thermo will be the go before mashing in.

Cheers, Mick.

[Clean Brewer]

Calibrate them against boiling water mate, 100c.... Not sure if I would count on the meat Thermo?

And the recommended MM Thermometer is really good for your Mash-Tun, not so much your boil kettle and IMO your HLT..

CB