Digital Thermometer for Brewing
Saturday, February 6th, 2010A handy tool in brewing is a digital thermometer. When it comes to all grain brewing this is a must to accurately monitor and maintain the desired mash temperature. It also helps to know when boil is approaching (“a watched pot never boils…”). I keep this handy tool by my side when ever I brew.
This digital thermometer by CDN is called the “Q2-450 Proaccurate Quicktip Digital Thermometer”. They currently run about $18 on Amazon.com. We also use it around the house occasionally when baking or cooking.
Some tips:
- Make sure to calibrate it first! It was off by several degrees, which can throw off a mash severely. The instructions say to stir up some crushed ice.
- Keep it clean.
- Remember to keep it off, so that the battery lasts longer.
Brewers who build out their rig will want to go with a thermometer embedded inside their hot liquor tank or mash lauter tun. This has been covered by a separate Brewer’s Friend article.
3 Responses to “Digital Thermometer for Brewing”
Just a note, I find a wireless remote meat thermometer really handy, as I can take the readout unit with me (on a belt clip) and monitor it while sitting at my computer. It alerts me 10 degrees before it hits the preset temp for mashing, and then if I adjust it, it alerts again if it falls or rises more than a couple degrees above my preset.
One note, if you get the cable on the sensing probe too low and it gets wet, it goes on the fritz and needs to dry out before it’ll work again. But the probe is so long, it’s pretty easy to suspend in the middle of the mash.
Here’s some of these type of units:
http://www.nextag.com/wireless-remote-meat-thermometer/stores-html
By Ian on Feb 6, 2010
You should not use snow to calibrate your thermometer. Snow is mostly air, with very low amounts of water. Snow temperature can very greatly depending on the gradient of temperature between the ground level, and the surface. If the air temp is 20 degrees, the snow temp at the surface will the 20 degrees, and at the ground it will be 32. Snow also changes temp quickly depending on the ambient conditions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow
By Jim on Feb 7, 2010