Well yesterday was a brew day. We brewed up 20 gallons of the California Common we’ve done a few times in the past. Unfortunately, I purchased a new thermometer with a wire connected probe from Kmart on my way home Friday. I had been looking at digital thermometers for a while, but after a lot of research I decided that there was not a lot of variation on these thermometers.
Well I was VERY wrong. This thermometer was a long way off from accurate. I am assuming that it has something to do with it’s use in liquid as opposed to solids, but it was nonetheless VERY inaccurate and cost us .020 on our brew! Why you ask? Well we were shooting for 150 f as the strike temp. Since I was using this thermometer and it was off on the strike, the mash bed temp was low on our readings, but was still reading 148. I made an on the fly decision to run with the 148 as opposed to adding some hot water fast.
From there, everything was way off and we were probably closer to 135f in our mashtun. It was really bad.
What is probably most frustrating is that I should have known better. I should have tested the thermometer and been second guessing my readings with a second thermometer (what I’ve done in the past). But alas I didn’t and it was a huge mistake.
It’s too bad, but lesson learned. I guess this is Californication Lite. Now the questions is answered; what is the most important tool in your brewday tool box? Your thermometer.
FOLLOW UP:
I’m not sure if you can see from this picture, but one of my dial thermometers is in a glass of water with the probe of the other thermometer. The dial thermometer is reading 60f, roughly room temp, while the probe is reading 88f. That’s a 28f difference!!! Makes sense that all my readings were off for the day.
Grrr, don’t buy your brewing equipment from Kmart (duh, right?).
UPDATE: FG 1.012, doesn’t taste half bad. The flavors are a little more intense, but otherwise its good.
