Adding a thermometer to a cooler conv. mash tun..

[lexuschris]

Hey all,

New to the boards, and finally decided to setup for my 1st attempt at all-grain brewing! Yeah!

I bought a rubbermaid 10-gal water cooler to convert into my mash tun. I replaced the factory valve with a weldless ball-valve conv. kit, and attached the inner FPT to a false bottom via some HT tubing. (see attached pic at bottom).

My question was about adding a thermometer to this setup. Originally, I thought I would use a weldless cooler bulkhead and a 1/2" MPT brewers thermometer like these.



Now that I'm looking at my cooler, the wall thickness is thicker all the way around, so the same bulkhead that worked on the existing valve hole will not work here. So I ask myself, Do I really need a thermometer on the side of my mash tun, to monitor mash temperature? Should I just use a pot themoter after pooring the strike water onto the grain bed & stirring ... and once I'm sure I have proper mash temp, put on the lid and let it sit for an hour?

Is it worth it trying to install a 1/2" NPT bulkehad in my cooler to attach a permenant thermometer? Suggestions?

Many thanks in advance!
--LexusChris

[brahn]

I don't have a thermometer in my mash tun. I just check the temp at a few spots with a digital instant read thermometer and seal it up. I'll typically stir my mash a few times over the course of the hour or so that I mash and I check the temperature then too.

[bwarbiany]

I do it the same as Brent describes above... I don't have a thermometer built into the tun, so I just use a standard thermometer testing in a few different points at mash-in, and then typically stir every 15-20 minutes during the mash, so I check it again each time.

The thermometer I have on my boil kettle is not very readable in the 140-170 deg range, as the gradation is not wide across those temps. So I just use a standard thermometer.