Avoid the mercury thermometers at all costs! There are adequate glass ones filled with other fluids as temperature indicators. These are also available from any Lab Suppliers (Masons, Lennox etc.) or if you know anyone working in a lab????
"newkie":140a371x wrote: The H&G house brand boiler is a 6gal size.[/quote:140a371x]
maybe i'm missing something? i can't find that <!-- s:?: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_question.gif" alt=":" title="Question" /><!-- s:?: -->[/quote:140a371x]
No prob. Its under Brewing Equipment->H & G Brewing Equipment inc Stainless Steel ware[/url:140a371x]
You'll see a pic of the 10gal boiler, near the bottom they have a 5gal boiler (product code GAL20050848). This is, in fact, a 6gal bucket and is bigger than Bruheat and Eletrim. I spent ages researching this, trust me, and its as good as you can get for the money. For £50 is comes with a hop filter too making it as good a value as the leyland boiler. I was agonizing for a long time about the thermostat and after asking a lot of questions on forums found the general consensus was they weren't necessary if you're just doing a boil. If you are doing a partial or full mash you're better off getting an insulating jacket or cooler than fiddling with a thermostat.
&quot;newkie&quot;:1f4e63zj wrote: the general consensus was they weren't necessary if you're just doing a boil. If you are doing a partial or full mash you're better off getting an insulating jacket or cooler than fiddling with a thermostat.[/quote:1f4e63zj]
I agree with this 100%.
The thermostats on these things do not come marked in degrees Celsius. They just have a “Power” dial, marked from 1 to 10. When it is set to anything other than the top notch, it turns on and off to maintain a temperature. Kind of.
So, basically, if you want to boil wort, you have to turn it up to 10.
Mashing in a boiler is a pain. The thermostat does not maintain a temperature anything like accurately enough for mashing and using a sparge bag, or muslin sheet (as I do) is awkward and takes quite a bit of getting used to. It really isn't a good solution.
For mashing, I would advise the use of an insulated mash tun and when it comes to a boiler, don't pay extra for a thermostat. It really is useless.
Where would be a good spot to pick up one of these thermometers that you speak of locally? (i.e. Dublin)
I'm planning to do my second brew this evening or tomorrow and I wouldn't mind being able to keep a closer eye on the temperatures, the last brew involved a lot of guesswork.
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