Kettle Update

After brewing with the new electric system for a few beers, I thought some changes were in order.  Some problems arose, as I knew they would, with the way the system was set up.  The most obvious problem I discovered only after the air conditioner was put on in my house.  It turns out that steam traveling across a cool HVAC duct condenses, pools, and turns into a downpour.  Who knew?  I solved this problem by moving the kettle so it was directly under the basement window and added a large box fan.  The steam now goes directly out the window.

The next problem I found was something I had suspected since the initial setup of the kettle.  The efficiency of the system kept coming out very low, even for a batch sparge system.  Average estimates for a batch sparge system are normally about 65%.  We had been hitting somewhere around 60 to 63 percent efficient.  It wasn't until I was able to finally obtain a proper thermometer that I discovered that the thermocouple was incorrectly calibrated.  Now, this was my own fault, but it had a little bit to do with physics that I had overlooked.  When I originally setup and tested the PID and thermocouple, I filled the kettle and brought the water up to boiling.  I thought this meant that the thermocouple should be reading 212 degrees Fahrenheit.  I ended up adding about 6 degrees to offset what the thermocouple was reading.  Well, it turns out that the temperature of the water when its boiling is not really 212 degrees; its actually a bit lower.  I learned this the hard way when I measured the mash temp after mashing in for my latest brew.  It read 148, which was about 6 degrees cooler than I wanted it (and almost outside the scope of enzymatic action).  This could have been contributing to efficiency loss (as well as producing a different beer than I had intended to make).

In the midst of all this temperature confusion, I thought I'd try to get a little higher resolution on the temperatures I was measuring.  After reading the manual to determine how to activate the proper function to change the resolution, I discovered that the particular mode I wanted was only available in when reading the thermocouple in Celsius.  So, I have gone to the dark side.  Its a slippery slope.  Next thing you know, I'll be measure weights in kilograms and talking about how many kilometers it is to the brew shop.  Ugh.  I feel so European.  Anyway, I'll give it a try for a while, see if it really gets me any more resolution.  It really might not be worth it since the resolution of the Celsius scale is lower than Fahrenheit, but I'll give it a try anyway.