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Sight glasses. How many BIAB brewers use them?

Post #1 made 11 years ago
by nosco
It took me a while to get my kettle up and running. In the mean time I was easily seduced by home brewery bling. My idea is that a thermometer in the sight glass could measure the temps of the wort below the bag and my digital thermometer could read the temps of the mash, during the mash of course. Plus id have a sight glass.
Im using a steel ruler atm which I think I could get pretty accurate with (once I get a PC in the garage with BIABicus, I just need to get time to swap an old one into there).

So are are sight glasses as good as they look, once you calibrate them, or are they a hassle to clean, etc?

Cheers.
Last edited by nosco on 16 May 2014, 22:09, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #2 made 11 years ago
by BobBrews
nosco,

I know what you mean about bling. Any shiny toy even remotely related to brewing catches my eye. But sight glass is not one of them. I have been moving towards more simpler and less complicated. That may not be good English the way I said it, but it's true. If I were to do it all over again I would not have even put the temperature gauge in my pot. Here is what I have....
http://www.blichmannengineering.com/pro ... rewmometer

The brewmometer works as advertized but the long inner probe gets in the way sometimes. It's not a problem but it would be nicer without it. It's also gets in the way when I clean my keggle outside. I am always afraid I will break off the brewmometer while cleaning the 15.5 gallon keg. I like it when heating the mash water and it is accurate. But once I put the bag in I use a long probe bimetallic thermometer and a digital for cross reference. (Never trust just one)

The sight glass would be the same (for me). I would be afraid that I would break it and then the pot would be useless until fixed. They do have followers and they are cool looking? (not the owners, the sight glass) Someone here who has a sight glass will chime in and say how they are great! That's fine and dandy! Whatever works but personally I would keep it simple until you need to be more complicated. The steel ruler might be enough?
Last edited by BobBrews on 16 May 2014, 01:33, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #3 made 11 years ago
by Yeasty
My view is to keep it simple, sight glass's and fixed thermometers are just something else to go wrong on a brew day. Nice to look at but sooner or later problematic.
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Post #4 made 11 years ago
by Mad_Scientist
I have one. It's nice, but you have another hole in the keg, but then I have three. :lol:

Calibration marks are based on the BIABacus headspace (bottom 3 marks are milestone indicators, the bottom one is flame-out. The top one at the weld line is what I call zero headspace.

Image
6/28/2013 by Mad Scientist Brewhaus, on Flickr
Last edited by Mad_Scientist on 16 May 2014, 07:27, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #5 made 11 years ago
by nosco
Thanks all. I dont have to worry about the probe getting in the way as I have an aluminium false bottom to keep my bag off the element. I was more thinking about cleaning but I guess its like every thing and has to be cleaned. The heavy duty power cable I have for my element makes moving/tipping the pot very awkward which may also be an issue. Its a very heavy duty site glass so finding something to support the top may be difficult.Ill put it off for awhile until I get some more brewing XP and have a think about it and my brew bench.

This weekend I think i will be making a one armed hop spider! I got some good idea's from your Flickr page thanks MS (thats a cool false bottom :smoke: ). I am a little concerned about the hop debris in my trub. I have some 80mm aluminium tube that should work nice along with the left over swiss voile from my bag.

Cheers. :thumbs:
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Post #6 made 11 years ago
by PistolPatch
Yeah nosco, I'd seriously think on this before going ahead. My biggest issue is in keeping it clean and sanitary. THe boil alone will not work on a sight glass.

Keepectoplasm out of your brews!!!

:)
Last edited by PistolPatch on 18 May 2014, 20:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #7 made 11 years ago
by nosco
I have a keegle that im building. I got it for free so I might use it on that or I might try and sell it on AHB and fund another brew. I think ill forget about it for now.

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Post #8 made 11 years ago
by HbgBill
Mad Scientist. You have to be a mad man.. Anyone with a garage that neat and tidy has to have a sick mind :lol:

These are all good points. I have one of the Blichmann bling pots. I never use it.. but only because I don't brew 5g batches any more. So far, I haven't had to worry about the thermometer.. and the sight glass is pretty well contained, so that won't be a problem except with some sort of direct hit. I do like that pot.. but tend to fall back on my old aluminum turkey pot.. until I found a Bayou Classic stainless pot on Craigslist for the huge sum of $25. WOW.

I'm really hoping that I can make a go of BIAB. If so, I have a LOT of bling to sell.
Bill
Hop Song Brewing-Santa Rosa, California

Re: Sight glasses. How many BIAB brewers use them?

Post #9 made 11 years ago
by Lumpy5oh
Image
I use my sightglass along with a steel tape measure to find my volumes. The sightglass is marked in liters.
To clean it I use my small faucet brush with a hard wire attached to the handle so I can get all the way to the bottom and pull it back out.
Last edited by Lumpy5oh on 18 May 2014, 22:58, edited 1 time in total.
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