im looking for where to get a thermometer from,my pot is 45cm deep so will need to be long to poke out the top to be read. or can you get digital with a probe or something.cheers for any help.
It's worth a visit to Southern Hospitality. I see you're in Hamilton and there's a branch there. Otherwise try craftbrewer.com.au. The website's down for maintenance at the mo but I think they have a good range of digital and analogue with long probes. Hard to beat a digital for ease of use.
I have one of these: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Heating-cooling/Other/auction-...
It's great as you can just leave the probe in the mash/HLT/kettle to constantly monitor the temp. Good to have a backup though as the thermocouple can get a bit rooted after a while.
cheers for the help pilgrim just in the process of getting everything i need for all grain looks like loads of fun, any other tips for useful kit would be appreciated.
Where to start? Or rather where to end, I tend to collect and collect and collect kit until I run out of space :-)
Firstly you will want some accurate scales for measuring out Hop additions etc. these can be bought pretty cheaply on TradeMe these days e.g. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Business-farming-industry/Office-equipment...Note, I am not recommending this trader, it's just an example of the sort of gear you can get. You will also want a scale which can measure Kilo + weights. Kitchen scales should do for this.
A good 5 litre graduated measuring jug will come in handy.
For cleaning I use Clorox Oxy Magic and for sanitizing 5 Star StarSan. Iodophor is also hard to beat. A plastic trigger operated spray bottle filled with StarSan mix is good for sanitizing keg connections, fermenter tap etc.
$2 shops and garage sales are good places to pick up cheap kit in particular stainless steel stirring spoon and stainless containers.
I also collect all sorts of containers for storage.
Well that's a start.
I went to Jaycar yesterday and tried out their digital thermocouple thermos. I really like this dual probe beast. It was expensive but looks the business. I have it mounted on a (swivel flash) stand and I can monitor and control my recirc mash temp almost perfectly through 1 or 2 rings of the burners and flow rate of the recirc. It has a huge backlit display which I can see from anywhere in the garage - so I can keep a watch on steps such as mash out.