Corny Keg Thermowell

[Peterpasha]

Has anyone had success or tried drilling a hole in the side of a corny keg for a thermowell? I've got the temperature probe for my controller on the side of my keg and insulated, so it's pretty close to wort temperature, but I really want to dial in the right temps and get a probe right into the middle of the wort. All the searches I've done are about drilling the cap, but that only gives me the top inch or two of wort. The keg will never be pressurized to the extent that the regular kegs are so I'm not worried about that.

[sgrhyno]

I use commercial kegs for my HLT and Kettle and did ok drilling those out. Even manage to solder in some fittings this year. Prior to that, I had weldless fittings in there.

My fear with what you are considering would be the seal around the thermowell. The curvature of the small keg is quite a bit tighter than a commercial keg; I'm wondering if the gaskets will get tight enough. I don't think drilling it out should be a problem.

[jason.loxton]

Why not just use the existing liquid out tube? I modified one as a thermowell years ago when it was hard to find ones to use in carboys (I used it in a carboy). I pulled the liquid tube, pounded the bottom inch flat, bent that back upon itself, and then pounded it flat again. Ended up with a pretty tight seal. I heat sterilized it when using, as there were some small crevices to host bacteria.

That might be an option... Alternatively, I'd check to see if an off the shelf carboy thermowell might fit (or be modifiable), as the new ones have sterile welds.

[LeafMan66_67]

I think you may be surprised and find out that the insulated probe on the side of the keg is reading a fairly accurate temperature. The temperature difference between my thermowell and insulated probe on the side of my carboy was only 0.1F different.

The other way you could do it would be to drill the lid for the thermowell instead of the keg body - there's a but more substance to the lid for a weldless fitting and sure beats screwing up a keg if things go awry.

[Peterpasha]

I am surprised that the difference is that small. Okay then, I'll give it a few more batches and see how the results are. Thanks!