Cheap oven thermometer to measure brew temperature?

[gGg]

is it a waste to purchase a cheap oven thermometer (digital w/thermocouple probe) to measure water at the group? i just got an anita from chris's and have been following the water dance procedure...although, pulling good shots, the point in my surf where i brew seems somewhat arbitrary. i would love to purchase a scace device and fluke, but due to my recent 1000 dollar endeavor, i lack the appropriate funds.

any opinions would be greatly appreciated

cheers
greG

[HB]

is it a waste to purchase a cheap oven thermometer (digital w/thermocouple probe) to measure water at the group?

I would say so, but you may find it helpful to invest $9 for the TM-125 Pocket Digital Multimeter with Thermocouple Jim advocates in Seeking low tech way to measure brew temperature. There's several good reads on the subject such as:

How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love HXs (the "water dance" explained, including a video)
Thermometry for the Home Barista (excellent answer to the question "Why does accuracy cost so much?")
The problem is on the handle side of the portafilter (my mini-diatribe on measurement equipment obsessiveness).

By the way, searching on "brew temperature" with Search for all terms selected gives dozens of other interesting related discussions.

[gGg]

i have read the "How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love" article is some detail, infact i have probably read it 10 times ....just wanted to get some numbers behind the taste...this morning, i flushed a little longer, noticing an improvement....thanks for info on the thermometer...


greG

[HB]

A final comment and some more links...

The HX Love article describes the rebound technique, but you'll also read about the flush-n-go technique too in threads like 'Flush and go' technique suitable for smaller HX machines?, Chris Tacy's Grimac Mia - Cribsheet ("pro" method), and advocates like Jon in Water flushing and "knowing" your HX machine. I find it slightly more difficult to nail consistent temperatures on non-commercial HX espresso machines with this approach, but you may want to try it. One of my to-do list items is documenting both approaches in the article.