Do I need a thermometer on my pot still?

[blanikdog]

------MOD EDIT------
This thread is select posts from a rather lively discussion about the need (or lack thereof) for a thermometer in a pot still. If you read through, you'll see that we all have varying opinions about this. In summary, it is not essential, and in order to become a good distiller you should be capable of running a pot still without any instruments at all (alcometer, thermo, etc). However, sometime it can provide extra information about run progression etc that can be useful. It is probably best considered an optional extra.

The one thing almost everyone agrees on is that you shouldn't use a thermometer to make cuts on a pot still - use your senses.
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Original discussion here: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 16&t=12791
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New discussion thread started here: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 68&t=43026

If you put some form of boil breaker, ie, bits of brokem porcelain or copper, even small quartz pebbles you can tell by the sound how the boil is going. I still have a thermometer in my kettle but never use it. I guess it's nice 'eye candy' as someone said to me a long time ago.
blanik