My spirit alcohol meter says in the instructions :- for every degree over 20C add 0.3% and for every degree below subtract 0.3% or for every degree over 68F add 0.5% and for every degree below subtract 0.5%.So thinking about a Parrot beak and the need to know the temperature Sat.afternoon turned into a session in "the shed" and came up with this :-
I silver soldered all the joints first pulling out the soft solder rings in the 35mm to 22mm and to 15mm reducers.I didn't have a blanking nut so drilled a hole in a copper coin and soldered this to the threaded part I hacksawed off a brass fitting. This screws onto a block of wood to keep the beak upright and steady.
all I have to do now is teach it to say "Pieces of Eight Pieces of Eight"
That's a pretty cool idea. Especially for my application where I have to use NIST-certified alcoholometer and thermometer to determine true proof. There isn't any combo thermometer/alcoholometer to suit my specific needs.
If only the best birds sang, the woods would be silent.
the combo-hydrometers that I have seen in the local brew shops, all have the thermometer at the bottom, where it can't be seen while being used inside the parrot.
the only problem i can see with this design is the "liquid lock" that might occur in the thermometer pipe...
i think if you ran a 15mm pipe along the bottom (where the T piece and the input to the 22mm pipe is) and got some 15mm glass tubing so you could read the thermometer (or use a long probe digital, or seal the prob in) so the end of the thermometer is in the "flowing" spirit you would have a more accurate reading..
next time you run her just drop a dig thermometer into the top of the parrot and compare the readings
Whiskey, the most popular of the cold cures that don't work (Leonard Rossiter)
absinthe wrote:the only problem i can see with this design is the "liquid lock" that might occur in the thermometer pipe...
I don't see this as being a problem due to the physics of thermal transfer... Warmer spirits will always rise, forcing cooler spirits downward and into the exit stream... The thermometer tube should, theoretically, always be a bit warmer than the alcometer tube, which should be a bit warmer than the off-take tube... If my physics is correct, that is... The only fly in the ointment might be too much flow restriction below the thermometer...
I just clip a brewers thermometer onto the lip of the inner tube in my parrots beak so that the bulb is in the pool in the centre tube. Now you have continuous monitoring of your alcohol temperature.
