Oops!

So we were working on our second batch of our Continental Harvest Ale (Cranberry Pumpkin Spice, 2:2) and had about 10 minutes left in the grain rest and had a little oopsie.

Not a terrible, the sky is falling, the world is coming to an end but significant enough to where we had to terminate the brew for contamination concerns. In the end, we only lost the grains and none of our DME & LME. Really, the most we lost was our time being about 50% of the way thru the brew and having to delay it another week and a half to re-order the grains.

Now, for our oops: do not use a floating glass thermometer! PLEASE, learn from us and just go straight for the remote digital thermometer with probe. We were in the same mindset that probably everyone else that bought one had, "I know it's glass, but it must work, they wouldn't sell it if would break." I think they sell it knowing it's going to break and you'll be back to buy the more expensive digital thermometer. Meh, no hard feelings, sh** happens, right? No one got hurt, lost an eye, etc.

We ended up buying this thermometer: http://www.homebrewers.com/product/5457/Digital-Thermometer-with-Probe.html. Not only won't it explode in your brew, it's a lot quicker to read the temp than the glass thermometer. Let me compare: glass thermometer, watching paint dry; digital thermometer, race car speeding down a back straightaway.

PLEASE, PLEASE learn from us, just spend the $30 bucks right out of the gate for the digital. You'll save money in the end.