Where should I take the temperature while cooling wort?

Question

Extract brewing here:

After the boil, I put my pot into an ice bath to cool the wort before topping off. Generally I cool the wort to 100°F (37°C) before transferring to the fermenter. Today I cooled to that temperature as usual, then topped off, but found that the temperature read a few degrees higher than expected (76°F vs. 70°F).

Rewinding for a moment, I noticed that temperature readings near the outside of the pot tended to be warmer than those I took from the center -- usually by at least +10°F. So that being said...

Where is the "correct" place in the pot to take the temperature while cooling the wort?

Answer 1

It would help in a couple ways if you gently stirred the wort with a sanitized spoon as it cools. First, it will make it cool faster. Second, you'll get homogenous wort so you'll get an accurate temp reading no matter where you check it.

Answer 2

There is one correct place: The same place that you used last time. :)

The critical part is that you take a reading at the same place as this will give you consistency in your process.

There is one "bad" place: the bottom of the kettle. Depending on your equipment you may get a high reading because the thick bottom is retaining heat, or showing a very low temp because the cool wort is lying on the bottom.

Swirl your pot a bit to get some movement in your pot. This will help you get a more homogeneous reading as well as helping your wort to cool down faster.

Answer 3

I don't know of there being a correct place.

You have a couple of options:

1) If you are seeing such a large discrepancy then I would take 2 reading one from centre and one from the edge and average them.

2) or you could take a reading between the edge and the centre.

Answer 4

If you stir everyplace is the correct place.