Fore
Landlord.
Recently decided to splash out on a Grainfather. Got the coat, hop spider, whirlpool paddle and stainless paddle. Just done the first brew.
Not as simple as I thought it would be, but then it was the first run, and the first time I ever brewed indoors. That with the wife cooking around me, and me stopping to eat, which I normally never have time for.
Seemed like my crush was probably a bit too fine (probably 0.8-0.9), as the flow through the grain was pretty slow. But I stirred half way through, and during mashout the wort started to clear. I've increased my roller gap for next time.
I had more wort pre-boil than the litre markings reached, so I could only guess at pre-boil volume and so didn't calculate boil off. The litre markings are not accurate anyway, but I created my own conversion calculator. I measured my loss to trub at 1.6l (that included the trub, so it's less really). That's easily the least I've ever lost, and contributed a lot to the BH efficiency.
Managed 80% BH efficiency. That beats my best ever batch sparge by 6% , and my average by 12%. I aimed for 25l and ended up with about 27l, even though I hit target SG (I'd planned for a 75% BH eff.). So I had to throw away 1 litre of bitter wort; never done that before. I think the main factors contributing to the efficiency include the hop spider, the low position of the tap, and the fly sparge.
Coat: Seems very high quality in comparison to the Braumeister coat and seems to do the job well. Shame you can't take off when chilling.
Hop spider: This is brilliant for leaf hops. I was left with only protein trub. All liquid drained from the hops when I removed after the boil. The 800 micron is perfect for leaf, you get good movement inside. Probably not good for pellet.
Whirlpool paddle: Rubbish; could have done without this. Too many gaps and holes for true cleanliness. Doesn't even fit in the neck of my fermenter. All said, I didn't use for for post-boil whirlpool and did end up with trub in my fermenter, so I'll try it for that next time; let's see.
Stainless paddle: As it is long and rigid, really useful for mash-in and mash stirring. Would be very difficult otherwise.
Sparging took quite some time and is the only time you really need to be engaged for an extended period.
Chilling with the counter flow chiller took about as long as with my immersion chiller, about 45 minutes. After 2 buckets, I switched to my ice water recirc. The advantage then is that I don't need to stand around for 45 minutes waggling the chiller.
I'm a bit disappointed that the controller is loose, so when you tip the unit for cleaning, you have to be really careful. I've found using my chin to hold it in place works ok. And they make a big deal of the cleaning recirc. Well that doesn't really ADD anything, just that it wouldn't be possible to rinse the pump, pipe and chiller without it. You still have to wipe out the boiler.
The app worked flawlessly. I was even surprised when a beep went off to remind me to start my sparge water heater; and I had forgot :hat:.
All in all, pretty impressed. I'm sure when process is settled, I'll gain a lot of free time on brew day. And that was the purpose.
Not as simple as I thought it would be, but then it was the first run, and the first time I ever brewed indoors. That with the wife cooking around me, and me stopping to eat, which I normally never have time for.
Seemed like my crush was probably a bit too fine (probably 0.8-0.9), as the flow through the grain was pretty slow. But I stirred half way through, and during mashout the wort started to clear. I've increased my roller gap for next time.
I had more wort pre-boil than the litre markings reached, so I could only guess at pre-boil volume and so didn't calculate boil off. The litre markings are not accurate anyway, but I created my own conversion calculator. I measured my loss to trub at 1.6l (that included the trub, so it's less really). That's easily the least I've ever lost, and contributed a lot to the BH efficiency.
Managed 80% BH efficiency. That beats my best ever batch sparge by 6% , and my average by 12%. I aimed for 25l and ended up with about 27l, even though I hit target SG (I'd planned for a 75% BH eff.). So I had to throw away 1 litre of bitter wort; never done that before. I think the main factors contributing to the efficiency include the hop spider, the low position of the tap, and the fly sparge.
Coat: Seems very high quality in comparison to the Braumeister coat and seems to do the job well. Shame you can't take off when chilling.
Hop spider: This is brilliant for leaf hops. I was left with only protein trub. All liquid drained from the hops when I removed after the boil. The 800 micron is perfect for leaf, you get good movement inside. Probably not good for pellet.
Whirlpool paddle: Rubbish; could have done without this. Too many gaps and holes for true cleanliness. Doesn't even fit in the neck of my fermenter. All said, I didn't use for for post-boil whirlpool and did end up with trub in my fermenter, so I'll try it for that next time; let's see.
Stainless paddle: As it is long and rigid, really useful for mash-in and mash stirring. Would be very difficult otherwise.
Sparging took quite some time and is the only time you really need to be engaged for an extended period.
Chilling with the counter flow chiller took about as long as with my immersion chiller, about 45 minutes. After 2 buckets, I switched to my ice water recirc. The advantage then is that I don't need to stand around for 45 minutes waggling the chiller.
I'm a bit disappointed that the controller is loose, so when you tip the unit for cleaning, you have to be really careful. I've found using my chin to hold it in place works ok. And they make a big deal of the cleaning recirc. Well that doesn't really ADD anything, just that it wouldn't be possible to rinse the pump, pipe and chiller without it. You still have to wipe out the boiler.
The app worked flawlessly. I was even surprised when a beep went off to remind me to start my sparge water heater; and I had forgot :hat:.
All in all, pretty impressed. I'm sure when process is settled, I'll gain a lot of free time on brew day. And that was the purpose.
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. That would go a long way to explain why I overshot my target brew length. So with the loss to trub tweaked, the calculations make more sense now.
