Grainfather S40

[Andrew Booth]

Hi All, I have just got a Grainfather S40 from Wicked Homebrew. Going to do a Dark mild from a David Heath Video on the tube.

couple of questions regarding the boil. David went for a 30 minute boil with the Main hop addition at 30 the the aroma addition at 15 minutes, protofloc and yeast nutrient at 10 minutes.

so is there anything to be gained from a 30 minute Boil as opposed to a 60 minute boil?

thanks

Andrew

 

[robster62]

I don't know if I'm right but I guess you would get less bitterness from the hops and less boil off. I'm sure someone with greater knowledge will be along later with better information.

 

[Andrew Booth]

Cheers Rob

 

[Disildor]

Basically, the later you add the hop, the more aroma and less bitterness you extract.
When boiling the hop, the acid alpha isomerizes which brings bitterness to the beer. At the same time, most of the aromatic compounds evaporate.

This means that a 30 min addition will result in less bitterness and a bit more hop aroma.

 

[Andrew Booth]

Well did the Dark Mild is in a pressure fermenter at 10 psi as we speak,

a couple of observations

1. at Mash Temperature it was fine even though the grain basket is one piece some grain escaped the basket
2. At the boil it did not get above 98/99 degrees so no timer no problem used my phone for the timings it was a cold day so maybe that could have been the problem. It boiled but was more of a simmer than a rolling boil.

3. I Emailed Grainfather about these issues and all they said was set it to 99 at sparge time and let it go from there.

my thoughts are maybe get a neoprene yoga mat and wrap that around the body over winter.

 

[Disildor]

The neoprene jacket should help reaching boiling temp. In any case, 98/99°C is enough to get the job done

 

[Andrew Booth]

That’s my thinking too

 

[Hoagie]

That’s my thinking too

Was it physically boiling though? If you could see a rolling boil it’ll be fine. If you’re high up somewhere, the boil temperature can dip below 100c. I believe the controller on the S40 will only show the next degree you when hit that temp. I.e. if it’s 99.9 it’ll display 99. If you’re a bit high up it could have reached boil at that.
I’m not particularly high up (450ft or so) but my boil is 99.7c if I remember rightly (from an online calculator).

 

[Andrew Booth]

I’m in Halifax at 1500 feet above sea level the boiling point around here is 99 degrees. On my last brew day the Mash liquor prior to heating was 8.7 degrees ph5.5 that was straight from the tap. On Tuesday the outside Temperature was 9 degrees ambient so these variables must have come into play when trying to reach the boil with 30 litres of wort. Normally brew in my cellar through spring summer and autumn its 18 degrees down there. At the moment is 14 and dropping we had our first frost this morning.

 

[Hoagie]

I’m in Halifax at 1500 feet above sea level the boiling point around here is 99 degrees. On my last brew day the Mash liquor prior to heating was 8.7 degrees ph5.5 that was straight from the tap. On Tuesday the outside Temperature was 9 degrees ambient so these variables must have come into play when trying to reach the boil with 30 litres of wort. Normally brew in my cellar through spring summer and autumn its 18 degrees down there. At the moment is 14 and dropping we had our first frost this morning.

It’ll be the altitude then. It never reached 100c because your boiling point is 99c. Nothing to worry about - it was boiling.
Have you tried the brewday timer on the Grainfather app? It’s a good tool (on the G30 it controls it using Bluetooth but you can still use the timer non-connected. I used it on a stovetop batch and it worked great).

 

[Andrew Booth]

Yes I thought so it just didn’t seem to be a very vigorous boil a couple of years back I was using a Peco mash bin that used to get pretty violent when boiling as did the Brewster 40 I just upgraded from. Early days with the s40 and a learning curve. I have another Brewday this Saturday this time I’m brewing the Five Points Best from the Malt Miller. I also have some smash brews as I have quite a lot of different hops and 20kg left of Halcyon Malt.

 

[Hoagie]

Yes I thought so it just didn’t seem to be a very vigorous boil a couple of years back I was using a Peco mash bin that used to get pretty violent when boiling as did the Brewster 40 I just upgraded from. Early days with the s40 and a learning curve. I have another Brewday this Saturday this time I’m brewing the Five Points Best from the Malt Miller. I also have some smash brews as I have quite a lot of different hops and 20kg left of Halcyon Malt.

As long as it was moving, all’s good. Actually you’ll lose less to evaporation so a little more wort in your fv. You’ll probably find with smaller batches it’ll be move vigorous and when it’s not quite as cold ambient. The element on it is 2.3kw which is more powerful than the G30 it’s just a bit bigger (well over 50% bigger actually - 46l v 30l total capacity)

 

[Andrew Booth]

I’ve seen a few videos of people doing full size batches People like Dog and Partridge not particularly interesting to me I only have three kegs and co2. On the Dark Mild I got 28 Litres out of 32 (mash 16 litre sparged up to 32) interestingly the target SG was 1.034 and I hit that as well the Beer is in my Fermentersaurus at 10psi and it’s chugging along 2 packets of S04 went into this and this morning the surface of the wort is looking quite clear so roll on next Tuesday will be cold crashing this after transferring out to another fermenter.

this Recipe is Supposed to come out at 1.011 FG. My last brew was a standard a Standard IPA that came out at 5.5 so more than three pints and I’m searching for my bed.

 

[Hoagie]

I’ve seen a few videos of people doing full size batches People like Dog and Partridge not particularly interesting to me I only have three kegs and co2. On the Dark Mild I got 28 Litres out of 32 (mash 16 litre sparged up to 32) interestingly the target SG was 1.034 and I hit that as well the Beer is in my Fermentersaurus at 10psi and it’s chugging along 2 packets of S04 went into this and this morning the surface of the wort is looking quite clear so roll on next Tuesday will be cold crashing this after transferring out to another fermenter.

Nice! Hope it turns out well. The good think about the size of that is if you want 5 gallon batches, you can just brew full volume if you want and not bother with the sparge. Just expect a bit lower efficiency (cost about 20p more in grain or something).
I saw the dog and partridge video. They had a probably with how deep the basket sits in the boiler. With the side perforations, it needs to be there or it’ll go everywhere. They just needed to draw a few litres from the tap during sparge to max it out and put it back in after the basket’s removed.

 

[Andrew Booth]

Yes I’ve watched it a few times I didn’t buy it for the 40l capacity (more the case it was the grain basket) it is nice to have the option though. I have quite a few brews planned for the next couple of months through the cold time so today I’m getting a neoprene mat to wrap around the s40 over the winter months I don’t normally stop brewing through winter.

 

[Andrew Booth]

Well just taken a sample of the Dark Mild it’s dropped from 1.034 to 1.011 which is the target FG I’ve never known s04 to ferment that quick Krausen gone as well so my plan is to check the gravity again ne t Tuesday which will be 7 Days and then cold crash for 3 days due to the fact I’ve had it at 10psi throughout fermentation in a pressure fermenter it’s already carbonated. That’s a win win for my first brew on the s40. Roll on tomorrow I’m brewing the 5 points best from the malt miller

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi @Andrew Booth

I’m in Halifax at 1500 feet above sea level the boiling point around here is 99 degrees.

... I don't have a Grainfather, but most of these all-in-one systems have settings for adjusting the temp that the controller sees as "Boiling" ... have a try to see if that (link) works for your S40

Cheers, PhilB

 

[Andrew Booth]

Hi I’ve had a play about with the S40 while brewing today. The thermometer output on the unit is accurate. I set the s40 to 99 while sparging got there reasonably quick had to set to 103 to maintain the boil. I reckon Grainfather cocked up the firmware.

 

[stripeyjoe]

had to set to 103 to maintain the boil.

I've seen on some of the YouTube reviews that there is a 3C 'window' for the temp control on the S40.

 

[Andrew Booth]

My main concern is that the firmware in the controller needs more work where I am the boiling point is 99. The instructions state to set to 103 which is Impossible hence you don’t get the boil timer.