Grainfather

[Coups]

Ive just recently received my trial Grainfather, looking to do two brews with it. The first being a BrewDog Punk IPA clone. The second being as yet unknown, maybe a stout.

I am concerned about the hops ill be putting into the grainfather, im hoping it wont clog the filter but to get around that i was thinking of using the little bags you get with festival kits and letting them float around in the bags rather than the wort itself. Any suggestions?

 

[ghb]

i just put the hops in a bag and it's fine, no blocked filters and much easier to clean.

These ones.....

https://www.brouwland.com/en/our-pr...-hop-boiling-bags-10-pieces?gaCategory=search

 

[DoctorMick]

I've only not used bags once, never again. I might try and cobble together a hop spider at some point if I can be bothered.

 

[markcc]

Looks like bagging might be worth a go, although I guess I'd assumed the utilization might not be as good. Does anyone add a bit more hop to take that into account?

 

[markcc]

2) pull the tube up to its max height before you add any grain and cap the hole with a bung

hope thats useful..

Well I know that now! :smile:

 

[LordChuggington]

I'm up to brew #7 on the Grainfather and it's a lovely bit of kit, but it's taken some time to get used to things. Thought I'd share some of t he shortcuts I've used:

1) Sparge water - I boil 25l in the main kettle and then store 15-20l in a spare insulated cooler, which I wrap in a towel. This keeps it hot until i need it to sparge, so much so I often have to cool it a bit. The remaining water is topped to mash volume and reaches temp much faster. I add the grain when I get to about 68/69^c as it drops only a tiny amount. I assume this is because of the thermal mass of the whole unit.
2) To save time, i set the GF to start up on a timer as it takes about 80 mins to heat the sparging water to boil. This way, when I come in it's boiling.
3) Hops -whole or pellet, they totally munge up the pump filter and slow down the counterflow cooling enormously. i've switched to using muslin bags for the hops, which is *perfect* and has taken the cooling down to a trim 15 minutes. I start to decant to the FV once the kettle temp is about 30^c, meaning the outflow is about 20^c.
4) I use the hot counterflow outflow water to sterilise the FV and store some for washing purposes.
5) Cleaning - I remove all the electrical parts, bag the plugs, and use a karcher powerwasher - nice and clean, nice and quick, lots of mess though.

Ongoing problems:
1) I'm not sure that the bagged hop method is allowing for full utilisation of my hops, so i may start increasing the quantities by 50% and see what happens
2) hop spider - lovely idea, but may need some tinkering to work in the GF once the wort level drops off.

Anyhow, just thought I'd share my findings, good to keep in touch and all that.

Lord Chuggington

 

[gmlogan]

Thoughts? Lift basket and let drain, add sparge (cold) to boiler, bring whole volume up to sparge temp, use longer pipe on pump to run it up to the suspended basket and pump it through?
A little longer perhaps rather than heating sparge in parallel with mash time, but saves another pot.
I think mechanically it would work and cannot think there would be a problem chemically?
Slight alteration could be to heat sparge as per instruction, store then there should only be the heat loss regain.
Sort of 'full volume mash'

 

[darkbright]

I've got to say that the more I read about the GF, the more I want one. Most people seem to be having very positive experiences with it.

My house is quite compact and the space saving aspect its a big plus for me.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Have you got your name down for the free one?

 

[JapanBrew]

I think it will be my summer purchase…. I just like the idea of having the same mash and boiler together and the pump system…. being able to set the temp for mashing is a great thing.

 

[darkbright]

Have you got your name down for the free one?

No - I was wondering how you joined the trial. I am pretty much sold on it but would be good to get hands on. Might also see how the wife reacts to it!

I also need to think about keeping the sparge water temperature but like the idea about use by the Gf to heat the water then pumping out and storing in an insulated container.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Have a look at the announcement forum.

 

[Rockhopperross]

I bought one of these the other day having only done 3-4 all grain brews in my normal set up. I can honestly say it is an amazing piece of kit! Well worth the money and takes no fun out of brewing as some may say, I very much wish I'd saved my money and just got one to start with... It just makes everything easy, clean and straightforward. I've been using mine alongside the app on my android phone and it's simply awesome! I've done 2 brews with is in the 5 days I've had it both of which went like clockwork. I also bought the water heater to go with it but if you are doing small batches(<4.5kg of grain)/low abv brews sometimes you require more than 16.5 liters of sparge water.

Pros:
Easy to use
Easy to put together
Great build quality
Easy to clean (despite what some may say!)
Efficient (overly!)
Quiet
Takes up very little room
Can be used indoors.

Cons:
Not cheap (although not extortionate)
A false bottom would prevent filter clogging
Such high efficiency can mean you shoot over your abv.
Dosnt like pellet hops.

As you can see in my eyes the pros by far out way the cons... The counterflow chiller needs a special mention. This thing is simply epic! For about 8 Gallons of "waste" water you can chill 5gallons of wort down to 20c! I let the first 3-4 Gallons go down the drain then collect the last 4-5 gal to clean up with as it's certainly nice and hot for scrubbing it all up with :) I would say in total it takes about 15-20 minutes to clean it all up but if you clean as you go it's litterally a matter of scrubbing out the main unit and running some sterilised water through the chiller unit and that's it :) if I had my way I'd have included another perforated plate above the filter so as to prevent the pump being slowed up by filter blockages. Although so far it's never blocked fully it has certainly been slowed right up when I used pellet hops. But a hops bag would cure this I'm sure.
All in all I can't recommend this unit enough, it makes everything so much easier to do and takes the small element of guesswork out of things. Simple, clean and brews perfectly :)

Ross

 

[darkbright]

Nice to hear how people are getting on with it. I was going to go thirds with 2 mates but the distance geographically made it not worth while.

I was wondering how people heat and store the spare water. I was told this week that if you have a combo boiler you can take the hot water from the tap - my idea was to bolster this with some fills from the kettle and then store in a cool box until needed.

I will get one after xmas - have just got some unexpected money which will do just nicely!

 

[BREWERS DROOP]

Need convincing a little bit before i part with my money,been looking at an all gas system from powell brewing at around £600,then you look at this with just one pot basically,it seems a very compact and easier system,but are the results of the final product better?

 

[JapanBrew]

There are lots of YouTube vids comparing efficiency and stuff and everything I've seen looks great. I just like keeping the mash at a fixed temp and then being able to step it up ever 20 min. Then go right to boil. That right there is what won me over.
Getting mine next summer!

 

[Rockhopperross]

Having looked into both systems before I took the plunge, if you want to go gas check out some of the American forums as they seem to prefur that system. You can get a decent set up gas wise for the same price as a grainfather but it will take up much more room and obv carries the additional cost of repeat gas refills. The grainfather is limited to 5 gallon batches but most of us I would say don't brew any more than that anyway.
At the end of the day either way will produce good beer but personally I was sold on the grainfather simply because it's compact, does the job just as well as any other system and it makes brewing clean and tidy.
As for extra water heaters there are lots of different heating systems available from peco to the grainfather water heater. You could even set up a gas system. I have both a peco boiler and the grainfather water heater. The grainfather water heater is much more accurate for achieving desired water temp and will keep it there until your ready to use it. The pecco will heat more water but will fluctuate much more in temp.
Ross

 

[McMullan]

Need convincing a little bit before i part with my money,been looking at an all gas system from powell brewing at around �£600,then you look at this with just one pot basically,it seems a very compact and easier system,but are the results of the final product better?

You didn't factor in anthropogenic climate change. To future proof your investment, go electric. It doesn't matter whether you walk or drive a ford or drive a rolls royce. You'll get to the home brew shop for consumables and brew great beer. Wort making can be as convenient as you're willing to pay for.