How do you attach the grainfather chiller to the tap?

[Blinky]

Got my grainfather last night, lovely and shiny and looks the business! On looking at my kitchen tap and the adapters that came with the GF I have one that fits the thread on my tap but… if I use that and ouch the blue hose on to the adapter I fear it will be tricky as surely the pipe will get all wound up and twisted each time I use it. Just wondered if this fear is unfounded or is there another way that’s better to connect to a kitchen tap?

 

[Deadhead]

I wouldn't worry too much. The blue hose seems to unkink itself pretty well (in fact sometimes so well that when I screw it on, it likes to unscrew until I have it fully tightened!)

 

[Redwulf]

Got my grainfather last night, lovely and shiny and looks the business! On looking at my kitchen tap and the adapters that came with the GF I have one that fits the thread on my tap but… if I use that and ouch the blue hose on to the adapter I fear it will be tricky as surely the pipe will get all wound up and twisted each time I use it. Just wondered if this fear is unfounded or is there another way that’s better to connect to a kitchen tap?

I use a hoselock clamp adapter which works well. I had to trim it with a dremel so it would fit properly, I also use this with a short length of clear hose for filling buckets and washing equipment. It saves me heaving buckets of water about too much

 

[MmmBeer]

i use mine either attached to the sink tap in my brewtility room, or the garden hose, depending whether I'm brewing indoors or out. When I use the sink tap, I always screw the adapter on first before attaching the blue hose and remove the blue hose before unscrewing the adapter. You just have to hold the tap tightly to get it on and off.

 

[Blinky]

OK, cheers for the tips folks - brew day Saturday, cant wait!

 

[Blinky]

Well the day went fine - efficiency was up on my picnic hamper setup but still a little lower than other Grainfather users (68% by my calcs), I suspect I did the sparge a little fast and should have mixed the grain bed first. Only other issue was not Grainfather related - I cleaned the FV with WVP but forgot to rinse it - only good thing is that I then forgot that was the FV and pumped the hot water from the counterflow chiller into it before realising so it was sort of rinsed! Lovely clear wort into the FV, much easier to clean up, counterflow chiller worked a treat ( I used my only copper coil as a heat exchanger in a bucket of ice water to cool the tap water down so I could get the wort cold enough for Lager). Rehydrated 2 packs of Mangrove Jacks M84 Bohemian Lager yeast and its now in the garage in the fridge at 13 degrees

 

[takeabiteopeach]

Well the day went fine - efficiency was up on my picnic hamper setup but still a little lower than other Grainfather users (68% by my calcs), I suspect I did the sparge a little fast and should have mixed the grain bed first. Only other issue was not Grainfather related - I cleaned the FV with WVP but forgot to rinse it - only good thing is that I then forgot that was the FV and pumped the hot water from the counterflow chiller into it before realising so it was sort of rinsed! Lovely clear wort into the FV, much easier to clean up, counterflow chiller worked a treat ( I used my only copper coil as a heat exchanger in a bucket of ice water to cool the tap water down so I could get the wort cold enough for Lager). Rehydrated 2 packs of Mangrove Jacks M84 Bohemian Lager yeast and its now in the garage in the fridge at 13 degrees

One thing I really recommend for getting your efficiency up is doing a step mash with the GF. I've started getting 90-95% efficiency with a step mash and a slow sparge, so I do a step on all my beers now.

Protein Rest - 10min at 55c
Alpha Amylase - 30min at 65c
Beta Amylase - 30min at 71c
Mash out - 10min at 77c

 

[Blinky]

I did a 2 step nash but thinkni really lost the efficiency in the aparge. Its a learning process!

 

[takeabiteopeach]

I did a 2 step nash but thinkni really lost the efficiency in the aparge. Its a learning process!

There was a really good brulosophy podcast on this, where they used laser spectroscopy to analyse the 'quality' of the wort rather than the overall gravity, and of all tests they did they registered that a proper 4 step mash was the best for 'quality' wort.

If you're getting 70%ish, it won't just be your sparge, one thing I've found since doing this type of step mash I get less stuck sparges too.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

One thing I really recommend for getting your efficiency up is doing a step mash with the GF. I've started getting 90-95% efficiency with a step mash and a slow sparge, so I do a step on all my beers now.

Protein Rest - 10min at 55c
Alpha Amylase - 30min at 65c
Beta Amylase - 30min at 71c
Mash out - 10min at 77c

Agreed

I've been 50, 62, 69 and 76 and also found that things have improved regarding mash flow and sparge.
In fact I struggle to keep the wort covered in water during the later part of mash with pump running flat out.

 

[Blinky]

That’s basically what I did except the initial protein rest at 55, did 30 mins each at 65 and 71 then mash out at 78