Sampled it after a couple of weeks and thought there was still a slight 'homebrew' taint. But after another week, I am please with a very pale, dry and hoppy light ale. Only about 3.5% ABV, so nearly harmless ... There is a very slight haze, which I suspect is due to the current cold conditions in my shed. Perhaps needed a touch more sugar added prior to conditioning as well, but I am not keen on over fizzy beer - some people would probably say its flat, though!
Just ordered a Grainfather...
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Sampled it after a couple of weeks and thought there was still a slight 'homebrew' taint. But after another week, I am please with a very pale, dry and hoppy light ale. Only about 3.5% ABV, so nearly harmless ... There is a very slight haze, which I suspect is due to the current cold conditions in my shed. Perhaps needed a touch more sugar added prior to conditioning as well, but I am not keen on over fizzy beer - some people would probably say its flat, though!
Norfolk79
Legendary Beer Drinker
Careful, you’d probably take the stainless off it. Don’t they use that to clean drains?
Peter Scandlyn
Active Member
For those that use their GF just sitting on the floor, consider that the reset button is on the underside of the machine. Makes it a bit of a challenge to reset should it pop when you're mashing/boiling. 
Placing it on a pallet or some-such to lift it high enough to slide your hand under is prudent.
Don't really go with those advocating ball valve removal
.
It's a safety device. Let's face it we all can make mistakes and copping a load of hot wort's not my idea of fun (which is why I don't drink and brew but that's a whole other matter....)
Knocking off the filter/end of filter? Easy to do, can relate to that
.
For a fix use a stainless hose clamp to afix the filter body to the machine and cut up a kitchen sieve for the gauze and use another stainless clamp to replace the cap. Maybe not as simple as reversing the filter body but, hey, whatever....
Placing it on a pallet or some-such to lift it high enough to slide your hand under is prudent.
Don't really go with those advocating ball valve removal
. It's a safety device. Let's face it we all can make mistakes and copping a load of hot wort's not my idea of fun (which is why I don't drink and brew but that's a whole other matter....)
Knocking off the filter/end of filter? Easy to do, can relate to that
. For a fix use a stainless hose clamp to afix the filter body to the machine and cut up a kitchen sieve for the gauze and use another stainless clamp to replace the cap. Maybe not as simple as reversing the filter body but, hey, whatever....
wo things I've had to learn the hard way:
1) Run a boil with just 10L of water for half an hour, then measure the amount of water you've got left.
The difference between both volumes multiplied by 2 gives you the boil-off.
Makes for easier volume calculations inBeersmith.
2) Make sure you scrape the bottom of your GF when stirring the wort coming to the boil and during the boil to stop a layer of crud building up on the bottom of your GF.
This WILL trip the temperature cut-out of your GF.
Having a GF worth of boiling wort when your temperature cut-out is tripped kan be quite a problem as Packapoo in post #43 indicates.
1) Run a boil with just 10L of water for half an hour, then measure the amount of water you've got left.
The difference between both volumes multiplied by 2 gives you the boil-off.
Makes for easier volume calculations inBeersmith.
2) Make sure you scrape the bottom of your GF when stirring the wort coming to the boil and during the boil to stop a layer of crud building up on the bottom of your GF.
This WILL trip the temperature cut-out of your GF.
Having a GF worth of boiling wort when your temperature cut-out is tripped kan be quite a problem as Packapoo in post #43 indicates.
Lots of good tips there.
Did the pictorial guide come about Steve?
This thing about scraping the bottom and knocking the rubber of a filter pipe. I have looked at lots of photo and videos, but some seem to have a bottom without the filter, is is some sort of false bottom?
If so, how is it the rubber getting knocked off?
Did the pictorial guide come about Steve?
This thing about scraping the bottom and knocking the rubber of a filter pipe. I have looked at lots of photo and videos, but some seem to have a bottom without the filter, is is some sort of false bottom?
If so, how is it the rubber getting knocked off?
MmmBeer
Brewer
It is possible to knock the filter or its rubber cap off when scraping any scorched wort off the base plate, however I have only done it once in ~50 brews with mine. What I have started doing is fitting the filter upside down, so that the rubber cap is wedged against the thermowell and very unlikely to be dislodged accidentally.
Some people have purchased a false bottom designed for a different machine and used that in their GFs, not a bad idea, but I believe they are rather difficult to obtain.
Strange Steve has posted a pictorial guide on here, you might need to do some searching for it.
Some people have purchased a false bottom designed for a different machine and used that in their GFs, not a bad idea, but I believe they are rather difficult to obtain.
Strange Steve has posted a pictorial guide on here, you might need to do some searching for it.
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