Loose Grainfather G40 hop filter plate?

[BogRaven]

There are (like everything) two opposing views on wort into the Fermenter. I am of the 'Clear Wort makes Clear Beer' school, so that's why I am frustrated with my G40 output. The bottom centre drain doesn't allow for settling and racking off as the draw off is underneath everything, and as I said the idea of siphoning seems to be redundant effort. I may have to do it to get clear wort into the FV. The picture from Foxy above is much clearer than my wort.

Hi, I have the same problem with my G40. Only had 3 brews, all were cloudy going into the fermenter. The first 2 came out clear in the end. The latest, a Helles lager which i did at the weekend. This was cloudy going into my new Apollo 30L snub nosed. Within 10 mins it had dropped clear, but with a significant amount of debris at the bottom, which means less beer.

To be fare, by mash never seems to be clear either.

But as long as the end result is drinkable, I am not that worried anymore.

 

[BogRaven]

Hi, I have the same problem with my G40. Only had 3 brews, all were cloudy going into the fermenter. The first 2 came out clear in the end. The latest, a Helles lager which i did at the weekend. This was cloudy going into my new Apollo 30L snub nosed. Within 10 mins it had dropped clear, but with a significant amount of debris at the bottom, which means less beer.

To be fare, by mash never seems to be clear either.

But as long as the end result is drinkable, I am not that worried anymore.

Hi All, quick update. I brewed a proper job clone at the weekend. When fitting the bottom plate, I pushed and twisted to lock into place. It did not budge, but there was a very small gap on one side, where the outer side did not fit snugly to the surface.

I only discovered this after the brew. The issue caused my pump to be sluggish. Once I had transferred to the fermenter and removed the plate, the lower ring of the bottom plate was caked in a mix of small grain particles and hop matter, which explained my poor pump performance.

While I am not worried about anything getting into the fermenter, I know it will clear eventually. If it is going to effect my ability to complete a brew, this could be a problem.

I was thinking about a BIAB to sit outside the grain basket, so it does not get in the way when mashing.

Any Ideas?

 

[dcbrookes]

There are two major flaws in the design of the G40. First the malt basket lets too much fine material through (I had a G40 and now have a BZ Gen4 so I can make direct comparisons). Secondly the design of the bottom plate lets material through round the edges, and, worse, the inner part catches and clogs with all the grain debris which has escaped the malt basket during the mash. The only way I found of successfully dealing with these problems (as I have written before in this post) was to mash without the bottom plate fitted - the small stuff was then recirculated into the malt basket. Before fitting the bottom plate prior to the boil I recirculated the wort for five to ten minutes through a fine sieve and I always collected a significant amount of material. I then fitted the bottom plate before the boil. To do this I modified the bottom plate by fitting a SS stud through the handle. This attached to a socket welded to a stainless steed rod. I could then screw the bottom plate to the rod to fit it before unscrewing the rod and removing it once the bottom plate was in place. Before someone tells me my grain crush was too fine I should add that I used setting 5 on the GF malt mill and I still use this setting on the BZ G4, with very little escaping the malt basket.

 

[Old Fart At Play]

Those of you having trouble with G40 hop filter plate - are you using the original plate, or the redesigned plate?
I spoke to GF about my plate problems about a year ago and they sent me the redesigned plate as soon as they were in production. Have had no problems since.

 

[Old Fart At Play]

Ah have just gone back to start if thread, and I see I started it! But the problem being discussed now is murky wort, not filter plate lifting. Redesigned plate making no difference.
Can't comment on that, other than that my beer always comes out clear from the bottle. Maybe my ancient malt mill has an effect.

If you dont have pump issues (I dont), does it really matter how clear or otherwise your wort is going into the fermenter?