Newby Grain Brewer

[TheAmazingGonzo]

Hi all,

I am a fairly amateur brewer having done about half a dozen kits, all with decent results.

I've been offered the chance to use a Grainfather for a bit, but have very little idea about grain brewing.

Someone pointed me in the direction of your forum and suggested I may get some information here, but there's so much, I'm not sure where to start.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Many thanks,

Gonzo

 

[GerritT]

Good evening, and congratulations! Grainbrewing: it's extracting the sugars yourself from the grain, instead of having them preprocessed as in extracts. Plenty of grainfather-brewers here, but even the other half-automated brewers could be of assistence! You could even do a kit in a grainfather, but that would be a bit weird...

 

[The Baron]

I would suggest for ease to try one of the pre made up kits for all grain brewing, just choose your kit and generally all the grains hops protofloc tablet and instructions come with them. All can be brewed in the GF just adapt slightly the method or ask on a specific kit which somebody may have done before for any change of method. Good luck

 

[Zephyr259]

Welcome! The Grainfather is a bit intimidating at first but simple enough once you've used it once or twice. Does your model have the bluetooth controller or the previous one (with a plastic cover).

What do you fancy brewing for the first batch?

 

[Oneflewover]

2 threads:
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/have-a-go-at-simple-ag.51779/
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/your-first-grainfather-brew-a-walkthrough.80391/unread

 

[Leemond]

Welcome! You'll find loads of information on here... I already have! :thumba:

 

[GerritT]

Here's a bit of overview what kits might be available for the grainfather. The site is downunder but the info might still be of value :)

https://www.northernhomebrewing.com/grainfather-grain-kits

 

[Slid]

Here is my suggestion if you fancy an English style beer:

https://www.worcesterhopshop.co.uk/shop-1

 

[Harbey]

Definitely advise using an all grain kit to get you started. Malt Miller have loads to choose from and I certainly benefited from using a few of these to begin with - some even have the recipe available to upload to the Grainfather controller if it's one of the newer models

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product-category/ingredients/recipes/all-grain-recipes/

 

[GerritT]

And that, sirs, is how you bury a newbe under information. I hope we didn't scare him off :/

 

[TheAmazingGonzo]

Haha,

Thanks for the input everyone, @the baron @Zephyr259 @Oneflewover @Leemond @Slid @Harbey

Definitely not scared me off @GerritT

I will have a good read over all the information and suggestions you've given.

One thing I will say, two of my favourite styles of brew are probably hoppy, citrusy IPA's, similar to the likes of Beavertown Neck Oil and Brewdog Elvis Juice or Hazy Jane and malty flavoured stouts like the Waffle and Blueberry Breakfast Stout, from Vocation Brewery and Yeastie Boys.

Any suggestions of recipes for those kinds of things would be greatly appreciated.

As I'll only have the Grainfather for a limited time, I don't mind throwing myself in at the deep end, so don't go easy on me.

Cheers

 

[TheAmazingGonzo]

PS - I also like the Bacchus Kriek cherry beer that Tesco do and many of the Belgian beers

 

[GerritT]

Haha,

Thanks for the input everyone, @the baron @Zephyr259 @Oneflewover @Leemond @Slid @Harbey

Definitely not scared me off @GerritT

I will have a good read over all the information and suggestions you've given.

One thing I will say, two of my favourite styles of brew are probably hoppy, citrusy IPA's, similar to the likes of Beavertown Neck Oil and Brewdog Elvis Juice or Hazy Jane and malty flavoured stouts like the Waffle and Blueberry Breakfast Stout, from Vocation Brewery and Yeastie Boys.

Any suggestions of recipes for those kinds of things would be greatly appreciated.

As I'll only have the Grainfather for a limited time, I don't mind throwing myself in at the deep end, so don't go easy on me.

Cheers

You'll be interested in this: https://www.brewdog.com/beers/diy-dog

 

[TheAmazingGonzo]

You'll be interested in this: https://www.brewdog.com/beers/diy-dog

Haha, superb!

Nice one, thanks for that, but where to start?

 

[GerritT]

Haha, superb!

Nice one, thanks for that, but where to start?

If I were you I'd go with the special allgrain grainfather kits. Bit more expensive that buying everything seperately, but very convenient in as it's a thing less to worry about.
Just get that grainfather working, get to know the operating of the machine and get the process under the belt.
No need for unnecessary steep learning curves.

Once you have a bit of feel with allgrain, dive into recipes: what does what, and why, and how.

 

[Harbey]

If you like BrewDog, this is a great place to start: https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/robs-recipes-son-of-punkie-ipa-recipe-kit/

Out of stock at the mo but it'll be back in no time. You get enough here for two brews of about 20Litres so great value and I've done a few of them and they work really well every time. I even added a load of grapefruit to one in order to make it more Elvis like.

If also get watching some YouTube vids. There are loads but I'd give this series a go as it's the official Grainfather channel and does a good job of step by step instruction: