Those bloody Grainfather silicone seals

[Tombo]

Sorry to say this but at nearly£700 for a product where the opposition is not much more than half the price you should really be asking for Grainfather for a FREE solution

I absolutely agree 100% with you but you would probably have more success breeding cows with ducks than you would in getting a solution from grainfather let alone a free one.

 

[foxy]

What I did with my overflow pipe when using one was put a bazooka on the top. When I gave the overflow pipe the Tijuana I secured the top and bottom screens at the bottom of the malt pipe.

 

[anders]

They've brought out rolled-edge plates to replace the silicone ones. I presume these will come with the GF by default now, but a (rather expensive) upgrade for existing owners at around £58-60.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I think I must be one of the lucky ones. I've never had a problem with mine. Maybe my grain basket is slightly larger, or the plates are slightly smaller. A quick dunk in the strike liquor, and the plate slid straight in first time. Installed in about 5 seconds.
Grainfather was bought early 2021

 

[DJDave]

I ended up fitting 4 stainless 90 degree brackets & chucking the seal in the bin. Photo from underneath

 

[Agentgonzo]

I've never really understood the reason for the seals anyway. The bottom plate is full of holes, so why does it matter if a little wort makes its way around the plate rather than through it?

 

[Deadhead]

I see the latest for the G30, v3 now doesn't even have plates! Just a basket with a lot of holes! Lucky sods! I haven't even managed to upgrade to the rolled plates. I still just curse on brew day!

 

[Jahfish]

I dont own a GF but these silicone seals seem a rather large flaw in it?

Yes, they're rubbish

 

[Keruso]

I've never really understood the reason for the seals anyway. The bottom plate is full of holes, so why does it matter if a little wort makes its way around the plate rather than through it?

The bottom plate falls through, I once dumped all the grain back into the vessel when lifting pipe out to sparge

 

[Jahfish]

The bottom plate falls through, I once dumped all the grain back into the vessel when lifting pipe out to sparge

Granted, but why didn't they just make the plates a little larger? Seems an odd design

 

[peebee]

@Jahfish: Take a flexible tube and a flexible disc of smaller diameter than the tube's ID but held in by a small flange in the tube. Now how long will the disc stay in place while the tube is handled? A: It comes out, and I've witnessed it in the early GF!

Making the disc a better fit in the tube solves it, but on the early GF that's performed by fitting the flippin' useless silicone-rubber seal!

The solid disc (which is slightly larger 'cos no stupid seal to try to fit) in the upgraded malt-pipe; now that solves it. I'm most pleased I upgraded mine! It should have been a free upgrade?

 

[Jahfish]

@Jahfish: Take a flexible tube and a flexible disc of smaller diameter than the tube's ID but held in by a small flange in the tube. Now how long will the disc stay in place while the tube is handled? A: It comes out, and I've witnessed it in the early GF!

Making the disc a better fit in the tube solves it, but on the early GF that's performed by fitting the flippin' useless silicone-rubber seal!

The solid disc (which is slightly larger 'cos no stupid seal to try to fit) in the upgraded malt-pipe; now that solves it. I'm most pleased I upgraded mine! It should have been a free upgrade?

I'm thinking of making brackets that lock the plate & seal to the malt pipe, which may mean the seals are not needed

 

[peebee]

@Jahfish: Grainfather initially priced the "v3" malt-pipe (which upgraded a v2, perhaps v1 too?) quite attractively, but stuck the price up when finally available (or that's how it seemed). Still, I'm happy I got a v3 malt-pipe as it saved a lot of mucking about. But I'm a tad disabled (but not giving up just yet) and your view of "effort and money saved" might be different.

Still, caving-in and buying a readymade malt-tube does give you the "un-floodable" malt-pipe design, though that only works by putting the onus on you to judge sparging is going to plan and not just skirting around the sides. Easy for me, cos I always use the GF in "no-sparge" mode.

 

[Jahfish]

@Jahfish: Grainfather initially priced the "v3" malt-pipe (which upgraded a v2, perhaps v1 too?) quite attractively, but stuck the price up when finally available (or that's how it seemed). Still, I'm happy I got a v3 malt-pipe as it saved a lot of mucking about. But I'm a tad disabled (but not giving up just jet) and your view of "effort and money saved" might be different.

Still, caving-in and buying a readymade malt-tube does give you the "un-floodable" malt-pipe design, though that only works by putting the onus on you to judge sparging is going to plan and not just skirting around the sides. Easy for me, cos I always use the GF in "no-sparge" mode.

Agreed with this. Tell me more about the "no-sparge" mode please?

 

[peebee]

Having the entire amount of water treated and heated to "strike temperature" (which will be much lower than if using a smaller amount of strike water) before stirring in the grain. Mash as per normal then lift the malt-tube (steadily). Allow malt to drain off (heat while draining, but do not allow to boil with malt-tube in-place!). Remove malt-tube and bring wort to boil. (Grainfathers don't have a concept of "strike" so rely on it being able to restore temperature after mixing the grain ... which I think know is misguided!).

Literally "no sparge". Limits OG (to about 1.055 for 20-23L) and some report quite high loss of extract which I consider to be exaggerated (lose about 2-4%, which I don't think makes sparging very worthwhile). Sort of "BIAB Emulation"! You can do higher OGs, but must do a limited sparge. The high water to grain ratios make it much easier to hit target temperatures and maintain them (or even change them). The impact of mashing with such high water ratios is exaggerated too, but efficiency can be better hence overall mash efficiency isn't greatly affected.

Less work to do too!

Grainfather were dead against it but are less averse these days. I use the technique with a G70 too. Means I can happily brew 20L batches in a G70 which GF says you can't. But G70s are very heavy, so I'm glad to have hung on to the G30.