Grainfather or go cheaper?

[ZmannR2]

If you wanted to get into electric brewing for under $1000 and don't feel like building your own system, what would you do?

My buddy was thinking the grainfather. But I know there's some new ones popping up for only like $300-400. With that he could get some better fermenting/kegging equipment. Or is it really worth to go grainfather?

If you didn't go grainfather, which one would you buy? He's going to be doing full grain.

 

[bleme]

I have been looking at the Brewers Edge Mash and Boil for a while now. The biggest drawback to this is that it is only a 7.5G kettle.

The BrewKing is 10 gallons, but it hasn't had as much feedback here so I don't know how it performs.

Robobrew is the other system worth looking at.

 

[kristiismean]

+1 the brewers edge mash and boil.

Williamsbrewing is a great site/resource and this product looks like it's great for the price.

 

[Jetski]

Edit: found my answer.

 

[mredge73]

Grainfather is very attractive if you are just starting and have no equipment and no practical skills.
The price tag isn't that high compared to systems with similar feature sets.
The cheaper ones like mash and boil are just temperature controlled kettles commonly used for stills.
They do not have a circulation pump or cooler but for an additional ~$250 you can add these features and still come out cheaper.
This takes a little DIY effort and part picking that can be inconvenient.
All of these single vessel systems lack the ability to batch and fly sparge, so you will always need to use more grain than 2 or 3 vessel systems.

 

[user 4295]

I love my Grainfather!!!

 

[kh54s10]

For me it would be Grainfather or MORE expensive. The cheaper ones sacrifice too much. No recirculation, less heat control etc. If I was to go for a BIAB system, the Grainfather would be #1 because of price. #2 would be the Brew-Boss for features.

That said, my ideal at the moment is Spike Brewing's Buy once Cry once turnkey electric systems. 10 gallon for me to produce 5 gallon batches.

https://spikebrewing.com/collections/spike-systems/products/spike-system-10-gallon

 

[TexasWine]

Go cheaper, but get more! If I had to do it all over, I'd still buy this one.

Compared to GF: better controller (the EZ Boil is pretty incredible), larger kettle and the option to do no sparge for a typical 5 gallon batch, double the wattage (or more if you go with the 2x2000 watt elements), easy to swap components for repairs or even if you decide to go 240v in the future, no special water calculators required, no tiny filters to clog, no cap things to knock off accidentally while stirring.

Add a $50 stainless chiller and you've got a complete system.

https://brausupply.com/products/uni...oss-automated-brew-system?variant=19286933701

 

[bleme]

Go cheaper, but get more! If I had to do it all over, I'd still buy this one.

https://brausupply.com/products/uni...oss-automated-brew-system?variant=19286933701

Their scratch and dent is an amazing deal!