So had an interesting event occur on my first brew with my Grainfather. I was stiring my wort during boil and accidentally touched the bottom heating element with my SS spoon. This in turned seemed to stop the elements from working at all. I watched in horror as my temps slowly fell from 212f to around 180f while I frantically tried to figure out what was wrong. Eventually I found there is a reset switch on the bottom of the device which corrected the issue and I VERY quickly shot back up to 212f (like in 10 minutes fast). Luckily I had not added any hops yet, so no huge issues occurred on my Chocolate milk stout, but still was something not in their documentation or troubleshooting.
Other than that, this was my first all-grain and I was AMAZED how easy this was. I cannot recommend this device more to any newbies just starting out, it 100% took any guesswork, worry, or hassle out of my first AG brew and I already know this was an amazing buy. If you are on the fence for this, pull the trigger. I live up north so I got the graincoat too, and it works well, it took like 30-45 minutes to get from 212f to 180f with my house around 60f (kitchen always is cold).
*edit* I only wish that their sparge kettle they sell had a way to slow the water coming out so I can attach a hose to it and have it sparge a little easier. As it stands even with their own device I ended up having to sit there and baby it the whole time putting water in, waiting, etcetc. There is just no way they could not have put a spiggot with a lever on it to chose my own flow rate instead of what it currently has.
Other than that, this was my first all-grain and I was AMAZED how easy this was. I cannot recommend this device more to any newbies just starting out, it 100% took any guesswork, worry, or hassle out of my first AG brew and I already know this was an amazing buy. If you are on the fence for this, pull the trigger. I live up north so I got the graincoat too, and it works well, it took like 30-45 minutes to get from 212f to 180f with my house around 60f (kitchen always is cold).
*edit* I only wish that their sparge kettle they sell had a way to slow the water coming out so I can attach a hose to it and have it sparge a little easier. As it stands even with their own device I ended up having to sit there and baby it the whole time putting water in, waiting, etcetc. There is just no way they could not have put a spiggot with a lever on it to chose my own flow rate instead of what it currently has.