Grainfather!!

I have been all grain brewing for a little over a year now but when I saw the grainfather about 8 or so months ago I knew I wanted one. So today I Finley got to pull the trigger on one. I also picked up grain and hops so I can do my fall down brown ale. Can't hardly wait tell next weekend to get here. I hope it arrives by then. Thanks for the welcome to the family guys

 

I'm still hitting high on my OG constantly high. I always set my recipes at %75 and come out 80-85%. Very happy with those numbers.

 

Welcome to the GF family! It is an amazing system and just as RockyMountain said.

 

Just finishing up a DIPA and had something weird happen during the mash that I haven't seen before. When I finished sparging and lifted the top perforated plate, there was a large, empty channel on one side of the grain bed. Which means that the part of the sparge wasn't being filtered through the grain, but just ending up in the boil. Whoops.

My normal batches are around 85% eff, my last DIPA was 78%, this one was 70%. It'll still end up fine, but has anybody else had this happen?

 

Wow, that's disturbing. It almost sounds like your recirculation return blasted through the top plate and excavated a channel in your grain bed. I haven't seen that yet. I'm going to make sure my wort return is coming in as parallel as possible to the top plate in the future. Hope the beer turns out as good as you hoped.

 

Brewhouse eff?

 

I would have to double heck on the computer but I believe so. When I make my recipes in Beersmith2 I make them at %75 and I typically hit %80-85

 

4 beers completed on GF, averaging 82% (wow)
Couple of things---(I brew outside)I used one of them waist trimming belts (didnt work on me) to wrap around and than used the reflectix over that, have no issues with keeping boil (I did buy a 1000w bucket heater just in case, winters in Chicago)
I have had a couple of issues with whirlpooling---the filter has come off twice
Next brew I`m thinking of using a bazooka screen and attaching with a wormscrew connector, any thoughts?

Cheers
Paul

 

Hi all I'm sure this has been asked but should I wire in a 220 volt plug or the grainfather or will a 110 work fine? Also while I'm asking is it ok to clean it with oxyclean free.

 

The Grainfather sold in the US is 120v, so a 220v plug is not required.

 

Interesting idea. I'm not familar with a wormscrew connector - could look it up but i'm lazy right now - go for it! Hopefully the pump can pull the wort through the screen adequately - it is a relatively weak pump.

 

The one thing everyone is forgetting is H2O boils at 212 deg at atmospheric psi. That said you have hydro static pressure in the kettle and since the probe is at the bottom the temp can be 215 deg. Boil temp in chem is measured at top of liquid as this is the most accurate place.
Another aspect is barometric psi. One day you may get 213 on your controller and 215 the next time you brew. This can be as simple as a large difference in barometric psi from one brew to the next.

 

Thanks! I wasn't clear on all of this and thought there might be many variables at play here. I guess even if was off a degree or two it wouldn't matter that my taste buds could tell, just want to know. Maybe a check with a calibrated thermometer and really the only temps that matter are the 130-160ish range. Thanks again for the input

 

Curious why you don't adjust your recipe for 80-85% efficiency? I'm still new (5 or so) brews in, so haven't dialed it all in yet. Looking forward to that consistency when it's there

 

I'm just not used to it yet. I have always under shot my OG on my old system. Still getting used to the higher eff I am happy with the beers I've been making though!

 

I believe that's what we refer to as a hose or gear clamp.

 

I believe that's what we refer to as a hose or gear clamp.

 

Right o, yeah it is basically a small gear you turn.

 

Ahhh, and here I thought you were the "old man" of this thread!
I've got 4yrs exp, 2.5 of AG, now onto the GF, so I'm looking forward to all dialed in, including water adj, now with Bru'n water. And yeah beers are coming out great, well my yellow water in the conical likely withstanding that comment. Brew on!

 

I'll be joining your ranks soon! Can't tell you guys how excited I am to give this awesome innovation a go!

 

Johnsma22 I just purchased one of these as well hope for it to arrive this next weekend. Can't wait to give it a try

 

I'm seeing reports on Facebook of a couple people mashing in on their GF's using the 'underletting' method. Does anyone here do that? It sounds like something I'd really like to try.

 

I've been brewing for 16 years. This was by far the best brewing-related purchase I've ever made. The last time something like this rocked my brewing world was when I started kegging 15 years ago. I think you're going to like it!

 

No, but please enlighten me. .. what's underletting?

 

You pump the water in under the grain which you've already put in the mashtun. I used to do it with my propane system, results in little to no doughballs.

 

Haha! New to the GF but been brewing AG since 2009 Lol still new. If I had this machine back then, I'd be much better. My consistency and predictability has gone way up with the GF than my old 3 tier setup.

 

Now that's pretty interesting. I'm wondering how this would work with the GF. I guess you could put the mash water in the HLT and let it run in through the pump outlet...

 

Apparently for the GF, you just heat strike water and then lower the basket slowly into the water (the basket is filled with all the grain). Id like to see a video to see exactly how it's done.

 

If that's the way to do it, it sure doesn't get much more simple than that.

 

Well, duh. A genius I am not :[

 

That sounds like doughball city!! I hear the mash and then slow stir in grains

 

Sounds like exactly what I do with my BIAB rig. If I didn't stir I'd have dough balls like crazy.

Underletting typically means filling the mash tun from the bottom with the grain in place.

 

I dont think I would try "underletting" with the GF as it just is not doable IMO.Proper underletting is done via pumping in the stike water from the bottom via a strong pump.I know of only one home/craft brewer that did underletting on his system and that was Paul Wickstead(RIP) and he had a really WICKED 3 vessel all electric system he built himself....not to mention his brew house.

If it aint broke dont fix it.

That being said I did a brew today with 6 pounds each of Munich/Vienna and 3 pounds of flaked corn.Doughing in was a chore and it took a 90 minute mash for it to be running super clear and the draining and sparge took well over an hour.I ended up using over 8 ounces of hops.I think I pretty much pushed the GF to the limit today.I even had to scrape off the hop filter during cooling as the transfer was so slow.

From now on I am going to use muslin bags for the hops.I bought 50 of them for $12 on Ebay last week and am just waiting for them to get here.

I still think the best money I have ever spent is the money I spent on my GF.

RMCB

 

Hot damn that sounds like one hell of a brew day. That thing better turn out amazing haha.

 

Just thought I would give a quick update on my last weekend brew day/night. I manage to get the temp probe I bought on amazon in the mash tun. Some real interesting observation during the mashing process. I would say adjust your strike water at least 7 - 8 degrees higher then desired mash temp for dough in. Then set controller to your mash profile temp.

When the temperature drops in the mash tun, it does take some time for the mash tun temp to match the controller temp. I know folks will challenge me on the accuracy of the kitchen probe I bought on amazon. For me I thought before seemed in sync for the most part. Maybe its just me, but I think adding the temp probe in the mash made me feel more hands on in the process. If you do a mash out you need to give it time for the mash tun to see 168F. Its not a super fast temperature rise from 150 to 168.

My question about sparging...........how do you maintain some sort of water level on top when the mash tun is draining to fast? The sparge process can happen really quick if the wort is flowing fast into the boil kettle. For my system a rain down the from HLT into the mash tun. I can slow the flow from the HLT, but this will impact the mash tun level.

Hope all this makes some sense

Thanks

 

I'm about to pull the plug and get one, All grain here I come!

 

Between doing the brew day and simultaneously watching the Cadillac Championship it was an interesting afternoon.At the same time I had to tranfer a cold crashed fermenting keg into a freshly cleaned and sanitized serving keg and then I had to clean and sanitize the fermenting keg.It was a busy brew day to say the least and I went through 3 pairs of socks LOL

The yeast went to town on the wort big time though as it was gurgling by 1 AM.
I do not recommend using 3 pounds of flaked corn in a recipe as it seems to be a bit too much.Draining and sparge took far longer than normal and I think the large amount of corn had everything to do with it.My plan for this recipe was for it to be a Budweiser clone but made as an ale and not a lager.That got thrown to the wind went I went all Robot Chicken on it with the hops

For any Canadians looking at buying a Grainfather Everwood Ave Brewshop is now selling them for $1099+ taxes and they have a $10.99 flat rate shipping fee.

RMCB

 

I dough in 6 degrees higher than my strike temp (usually 156 and then down to 150 at start of mash). I dialed back the mash and boil times to 75 each this time and got 80% efficiency. post-boil gravity was .1 over. this batch was14.25 lbs grain incl. 1 pound rolled oats + 5.6 oz of ops. here's some pics!

 

I dough in at the exact mash temperature by adding a couple cups of grain at a time, stirring well between additions. After about 10 minutes the whole lot is in, and the temperature never budged.

 

In the instructions it says before sparging to push down on the top plate until it contacts the top of the grain bed. I go ahead and seat it pretty firmly, slightly compressing the bed. This compaction is usually enough to slow the sparge significantly. It's an intuitive kind of thing--obviously you don't want to push down so hard that you cause a stuck sparge, although i haven't caused one yet. It usually takes me 30-40 minutes to let 3-4 gallons sparge water run through and still getting 80+% brewhouse efficiency.