Grainfather!!

Got my GF and Grain Coat yesterday!!! I still plan to get their Sparge Water Heater and I have a couple of extract batches to brew so it will probably be Aug or September before I can use it. I'm fine with that as it will give me time to get a portable stand made and also check everything out. Looking forward to the new controller as well!

 

I have their sparge and it works great, i just wish it came with a hose and a way to adjust how much water is coming out of it at once.... right now it is just a standard beverage dispenser handle like what you would see on a standard water cooler.

 

I brew downstairs in the laundry area right in front of the washing machine and laundry tub. close the washer lid and I have a handy work surface for tools and sparge kettle.

Clean as you go and CFC hook up are easy peasy with the tub right there.

Last brew was 5 hours, but I do my water fill and prep the night before and do the strike heat up while doing my early morning grocery shopping.

The moment the mash out is complete I set it to boil. With a .038 gap on the crusher, the sparges are a little slow, but the boil has never overtaken the sparge so who cares. 85% efficiency pretty much every time.

 

Another consideration would be chloramines in untreated tap water.

 

Another consideration would be chloramines in untreated tap water.

 

Stupid mobile app!

 

Yeah I use campden tabs in every brew.

 

Since there have been a few posts about trub clogging the filter, a new product came out that MAY solve these issues? 9"...

https://homebrewingdeal.com/2016/07/14/the-trub-trapper-boil-kettle-screen/

 

I seen that a day or two ago. I was wondering how well it may work with the Grainfather.

 

This is where I'm headed when I get the kitchen island done (old "island" becomes my brew tables in basement). I figure no more shuffling things up and down will be a time saver and better organization will be a pleasure.

I also do things while water heats up (and no hot water for me!), so no need for a heat stick (other poster). I enjoy my easy pace, but it does take time. I do clean as I go, I turn to boil at beginning of sparge etc. it's simply the time it takes to get it to boil (I aim for 5.5-6g in fermenter each time). I also add in my grain basket for final cleaning and run that 15-20 min and rinse a good 10. And I really dry, dry and dry things (last is with paper towels). These things just add up. Not complaining, just stating my times are longer.

Your time is around mine but 85% eff (brew house?) is better than me

 

At 9" diameter you would have to remove the GF filter. I'm not convinced it's worth the $50 investment.

 

Well I ordered the Grainfather, the coat, and the sparge water heater. I haven't brewed since 2012 because I went to grad school, so I'm pretty excited to get back into it, although I never did all grain before.

A concern of mine is that electrical outlets are a bit sparse in my basement, so I was thinking about making a high quality extension cord with 14 or 12 gauge wire. I have read on this thread that extension cords may contribute to slower rise of temps. Would making a high quality extension cord make a difference as opposed to a cheap one? Or would the fact that I would be using an extension cord (regardless of wire gauge) possibly cause a lag in reaching temps?

 

if possible try and figure out a way to hook it up to the direct outlet if at all possible. A GFCI would be best. if you do need to use an extension cord, make sure it is heavy gauge (thick wires) and include the positive, negative and ground on both ends.

 

I use mine with a good outdoor rated extension and coming to a boil takes no longer than without the extension. I had to since our mobile home has really crappy electrical and if I put the GF on the same circuit as my turkey fryer (used for sparge water heating) it blows the breaker. Put them on separate circuits and no problems. But I digress. Just make sure the cord used is rated high enough. Amazon has one (US Wire 65050 12/3 50-Foot SJTW Orange Heavy Duty Extension Cord) that is similar to what I use. 12 gauge wire rated for 15 amps.

 

I received my Grainfather this week. Solid piece of equipment although the safety mechanism for the valve creates a frustrating problem. Did the first brew today, Abbey Dubbel with 14 lbs of grain, heating the water for the mash was reasonably quick. It took about 30 mins to get from 75 to 120 degrees and about 20 to get from 120 to 156. Took less than 30 minutes to get from 168 to boil. Just remember to keep the heating element on "normal" when heating between mash steps. The pump worked great during the mash but failed within 1 minute after the boil when using the chiller to recirculate. I had to scrape the filter blindly and it finally got knocked off. I think the problem was actually a clog in the safety mechanism just below the ball valve. The spring below the ball was solidly clogged with hops. I removed these 2 pieces and wort began to flow fine. Just hope I didn't infect it with all the messing around. This clog issue seems to be commonly reported in other threads. I used only 1 7/8 oz of pellet hops in the boil (plus 1 oz in a bag for the 15 min addition ).

The chiller is phenomenal though once you get it going, wort in the 70's going straight into the fermenter. I used my immersion chiller in a bucket of ice water as a prechiller with the ground water here in FL being in the 80's. The wort coming out of the chiller will be cooler if you slow the flow by partly closing the valve on the Grainfather.

It appears from other message boards that on previous versions (or in other countries?) there was instead a cap you had to manually put over the end of the valve to protect yourself from pumping hot wort out into the air and onto your skin. Clearly this is an attempt by the manufacturer to idiot-proof the protection. However, it only took 30 minutes for this particular idiot to figure out how to remove it!

 

You can also use 3 or 4 pounds of ice in a cooler with about a gallon of water with a pump to circulate it if you really want to chill it fast. Here in AZ my water sits in a black holding tank after the well pump so our water in summer is around 95 to 110 from the COLD side. Not really conducive to cooling wort. But I simply fill a cooler with ice and a little water, hook it to a pump and the wort is cooled FAST. Also, as a side bonus, it conserves water. Instead of using however many gallons to cool from the tap I can get away with a total of about 5-7 gallons (ice and water) to completely cool my wort.

 

2lbs of flaked oats in a 5Gal 1.050 batch?? no problem.....

 

Why not just drop the basket back in for the last few minutes of the boil and whirlpool inside the basket? Wouldn't that work the same way?

 

I believe it was 1st generation that had the cap on the pump pipe...it was replaced with a mini ball valve...I've heard issues of it clogging but I've not had a problem with it. Other problems due to my learning curve but not with the basic plumbing I'm thinking lol.

 

I tried doing the entire boil with the basket in. It really wasn't worth the extra cleaning involved. So far I haven't had any problems just by whirlpooling, waiting 10 min, and opening the ball valve slowly.

 

Re: trub clogging the filter.

Add Whirlfloc, carrageenan, Irish moss, or whatever flocculant you use. Finish your boil. Whirlpool your hops. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Let the wort settle. Take out the ball valve and spring. Turn the pump on. CFC your beer. Done and done.

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that I did this and it worked like a charm. No more pieces of grain in my wort! I used a 9" false bottom that I put on top of the SS screen.

Brewed my IPA last night which has 13.25lbs of grain. Milled the grains myself for the first time ever and with the gap setting at the width of my Costco card. The crush looked a lot finer than what I've had from my LHBS so I decided to add 0.5lb of rice hulls to aid in preventing a stuck sparge.

Everything went well and I hit 78% efficiency! I'm usually in the 60-65% range. I'm not sure if milling my own grains contributed to the increase in efficiency or if it was from using 0.5gal more sparge water (to more thoroughly rinse the grain bed, I guess) and then boiling off until I reach a little over 7gals. That's when I started my 90 min boil and ended up with just over 5.5gal of wort in my fermenter.

Oh and I've been setting my mash temp to 1* higher then called for. Seems like this helps to maintain the actual temp I want

 

Received my Grainfather from Amazon yesterday. Both the kettle and the basket were dented. I've got to say the packaging from the factory looks woefully insufficient. Very limited bubble wrap and practically nothing else to keep the sides of the kettle protected from a drop or a throw. I was also surprised at how thin the metal on the unit is. My stainless Bayou Classic kettle I have been using is much more stout.

Anyways, sending back to Amazon and they said they would overnight me one once they receive the return. Still, very frustrating.

 

Thats a shame. I got mine from my LHBS fully assembled. I suppose a thicker metal on the kettle would help with the speed and retention of heat, but would add considerable cost and weight. It is adequate for functionality, and a lot of users wrap insulation around it to help with the heat.

 

The thickness was just more of an observation. That plus the very scant packaging I think is leading to a lot of the units arriving damaged. I read about some on this thread and also in the reviews on Amazon. You think the factory would package a $900 product very tightly and securely... Going to give Amazon one more try and then I will ask my lhbs to order me one so I can see it before I take it home. I ordered the graincoat and that is on its way.

 

Please support the LHBS!

Many items like this have the same price everywhere...manufacturers have policies sellers must sign and agree to minimum advertised pricing (MAP). This isn't just for homebrew supplies but many retail stores. Amazon and anyone else can't offer a lower price than your LHBS and good luck negotiating one with them............

sorry for hijacking the topic....but I have sold over a dozen of these and none have had any issue or damage.....and I know mine are packaged much better than what I have heard mentioned.

 

Believe me, I do. This was a wedding registry gift from my wedding party. I am blessed to have two stores within 15 minutes of me and I go to them for all my brewing needs, equipment and ingredients. I love being able to walk to one and grab a small something I need. My online ordering days trying to save a buck are over.

 

Yeah, I agree with the local buy deal. I got mine out of province through a friend as a surprise gift but at bricks and mortar you get to look, see, feel etc. A dealer in Ontario had several probs with dented ones. Here in NS I've not encountered an issue, as the main Canadian distributor is out of here.

 

Mine in action......brewing a citra IPA.

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I like your sparge set up. What is that on top, sparge arm?

 

i'm planning to order mine from amazon. for returns, don't they send a return label and you just box the item back up and put the return label on? haven't had to do this before and wanted to make sure it wasnt too much of a hassle.

 

Just a cooler lid with a spray arm I guess

 

Pic

View attachment 1469212219510.jpg

 

Yep. The return process is simple and free. Mine was "shipped and sold by Amazon" so I don't know if that makes a difference on the return process but it might. You could call before ordering or actually order over the phone and try to sweet talk them into overnighting or something.

 

Speaking of this, has anyone found a cheaper pond pump that can use the threaded faucet-barb attachment? Or a pond pump that has a barbed connector? I'd prefer to not need a hose clamp on the counterflow system

 

I have used this one with the immersion chiller. Had worked OK most of the time although seems to get slower with each brew.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UXBGTI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

I would like to install a sight glass - my errors have come when I wasn't really aware of how much wort was in the kettle because the basket was on top of the whole works.

I'm going to go a-rummaging in the DIY threads, but has anyone here done it and have tips to offer?

 

You can simply get a thin stick or tv antenna and mark it with different levels. Something thin enough to fit through between basket and kettle

 

The topic came up before and I came across a youtube video of a guy that had done it. You might be able to contact him directly for details.

 

Well, after nearly 25 years of home brewing, I took a leap of faith and bought The Grainfather, Graincoat and Sparge water heater. I've been following this post for quite some time and decided to pull the trigger (on the big auction site) last week.

I have been brewing on a 10-15 gallon 3 tier system with RIMS for many years and decided I wanted to come out of the garage, move into the kitchen, simplify my brewday and mostly speed up my clean up.

After experimenting with equipment, ingredients, water profiles, PH adjustment, recipes, mash profiles, etc, I have just decided I want to brew the beers my family and friends love to drink and The Grainfather seemed to be a nice and easy way to enjoy home brewing with much less work.

I just got her (or maybe it is him) assembled and am running the PBW through as instructed. I can't wait to do a test run this weekend! We're going to brew my wife's favorite beer, a home concocted Session Citra Pale Ale.

We're pretty flipping excited!! :rockin: