Grainfather!!

[gspot]

Guess what just arrived! I think I'll leave it boxed however and let Santa give it to me. I've got 35 gals in the pipe, so I'm not in a hurry. It'll take me 3 months to drink all that.

 

[blkandrust]

Great thread! i pulled the trigger on one of these yesterday.Main selling point was ease of use. I currently brew outside on a 3 vessel propane system. The thought of weather no longer dictating when I brew, makes me happy. Very very happy.

 

[jbb3]

Ok all you GF owners. I have been following most of this thread and have read many praises about the convenience and ease of use when brewing with the GF. That is certainly a great thing. But I have seen very little comment about the quality of the beers being produced with the GF!?

So for those GF owners who were experienced HB'ers before purchasing the GF, how does the quality of the beers that are brewed through the GF compare with those that you brewed before the GF purchase?

 

[BrewMeister49]

No different. I made fantastic brews before the gf and make them with the gf. The process is just way streamlined and simple. In fact had a small birthday party today and someone wanted to try one. Now I'm down about 15 bottles and some wanted some to take home!

 

[pagrider]

First two brews ok due to me. dumped one. Last three excellent just had to get to know the machine. 2 of the three I had brewed before and they are better on the GF. Much clearer beer.

 

[singybrue]

So I just received mine yesterday. Ran some PBW through it to clean, and unfortunately, started thinking.
Should this thing be passivated? The instructions don't mention it, but doesn't stainless stuff need to be passivated? My SS brewbucket did, my pots did.
I think I'm going to give it a scrub with barkeepers friend for some extra cleaning and so I stop thinking about it.

 

[canehdianman]

Wouldn't it already come passivated? If it wasn't it wouldn't be stainless steel...

 

[ccfoo242]

So I just received mine yesterday. Ran some PBW through it to clean, and unfortunately, started thinking.
Should this thing be passivated? The instructions don't mention it, but doesn't stainless stuff need to be passivated? My SS brewbucket did, my pots did.
I think I'm going to give it a scrub with barkeepers friend for some extra cleaning and so I stop thinking about it.

Pretty sure John Palmer said SS passivates when exposed to air. So clean with barkeepers friend, rinse and dry and you're good.

 

[RockyMountainCraftBrewing]

I am glad I bought it as it is such a wicked all in 1 system.I got into home brewing nearly 3 years ago and I jumped into the deep end and went straight to all grain.Built my own mashtun/HLT from a couple of coolers and bought an 8 gallon kettle which I used on my stove to heat strike/mash water and to boil as well.

I almost bought a Braumeister but the power requirements put me off as did the price.When I first saw the Grainfather it was a no-brainer but I held off until the bugs were worked out with the 1st generation not to mention the US 110V was not available.I ordered my through Williams Brewing and they flat rate shipped it to AtTheBorderStorage for me.I then went down on the following Saturday and picked it up and I got waived by customs on the way back so I paid no duty/GST :rockin:

I wish the Grainfather had been developed 4 years ago as I would have bought one then and skipped the 3 vessel route.

I did re-purpose my old immersion chiller to make cooling with the Grainfather even more efficient.I attach a washing machine hose to the kitchen faucet and then clamp that onto the immersion chiller.I attach the cold water in hose for the counter flow chiller to the immersion chiller and put the immersion chiller in a sink with cold water and dump in 4 trays of ice cubes when I am ready to chill the wort.It chills it down super fast and uses a lot less water to do it.Definately helps using a 25' ice bathed pre-chiller.

Hope this helps

RMCB

 

[seabrew8]

Man you guys are santize freaks!

 

[BrewMeister49]

I didn't passivate. I just ran/run pbw through it and it's fine. Another easy way to passivate is to just use starsan.

 

[govner1]

Man you guys are santize freaks!

So $.50 worth of sanitizer isn't more valor ban your ingredients for theme batch? Not to mention your time?
I feel three of the
Most important keys to successfully making good beer are cleansing (B-Brite), sanitizing (StarSan) & ferm temp control.

 

[seabrew8]

So $.50 worth of sanitizer isn't more valor ban your ingredients for theme batch? Not to mention your time?
I feel three of the
Most important keys to successfully making good beer are cleansing (B-Brite), sanitizing (StarSan) & ferm temp control.

Nope.

Have you ever been at an industrial plant/factory of anykind?

 

[singybrue]

Man you guys are santize freaks!

It's not about sanitizing.
The 1st step with new stainless steel equipment is cleaning, to remove any manufacturing oils.
The 2nd step is passivating, to build up the oxide layer that helps prevent rust.
I just found it curious that GF doesn't say anything about passivating, like most other stainless equipment manufacturer's say to do.
I ended up just doing a quick scrub with barkeepers friend which cleans and passivates.

 

[singybrue]

So just finishing up my 1st brew with the GF. Overall went well, a few glitches, but that's just inexperience with this system.
I reset my Barley Crusher back to the factory default setting, set my efficiency in Beersmith to 77% and nailed my Pre-boil and Post-boil OG.
One tip, clamp the cold water in hose to the faucet fitting on the chiller, so you aren't doing your hopstand and transfer to fermenter in your underwear, like me! After the hose popped off twice, I finally wised up and stuck an Oetiker clamp on there!
The counterflow chiller works really well! The pump is slow, but I'm used to a Chugger.
5.5g into the fermenter, exactly as planned!

 

[Kampenken]

So I got my GF on Sat afternoon. I was in the middle of replacing all my plumbing in the basement in my 100yr old house (50/50 copper & galvanized with many runs to nowhere!) with PEX (man that stuff is great!). Left a note on the door for FedEx to knock loudly and he did, I heard him from the basement, so was quite happy to get to the door to sign, even though I also left a backup note w/signature- just in case. So, back down to basement and finished up by 5:30 or so, then showered and got ready for a party at 7 that night. Next day I was tired, long night at party and tired from plumbing all day! Had some errands to run and noticed I forgot to hook back up dishwasher run- so hooked that up (as well as ice maker, pleased to find the right valve to work it out on Sunday too). Got later in the day, so I decided to work 1/2 day from home on Monday and brew in the afternoon. Great plan, right??!....not so fast....

Opened up the package finally, pulled out the GF piece by piece, noticed while in the box the bracket for the controller seemed a bit oddly contorted. hmmmm... Finally got to pull out the main body, and bam! Damaged. Damn it!

I received this via Williams Brewing, so spoke to them, whom were very accommodating and a pleasure to work with, great customer service. Unfortunately, with the holiday it appears that I will be awaiting now until next week. Damn, really bummed, was going to brew today and then again on the day after Christmas with my brother over. Guess will have to wait for that now.

Looking forward now to next week, at least I'm off all week!

Cheers

 

[Yambor44]

Is the main body damaged or just the bracket that holds the controller? If just the bracket, I'd brew away whilst waiting on the replacement.

 

[Yambor44]

I ordered the GF a week or so ago and received it today. Started trying it out after work. Put it together, heated water to 150º (took forever from 75º tap) used the supplied PBW and recirculated thru chiller and pump, dumped, rinsed etc.

Then added another 7 gallons of 75º water and started pump to recirculate (saw video it heats faster this way), switch up top on boil, switch on bottom to normal. 81º here today when I stared, 73º now. Now lid on GF.

At 1hour and 24 minute mark the readout was at 168º. At the 2 hour and one minute mark, 191º. It has now been 2 hours and 25 minutes and the temp is 199º.

WTF?

I am running on a 20amp outlet with one of those very short (4') gray appliance extension cords.

The area on the bottom where the element is, is bubbling some now but only in a 'half moon" pattern.

Any ideas?

EDIT: It has been one hour and 15 minutes from 158º. I set a separate timer assuming that would be my lowest starting point after mashing.

 

[Kampenken]

I agree, however it was bracket and large dent in main body. Ugly. Even the insert had a small ding. Williams offered a discount or return. To me it wasn't worth the chance something else is fubar, even if it ends up only cosmetic. I'll likely have it covered with reflectix too.

Let me tell all of you, Williams Brewing has the best customer service! Great people to work with, Bill (owner?) was awesome, kept in contact, and has already sent me the replacement with the Fedex tracking in place. Good guys there, I will shop again and highly recommend.

 

[Kampenken]

Whoa, that's the slowest I've read yet. Have you tried insulation yet? It's under 40 here in PA! Geez I was hoping not to use a heat stick, but you may want to do that. Is the grey cord 12 gauge? Less than that is rated 15a. Not sure if that would be part of the problem. Oh, how long is cord on GF?

Anyone else with that slow of a response time out there?

 

[Elkobrewer]

The grainfather will be my next purchase. In March I think I will pull the trigger on one.

 

[Yambor44]

Just got off the phone with GF. The person I spoke with suggested doing a brew and checking the times. Said they would be different (less) with a normal brew day than just plain water (cue the crickets)....

I'm sure it may be different but someone mentioned earlier doing a water test and the results were much different.

The raised area at the bottom where the element is housed is starting to bubble as I mentioned earlier, but only a half moon shape. I assume the whole thing should be bubbling (picture a stove top element)?

Here's a pic of it at 207° and 2 hours 45 mins in:

 

[Yambor44]

It just can't seem to get to a boil. 3 hours and 15 mins to this point from 75° tap water. I've lost just over a half gallon from 7 gallons down to just under 6.5.

 

[TBC]

Whoa, that's the slowest I've read yet. Have you tried insulation yet? It's under 40 here in PA! Geez I was hoping not to use a heat stick, but you may want to do that. Is the grey cord 12 gauge? Less than that is rated 15a. Not sure if that would be part of the problem. Oh, how long is cord on GF?

Anyone else with that slow of a response time out there?

The power cord is 5' long. I've been brewing in my garage here in PA and I've been averaging 3.5-4 hours total brew time from start to clean up. I have the graincoat on my grainfather and I'm not using an extension cord.

 

[pagrider]

I get from 75 to 152 in about 20 minutes. The boil takes less than a half hour from there. Something is Wrong sounds like the GF is not getting enough power or the heating element is damaged.

 

[Yambor44]

Yeah I agree, somethings not right. I ended up tripping a 20amp breaker after I kept going. The outlet/circuit I was plugged into has an ice machine hooked to it as well as my computer on another outlet.

Once it tripped I moved the GF to another 20amp outlet with a very short extension cord (12 gauge) that has the 3 outlets on one end. I kept it going for another 30 mins and although the display was showing 211°-212°, my thermopen and the lack of boil showed 209°-210° (again, I'm about 100 feet or so above sea level in Florida). My opinion is it didn't make any difference when I changed outlets/circuits.

They (GF tech support) want me to go ahead with a brew day saying the times should be shorter. I don't not agree with this line of thought and am concerned about the lose of a batch.

Here are some shots of the above mentioned:

 

[Yambor44]

Another

 

[Yambor44]

One more. Sorry I couldn't get them all to load in the same post.

 

[Yambor44]

Just spoke with Adventures In Homebrwing via chat. They recommend plugging the element directly to the outlet and bypassing the module.

I'll try that this evening and report back.

 

[KyleF318is]

This thread has been awesome!

I've been on the fence with this system for about a month now especially since I'm at sea level. This problem Yambor44 is the exact reason I haven't done it. Thanks for the updates! I want to pull the trigger on this (or not)! Please keep posting.

I asked before and I'll ask again. The graincoat? Anyone have it? How much of a difference does it make? Is reflectix better? Thanks again guys.

Lots of good videos for anyone just starting go back and skim from the beginning of this thread. Good tips!!