Grainfather!!

[Traveling_brewer]

I'm running a test boil on it now. A little slow warming up without the GrainCoat. About and hour to get to mashing temps from 64F. But that's with 6 gallons, not the normal water amount for the mash. I mainly want to see the boil. This machine seems too good to be true to me still. I'm pretty excited to brew. I'm gonna do my pale ale recipe on Sunday.

 

[KyleF318is]

When did you order and are you on the east coast? I ordered it on the 2nd

I Ordered it the 4th but they weren't fulfilling orders from the holiday until the 5th. I'm on what they called the "West Coast" so I might be a little ahead of you. You were right it was shipped from New Zealand.

 

[Traveling_brewer]

So after a cleaning yesterday and a test boil run today I'm officially pumped for this thing. Even the chiller was cooling the water from over 200F to a perfect 70F. Boil was small, but what I expected. I can work with that. The simplicity of everything else about the GrainFather maybe have me brewing 3 times a month! I'll post again after my brew day.

 

[seabrew8]

After 2 brews with the GF i was wondering if anyone was pouring the last bit of wort out of the GF into the fermenter after the pump dries up? Seems like a lot to throw away to me - must be at least a 6 pack.

I also got pretty cloudy wort, i think its the grain crush - it was really fine, lots of flour like stuff in the bottom of the bags.

Side note: I hate carboys! There to hard to clean! Give me a bucket anyday!

 

[gotbeer74]

I used a fixed schmidling malt mill and have had no issues with cloudiness. I have not poured the remains into the fermenter. Has anyone measured the amount lost? I wanted to the last time but totally forgot.

 

[Yambor44]

When I did my water test I had about 1/2 gallon left.

 

[Lazer Wolf Brewing]

Gahhh this is torture. Got my GF on 12/24 and still haven't been able to use it because of the dented grain basket and I'm probably not getting the replacement for 1-2 weeks. Everyone stop posting about their brews, ok?

 

[gotbeer74]

Gahhh this is torture. Got my GF on 12/24 and still haven't been able to use it because of the dented grain basket and I'm probably not getting the replacement for 1-2 weeks. Everyone stop posting about their brews, ok?

I would of made it work somehow/someway till the replacement arrived.

 

[Lazer Wolf Brewing]

I would of made it work somehow/someway till the replacement arrived.

I was supposed to get the basket this week. Now that I know it's not coming for a while, it's time to do some jerry-riggin'!

 

[mikeysab]

I would of made it work somehow/someway till the replacement arrived.

Yeah, i think unless the dent is at the very bottom where the false bottom sits, you can slip the fb in on an angle to get under the dent and it would work fine.

 

[Mofoa]

Second brew on the GF this morning.

81% eff.

 

[gspot]

I would of made it work somehow/someway till the replacement arrived.

It seems to me like the tun metal is relatively thin and pliable. Is there no way you could take a rubber mallet to it and encourage the FB to fit down in there? Gently of course so nothing gets torn up. Maybe the dent would pop out in the process.

 

[seabrew8]

One tip i like to share is when you hold the set button you can then adjust the heat - once there you don't have to push set again - it will lock onto your new temp on its own.

 

[mikeysab]

Brewing on the GF was definitely as exciting as I had hoped. I haven't brewed in 3 years, so I definitely was off my game. Missed my target volume but hit my gravity on the nose. It'll take some getting used to, but overall was a great experience.
Mash temp fluctuated quite a bit. It was set to 152, but went from 149 to 154. Getting the flow right during the mash was a bit of work too. I had it set to a trickle and that seemed to be a good spot so the wort didnt flow into the center pipe. All in all, it was a good brew session. 5.5 hours start to finish, but I spent a lot of time fumbling around the kitchen, so i could see cutting a half hour to 45 minutes off that. So, here it is, Inaugural Saison.
10# bel pils
4 # wheat
1/2 # c60
4 oz hg @60
2 oz hg @30
2 oz hg @ 15
One packet Belle Saison yeast

 

[Traveling_brewer]

Getting the flow right during the mash was a bit of work too. I had it set to a trickle and that seemed to be a good spot so the wort didnt flow into the center pipe.

I just came on here to ask about that! For recirculating, you don't open the valve all the way do you? What is everyone else doing?

Brew day by the way! Mash is going now!

 

[Kampenken]

Mash temp fluctuated quite a bit. It was set to 152, but went from 149 to 154. Getting the flow right during the mash was a bit of work too. I had it set to a trickle and that seemed to be a good spot so the wort didnt flow into the center pipe. All in all, it was a good brew session. 5.5 hours start to finish, but I spent a lot of time fumbling around the kitchen, so i could see cutting a half hour to 45 minutes off that.

I had same issue with fluctuating mash temp, though only at first, then held within 2 degrees. Did anyone else see that? I even turned up to boil when it first fell 5 or 6 below set point initially, wasn't sure lower mash wattage was working. But it held fine after it settled in, will be curious to see if this occurs again. I may brew a double batch this coming Sat (one for a friend), so will have two more tests, only one batch completed so far.

As for mash overflow initially I didn't concern myself with that as the GF video produced indicated this would be normal early in the mash. Did anyone else adjust the flow rate during the mash or let 'er rip (wide open) like I did?

 

[Kampenken]

I just came on here to ask about that! For recirculating, you don't open the valve all the way do you? What is everyone else doing?

Brew day by the way! Mash is going now!

Good question!!!

 

[Yambor44]

I adjusting my valve so the wort was barely running into the overflow pipe. I saw a video or two showing that was the way to do it.

 

[mikeysab]

No matter where I set the flow on the ball valve, it fluctuated. Even with the ball valve slightly open, the overflow pipe was receiving wort. Then i'd check a few minutes later and it was nowhere near the top of the overflow pipe. Not concerned with it at all, just an ovservation. More experimenting needed

 

[mikeysab]

Couple pics from the christening

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View attachment 1452444471710.jpg

 

[Kampenken]

After 2 brews with the GF i was wondering if anyone was pouring the last bit of wort out of the GF into the fermenter after the pump dries up? Seems like a lot to throw away to me - must be at least a 6 pack....
Side note: I hate carboys!

I didn't and thought the same thing. My wort was quite clear, and the hops basket did keep all the hop gunk out (even with my initial error). Partly decided to leave since I had pilot errors earlier and was an experimental GP Mosaic smash. Hydro reading 8 days in tasted good though!😀🍺

 

[gotbeer74]

Couple pics from the christening

How did the whole hops work? No issue with the filter clogging?

 

[mikeysab]

Nope, no issue. The pump filter was a bit of a pain to clean afterward, but no problem with clogging. Toward the end of chilling, i tilted the gf and shoved all the hops toward the opposite wall and squeezed those suckers of their delicious liquid. It was a lot of hops, but the gf only held on to one or 2 pints worth of wort.

 

[gotbeer74]

I never thought of tipping it towards the pump.

 

[RockyMountainCraftBrewing]

I got started a bit late but no big deal as I save time by cooling with my IC in an ice bath that feeds super cold water to the CF chiller.

I opted for an IPA today with 13 pounds of pale malt and 1 pound of honey malt.For hops I think I will go for 2 OZ Warrior for 60 along with 1 OZ Bravo at 30 and then 1 OZ of Falconers flight at 15.For fun I may throw in an OZ each of bitter orange peel/corriander seed at the start of the boil.

For yeast I am using Safale US-05 spun up with 800 ml of wort made from a minimash last night on the stove.I also added yeast nutrient...never had a failed fermentation yet

I freakin LOVE the Grainfather and I am so glad I bought one.Super easy to use and so flexible for step mashing.Easy to clean and it takes up so little space.

RMCB

 

[gspot]

I just came on here to ask about that! For recirculating, you don't open the valve all the way do you? What is everyone else doing?

Can't remember where I saw it now, but somewhere I came across the instruction to run it full bore and that it doesn't matter if most is running down the overflow--that it'll work fine anyway. I went looking for this info because I also on my first brew day closed the ball valve enough so that all the wort was flowing down through the grain rather than overflowing. Now that I think about it, it does seem like all the wort that COULD filter down WILL filter down regardless of pump speed. In hindsight this seems to make perfect sense and next time I'll just keep it on full throttle.

 

[Kampenken]

...I freakin LOVE the Grainfather and I am so glad I bought one.Super easy to use and so flexible for step mashing.Easy to clean and it takes up so little space.

RMCB

This is great to read, especially with someone 15 brews under their belt! So, while I wait for this Sat to arrive for a double brew day (one for friend) I have a few questions for someone with so much GF experience:

1) Have you made any changes from Brew #1 to now that has been a game changer, and wish to add here?
2) Have you found the mash temp old well? Do you leave the valve wide open during mash? I did, and initially mash temp fell about 6 degrees but then settled in within 10 min or so.
3) Any concerns you've had with mash over running the overflow pipe? Mine overran for first 15-20 min or so.
4) I expect to use my IC like you do when tap water rises here (PA), currently ~57. I had valve only open ~1/4-1/3 way and expect to open at least 1/2 way next time and it chilled perfectly. Of course would be quicker with valve open more- so, how far open do you have the valve with your IC ice bath?
5) Have you done any small brews (e.g 2.5-3.5g)? I don't drink that much but love the brewing aspect!

I love the simplicity, lesser items during brewing and the look of the GF. Can't wait to get my brew space set up in the basement and run the wort directly into my fermenter in the chamber- no carrying the conical downstairs! Big fan, and can't wait to brew!

 

[Kampenken]

Can't remember where I saw it now, but somewhere I came across the instruction to run it full bore and that it doesn't matter if most is running down the overflow--that it'll work fine anyway. I went looking for this info because I also on my first brew day closed the ball valve enough so that all the wort was flowing down through the grain rather than overflowing. Now that I think about it, it does seem like all the wort that COULD filter down WILL filter down regardless of pump speed. In hindsight this seems to make perfect sense and next time I'll just keep it on full throttle.

That's the way I saw it, and let 'er rip! So, was interesting to read what you and a few others here wrote about that. I saw the video I think you're speaking of on you tube, it was by GF. They have 3 videos- setup, brew and cleanup, I believe.

 

[Cutterman]

I too have been throttling my mash, but after thinking about it I'll run next time wide open. I think this will allow more flow through entire system allowing for it to maintane temps easier. As someone said earlier you will still only have same flow through grain.

 

[RockyMountainCraftBrewing]

This is great to read, especially with someone 15 brews under their belt! So, while I wait for this Sat to arrive for a double brew day (one for friend) I have a few questions for someone with so much GF experience:

1) Have you made any changes from Brew #1 to now that has been a game changer, and wish to add here?
2) Have you found the mash temp old well? Do you leave the valve wide open during mash? I did, and initially mash temp fell about 6 degrees but then settled in within 10 min or so.
3) Any concerns you've had with mash over running the overflow pipe? Mine overran for first 15-20 min or so.
4) I expect to use my IC like you do when tap water rises here (PA), currently ~57. I had valve only open ~1/4-1/3 way and expect to open at least 1/2 way next time and it chilled perfectly. Of course would be quicker with valve open more- so, how far open do you have the valve with your IC ice bath?
5) Have you done any small brews (e.g 2.5-3.5g)? I don't drink that much but love the brewing aspect!

I love the simplicity, lesser items during brewing and the look of the GF. Can't wait to get my brew space set up in the basement and run the wort directly into my fermenter in the chamber- no carrying the conical downstairs! Big fan, and can't wait to brew!

I got my Grainfather after going to get it on a road trip to the border.I put it togeather and did a leak test/boil test and a cleaning.

I have never throttled back the recirculation during the mash I just let it go wide open.I am about 20 minutes away from adding in my last hop addition to my latest batch as well as adding some Irish moss and I had no problems.I ran a pretty heavy grainbill today at 14 pounds and I did see a lot of stuff going into the over flow when I started....20 minutes later it was crystal clear.After the mash was done lift out the basket and sparge......no grains at all were drained out/leaked....nothing but clear wort.

The Grainfather is wicked....so wicked that if Dana Carvey did a "Grumpy Old Man" sketch about it on SNL he would say "All these young folks want to make their own beer and they want it nice and pretty...with the clear wort and all in one brew vessel.....well back in my day if I wanted to make my own beer I had to use 3 garbage cans and a blow torch and I had to siphon the scalding hot wort from the mash tun into the boil kettle with a piece of garden hose and my own mouth and I had to deal with 3rd degree burns to my lips and face and all I got was a lousy 45% efficiency....but that was the way it was and we LIKED it....hell we LOVED it

I hope my humour is appreciated

RMCB

 

[seabrew8]

I got my Grainfather after going to get it on a road trip to the border.I put it togeather and did a leak test/boil test and a cleaning.

I have never throttled back the recirculation during the mash I just let it go wide open.I am about 20 minutes away from adding in my last hop addition to my latest batch as well as adding some Irish moss and I had no problems.I ran a pretty heavy grainbill today at 14 pounds and I did see a lot of stuff going into the over flow when I started....20 minutes later it was crystal clear.After the mash was done lift out the basket and sparge......no grains at all were drained out/leaked....nothing but clear wort.

The Grainfather is wicked....so wicked that if Dana Carvey did a "Grumpy Old Man" sketch about it on SNL he would say "All these young folks want to make their own beer and they want it nice and pretty...with the clear wort and all in one brew vessel.....well back in my day if I wanted to make my own beer I had to use 3 garbage cans and a blow torch and I had to siphon the scalding hot wort from the mash tun into the boil kettle with a piece of garden hose and my own mouth and I had to deal with 3rd degree burns to my lips and face and all I got was a lousy 45% efficiency....but that was the way it was and we LIKED it....hell we LOVED it

I hope my humour is appreciated

RMCB

Interesting i got grain debris in my wort.

Side note: I lived in Airdrie for over a year.

 

[Kampenken]

....if Dana Carvey did a "Grumpy Old Man" sketch about it on SNL he would say "All these young folks want to make their own beer and they want it nice and pretty...with the clear wort and all in one brew vessel.....well back in my day if I wanted to make my own beer I had to use 3 garbage cans and a blow torch and I had to siphon the scalding hot wort from the mash tun into the boil kettle with a piece of garden hose and my own mouth and I had to deal with 3rd degree burns to my lips and face and all I got was a lousy 45% efficiency....but that was the way it was and we LIKED it....hell we LOVED it

I hope my humour is appreciated

RMCB

Ah yes, much appreciated, been watching some old SNL skits with SWMBO on You tube, mostly Church Chat. Loved those, and the one you shared as well!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming, can you answer my other questions? Would like to know about the chilling and if you've changed anything over all those brews. My first, and only so far, brew was with a 14# grain bill, and I experienced the same thing you did with overflow, so seems like that's normal, so thanks for that.

 

[RockyMountainCraftBrewing]

Ah yes, much appreciated, been watching some old SNL skits with SWMBO on You tube, mostly Church Chat. Loved those, and the one you shared as well!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming, can you answer my other questions? Would like to know about the chilling and if you've changed anything over all those brews. My first, and only so far, brew was with a 14# grain bill, and I experienced the same thing you did with overflow, so seems like that's normal, so thanks for that.

I have my old IC chiller connected to the faucet and the IC is in an ice bath....the cold wort from the Grainfather is coming out very cold.I have used my IC chiller method from day 1 and I liked it for the results....hell I LOVED it.

RMCB

 

[seabrew8]

Holy cow! i Just took a gravity reading and got 1.012 from 1.056 3 days ago!

I used about 13lbs of grain and a 23L batch. Nottingham yeast - re-hyrdrated for a hour and fermenting at 19C ambient.

 

[RockyMountainCraftBrewing]

Just got home a 1/2 hour ago and after opening my latest brew shipment(shank kit as well as 8 pounds of specialty grain and some other stuff) I finally checked on the batch I brewed yesterday and it is bubbling away nicely.I did not take any gravity readings as it was a late brewday and I had to finish clean up when I got home.I did have a 14 pound grain bill and my pre-boil volume was 26 litres and final volume was 20 litres and I went well past 60 minutes for boil time...more like 90 actually.I think this ale may hit the 8% mark

I have the GF running on clean as I type this and after I post I will put the CF back on to recirculate and empty out the boiler and when it is nearly empty I will snake in my hose from the sink and feed in fresh water to flush the system out.

RMCB

 

[Traveling_brewer]

I had my first GF brew day yesterday. Was a 12 lb grain bill. I thought pouring in the grains I got some outside the grain basket, but later found none in my wort. I ran with no GrainCoat. Mash went well. Temp seemed to spend a lot of time 2 degrees below set point. So I left the lower switch on "normal" and put the set point 1 degree higher then my desired mash temp and it kept it closer to where I wanted it. I'm hoping the GrainCoat will help that. Wasn't a big issue though and easy enough to fix. Sparge seemed to go quick for me. My sparge water went through the top screen almost as quickly as I could pour it in. Don't know if it should be slower. Maybe push the screen down lightly on the grains? I'll re watch the video. Took about 20 minutes to stop dripping into the kettle. I turned it to boil right as I started sparging, when finished it was already around 190. Boil went very well. I was very happy with it. No hop spider, and no issues. Chilling, my water is so cold in Massachusetts right now I just let if flow as high as I could and opened the valve all the way. It entered the carboy around 72-73 degrees. Was also very happy with that. Cleanup was a little awkward with having to pick the whole thing up to dump, but not too bad. Over all I loved it. Totally simplified my brew day. Made a good quality beer. And I was nice and relaxed the whole time. I already talked a friend into buying one today. One issue I had was I was very low on my OG. I think my grains could have been crushed a little more. But I'm curious if it also could have been my sparging. Don't think it had anything to do with the system. Great buy. If you don't have one yet, get it!

 

[seabrew8]

Nice, my first brew was 6lbs of marris otter + 6lbs canadian 2 row, with 0.5lbs of crystal 20L + 80L each.

OG 1.056 - Using the GF numbers for a 23L batch.

 

[Kampenken]

Glad to hear about your brew! Smart call on setting your mash temp
up 1 deg. I'd expect grain coat should help. Yes when you mash you push the top plate down onto the grain bed until it touches the bed and even a bit of wort seeps just barely up onto the plate (yeah watch the GF video). My sparge, about 3.2g lasted about 22 min, and it didn't run right through the plate. Not sure if your experience cost you OG pts. How much water did you sparge with? Did you do a mash out step? If so, what temp? Your chill sounded great, how long do you think it took?

I kept my grain crush as I always have, which is finer than the GF video's crush, no problem with filter/stuck sparge. I did use a hop basket.

Cheers on your successful GF brew!

 

[Lazer Wolf Brewing]

Overreaction panic first brew. Ignore.

 

[Traveling_brewer]

Overreaction panic first brew. Ignore.

An arrogant nobody... Ignore