Grainfather!!

[Yambor44]

 

[Yambor44]

I have found their water calc is spot on; http://www.grainfather.com/#!brewing-calculator/cljs

Thank you! I've been wondering where that was at. According to that calculator I should have used a total of 8.66 gallons of water and I used a smidgen under 9 so I am not too far off.

 

[gotbeer74]

Same as the Grainfather app. Beersmith is always .5 gallons high for sparge water. I want to sit down this week and see what needs to be changed so I can use it on my brew days.

 

[Lazer Wolf Brewing]

Bout to brew my first beer ever and christen the GF. Looking to do the Zombie Dust clone but I could really use your guys' help. With zero experience, water volumes and scaling is very confusing to me at the moment. The recipe is in 6 gallons, but I am trying to scale to 2.5 gallons. I am using Brewers Friend. Does this process look right?

1. Copy the 6 gallon profile exactly.
2. Scale down to 2.5 gallons.
3. Ignore mash water amount and estimated boil size, use Grainfather calculator amounts for mash and sparge.
4. Use the scaled down recipe in BF as-is, but substitute the Grainfather water numbers.

So my question is, once I scale down in Brewers Friend, can I use that exact recipe, except ignore the water numbers and use the Grainfather numbers instead? Or will that result in numbers being way off from the recipe in BF. So confused!

EDIT: I haven't set up a Grainfather equipment profile in Brewers Friend, as I have no clue what numbers to put in there!

 

[seabrew8]

What are you guys doing to aerate your wort?

 

[Yambor44]

What are you guys doing to aerate your wort?

Just finished shooting mine with 30 seconds of pure oxygen. You can always shake it if that's not an option.

 

[gotbeer74]

Bout to brew my first beer ever and christen the GF. Looking to do the Zombie Dust clone but I could really use your guys' help. With zero experience, water volumes and scaling is very confusing to me at the moment. The recipe is in 6 gallons, but I am trying to scale to 2.5 gallons. I am using Brewers Friend. Does this process look right?

1. Copy the 6 gallon profile exactly.
2. Scale down to 2.5 gallons.
3. Ignore mash water amount and estimated boil size, use Grainfather calculator amounts for mash and sparge.
4. Use the scaled down recipe in BF as-is, but substitute the Grainfather water numbers.

So my question is, once I scale down in Brewers Friend, can I use that exact recipe, except ignore the water numbers and use the Grainfather numbers instead? Or will that result in numbers being way off from the recipe in BF. So confused!

EDIT: I haven't set up a Grainfather equipment profile in Brewers Friend, as I have no clue what numbers to put in there!

I would go with number 4. I use Beersmith to create my recipe and GF for water needed.

 

[Lazer Wolf Brewing]

I would go with number 4. I use Beersmith to create my recipe and GF for water needed.

So you completely ignore water usage in beersmith but use the grain/hop amounts? And then you just sub in the Grainfather water amounts?

 

[Cutterman]

I would go with number 4. I use Beersmith to create my recipe and GF for water needed.

+1 on number 4

 

[Cutterman]

Will be brewing this recipe next weekend in the GF. I have to wait until the fermentation chamber is empty inorder to control temps. I hate to tie the chamber up for this long but I have a lot of beer in carboys. In my older age I produce more beer than I/friends drink now... Guess there could be worse problems.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=500037

 

[gotbeer74]

So you completely ignore water usage in beersmith but use the grain/hop amounts? And then you just sub in the Grainfather water amounts?

I don't completely ignore it. I am a .5 gallon off on sparge water and trying to figure out why with BS. This is only my 5th beer with BS and only the 2nd on the GF. I used Promash previously before taking a 6 year hiatus from brewing. New learning curve on both sides.

 

[gotbeer74]

I am brewing styles that will ferment with wyeast 2112 yeast. The basement in my new house is a lot cooler. It is fun coming up with pseudo styles to deal with the temps. Next up is a red hoppy lager.

 

[Kampenken]

How quick is everyone cooling their wort? It took 12 gallons to cool 5 gallons to 68 degrees tonight.

I cooled, after a 15 min hop whirlpool and ran the recirc the whole time to sanitize the chiller, in about 20 min to about 60 with 57 tap water. I had the red valve only open about 1/3 of the way and tap open about 2/3. Next time I will open red valve about 1/2 way and lower tap a bit. Likely used similar amount of water- after my bucket overflowed on the kitchen floor (6.5g?) , I ran the rest down the sink.

 

[Kampenken]

What are you guys doing to aerate your wort?

I use O2 from a Lowes Oxygen tank. Depending on OG, <58 none, 58-75 or so, about 30-40 sec, and if I were to do a high gravity +80 probably a min. Not scientific, but I did read here on HBT that you can over oxygenate, so I add just a bit to help out the cause of good beer!

 

[gotbeer74]

That sucks. I always have three empty buckets by my side when chilling indoors.

 

[Kampenken]

So you completely ignore water usage in beersmith but use the grain/hop amounts? And then you just sub in the Grainfather water amounts?

I use BS too, and yes, I ignore the water amounts and plug in my own, though I don't recall BS creating water amounts, but were inputs? Prior to GF (all of 1 brew complete!) I would go to Brew 365, they have a great water calculator, though for now I will use GF. http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

Wish I knew how to multi-quote, esp from different pages....

 

[Kampenken]

That sucks. I always have three empty buckets by my side when chilling indoors.

Yeah it did suck! Plus I put the hose in the sink, started cleaning up my mess and heard more water on the floor, the damn hose came out of the sink!!

What though I really found interesting was that the outlet water was also cool- measured in the 70s-80s depending on tap and valve adjustments. Anyone else notice that? First time for me with a counter flow chiller.

 

[Yambor44]

Yeah it did suck! Plus I put the hose in the sink, started cleaning up my mess and heard more water on the floor, the damn hose came out of the sink!!

What though I really found interesting was that the outlet water was also cool- measured in the 70s-80s depending on tap and valve adjustments. Anyone else notice that? First time for me with a counter flow chiller.

Same here tonight. Weird. I was using ice water in a cooler with a pond pump recirculating back into the cooler.

Water coming out of the hot side was 100°. Wort into fermenter 58°. Red valve open all the way. Then wort dropped to 53° so I added some warmer water to the ice water to level it out.

With my immersion chiller and same ice water bath, I can't hold my hand under the hot out hose it's so hot.

 

[Kampenken]

Yup. So it takes away a bit of the save for cleaning idea. I guess at least I can save a little bit but rest will go down the sink, until I go outside and water the landscaping and garden again.

Glad to hear someone else had the same experience with the cool out line. I've used an ice bath too and submersible pump with my I/C so when tap warm warms up here (PA) I will pre chill again.

 

[Traveling_brewer]

What is everyone getting for mash efficiency?

 

[gotbeer74]

My two sessions have been different. EFF for my first 60 minute mash was 78%. My latest 90 minute mash with one tsp of gypsum added was 90%. I added a little more hops to balance out the beer for this increase.

 

[Yambor44]

90 minute mash, 74%.

 

[TexasWine]

What is everyone getting for mash efficiency?

Just so everyone is talking apples and not oranges, what do you mean by "mash efficiency"?

http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewing-efficiency-chart/

 

[mikeysab]

This is torture waiting for this thing to come

 

[Yambor44]

Just so everyone is talking apples and not oranges, what do you mean by "mash efficiency"?

http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewing-efficiency-chart/

Mine is total.

 

[gotbeer74]

My numbers are pre-boil eff.

 

[seabrew8]

Well i got my GF today, its nice. I done a test run with water that was a light boil.

Can you guys explain to me why a 20a breaker will work better then a 15a breaker? My father is a part time electrician and says it nonsense.

It will only draw what it can (1600w) and if it doesn't trip a 15a breaker you don't need a 20a breaker....

 

[TexasWine]

Well i got my GF today, its nice. I done a test run with water that was a light boil.

Can you guys explain to me why a 20a breaker will work better then a 15a breaker? My father is a part time electrician and says it nonsense.

It will only draw what it can (1600w) and if it doesn't trip a 15a breaker you don't need a 20a breaker....

Your old man is right.

 

[PapaO]

Your old man is right.

Is 1600w close to max on a 15a breaker?

 

[seabrew8]

Another boil test - it takes around 45min to reach boil after 75C - mashout temp. Again this is just a little over 7 gallons of water.

Sparging takes 30min or so from what i read so this seems fine!

Note: I don't particularly like the silicone "taps" coming off the pump myself. But hey it works.