BrewMeister49
Well-Known Member
Dude! That chronical with FTS is beautiful lol
my hop filter - works great! I can add some other pics of it during and after the boil since I'm doing it right now.
Dude! That chronical with FTS is beautiful lol
amazon - search for hop filter its the 6x14 - $99 well worth it. I hated having the squeeze the bag of wort at the end to get everything out. now the small amount of wort left in the filter just dump it in.
Don't they say that when the switch is set to boil it bypasses the controller? I'm pretty sure I saw this in one of their videos, they say not to worry about the temp read out during the boil.
okay so here's at start of boil, notice only 209. the boil is nice, no doubt but why not 212. a boil is a boil I guess...I am still running the extension cord but on a GFI this time. I notice a difference in heat time and pump output actually.
I may look into getting one of those mesh stainless hop filters. I like my hop spider, but I think there will be better utilization in the stainless mesh filter. More wort will come through the stainless mesh at any given moment than the hop spider.
So then what is better? I have been using muslin bags. Looking at hop spiders and now these mesh ones that hang over the sides. Which one is best?
@bford, FYI, Arbor Fab sells these for $75, free shipping. Save some coin!
https://arborfab.com/store/brewing-filters/6-brew-filter-stainless-steel-mesh
What is the difference (and preferred ) micron? 300 or 400?
Outstanding!! I'll post some pics too, as soon as I get a chanceGrainfather hath arrived [emoji3]
Now I have something to put this Graincoat on.
Think I'll savor the joy of this new toy over the course of several days. Unboxing, parts checklist and assembly tonight. Tomorrow, test the unit with just water and bring to a boil and clean the system with PBW.
And finally if I'm lucky have first brew this weekend.
Yeah I'm excited!
grainjacket looks good man!And here we are.....[emoji481][emoji481][emoji481]View attachment 316797
And here we are.....[emoji481][emoji481][emoji481]View attachment 316797
There are lots of variables that affect the time....volumes and temperatures to begin with. So take what I say with an allowance....."Your results may vary."
Saturday we demo'd this device at Learn to Homebrew day. We followed the GF water calculations (I have the Beersmith settings that a guy in England came up with but it's just as easy to use the GF guidelines) and heated 5.2 gallons of RO water that was 82F to begin with to 152F. We set it on BOIL and NORMAL and wandered off.....came back in 20 minutes and it was at 164F!!!! Yikes....no sweat, add some ice, turn it to MASH and pump out a bit of water to maintain the proper volume. Added 13.5 lbs of grain, mostly pilsen. Temp dropped a degree and then bounced back and forth between 151 and 152 for sixty minutes. Had 3.x (can't remember exactly) gallons of 168F sparge water in an elevated pot ready for sparge. Raised the GF basket, set the GF to BOIL/NORMAL, put the recirc arm in and turned on pump while dribbling sparge water on the upper plate. Left for 30 minutes (recommended sparge time by Grainfather) and came back to boiling wort!
A nice gentle roll...and if you put the lid on and turn on the pump during the boil you can get a boil over! (We were brewing very close to the road and I wanted to keep crap out so I put the lid on but ended up cocking it about 1/3 open to prevent a boil over.)
So that gives you some indication of time....
Another batch with the same recipe was done but the pump was not utilized during the sparge....we had not hit boil in 30 minutes but were at 198F. I popped in my heat stick and wham...within 5 minutes we were boiling and the heat stick came out and we lost boil for about a minute while the GF built back up.
I have brewed over 10 batches now since July....I am learning to trust it and getting a better sense of time needed to get to temp. I like it!!!
A cleanup tip....the Craftmeister Tablets do wonders on this thing. Add 2-3 gallons, heat to 135 and drop in a tablet and turn on the pump. Anything on the bottom gets removed without any scrubbing.
Visit your LHBS and buy one!
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