Grainfather!!

[elreplica]

Another foot higher on your HLT and you can auto sparge!







I've run mine a bit under 1/2 open to start and then as it settles in I'm able to open up to about 3/4 open. Had the wort right near the top of the overflow without going over!

Exactly what I was thinking. In fact, he has the same kettle I used for my extracts and I was going to rig it up...until I remembered the telescopic sparge adjustment :-0
PS - and same heatstick lol.

 

[Yambor44]

Brewed another batch today. Same recipe as before but started at 155º strike temp to settle on 150º. Once at 155º, checked with thermopen (calibrated) and was dead on at 155º. Killed element (is this what others are doing?) Doughed in, checked temp, 147º. Started pump, turned element back on, left at 155º and checked outflow temps until they settled at 150º (6 mins). Re-set temp to 152º as readout was showing 154º when the outflow was 150º. Brew session was par from this point on...

After 4 brews this is what I have come up with a template for my Beer Tools Pro. This is exactly what I ended up with today:

 

[Yambor44]

Used my new GF Sparge water Heater today. Worked perfectly! I need to raise it up about 5" and it will be perfect.

 

[Grzebyk26]

Hey guys I need your help!!! I just did my first batch on The Grainfather and I had some trouble with the mash. I had quite a few husks that ended up in my boil which will most likely result on some tannin flavors. How can I fix this issue. I don't have my own grain mill. What should I do? Thank you in advance

 

[RockyMountainCraftBrewing]

Hey guys I need your help!!! I just did my first batch on The Grainfather and I had some trouble with the mash. I had quite a few husks that ended up in my boil which will most likely result on some tannin flavors. How can I fix this issue. I don't have my own grain mill. What should I do? Thank you in advance

Buy a grain mill,then you can enjoy buying grain by the sack and saving money over buying crushed grain from your LHBS.

RMCB

 

[scallopking]

Used my new GF Sparge water Heater today. Worked perfectly! I need to raise it up about 5" and it will be perfect.

Nice!! I gotta get me one now.

 

[Kampenken]

What differences are you noticing by not letting any wort go in the overflow? I never tried it.

I can't say I've noticed any. I figure that it would stop some grains from falling through, and I like the idea that all the recirc is going thru the grain bed. Its quite simple to operate this way, and fills my need to do something during the mash!

Brewed another batch today. Same recipe as before but started at 155º strike temp to settle on 150º. Once at 155º, checked with thermopen (calibrated) and was dead on at 155º. Killed element (is this what others are doing?) Doughed in, checked temp, 147º. Started pump, turned element back on, left at 155º and checked outflow temps until they settled at 150º (6 mins). Re-set temp to 152º as readout was showing 154º when the outflow was 150º. Brew session was par from this point on...

After 4 brews this is what I have come up with a template for my Beer Tools Pro. This is exactly what I ended up with today:

No I don't turn off the GF while doughing in. So long as on mash it won't overheat I figure. I'm trying to understand the above, did you wish to hit 150? (sounds like that based on what temp you were trying to attain on the outflow). If so, then it appears a strike of 158 would've been sufficient to land at 150, right? Small grain bill? I'd expect maybe +10-12 F on strike temp based on my notes from my last pre-GF brew (+12, 14# bill) but was about 1F high.

Hey guys I need your help!!! I just did my first batch on The Grainfather and I had some trouble with the mash. I had quite a few husks that ended up in my boil which will most likely result on some tannin flavors. How can I fix this issue. I don't have my own grain mill. What should I do? Thank you in advance

Not sure your own grain mill would change this so much- likely you'd grind it finer than LBHS. Questions that I think of are:
1) was bottom plate seated perfectly at bottom? i.e. rubber gasket in place and not folded over anywhere, was fully at bottom
2) Were you careful enough while filling the grain basket that no grains slipped in between basket and boiler?
3) may sound dumb, but did you have the grain stopper in place while filling?
4) lastly, if all above were good, did you allow wort to overflow during the recirc period of the mash? I know some will fall through if you don't, but not sure that would make up all of what you experienced. I control the valve to avoid this, most here I do not think practice this and have not complained about any adverse effects.

Nothing else I can think of, but maybe someone else can?

 

[Kampenken]

Used my new GF Sparge water Heater today. Worked perfectly! I need to raise it up about 5" and it will be perfect.

Very nice setup there man! Making us jealous!! Looks like you had the right flow rate too, was it hard to adjust / dial in?

 

[blkandrust]

Third batch in on my GF,and all I can say is that I love this thing!!Such a relaxed brew day. I was able to make a pot of black beans and rice,vacuum my living room,hand load 20 rounds of 300 Blk and shower,all while brewing. I would never have been able to do half that on my propane system.

 

[Yambor44]

No I don't turn off the GF while doughing in. So long as on mash it won't overheat I figure. I'm trying to understand the above, did you wish to hit 150? (sounds like that based on what temp you were trying to attain on the outflow). If so, then it appears a strike of 158 would've been sufficient to land at 150, right? Small grain bill? I'd expect maybe +10-12 F on strike temp based on my notes from my last pre-GF brew (+12, 14# bill) but was about 1F high.

Yes, target temp was 150º. I think it may have rebounded a little faster had I left the element on. This is the first time i have turned it off while doughing in. Grain bill was 14 pounds 5 ounces.

Very nice setup there man! Making us jealous!! Looks like you had the right flow rate too, was it hard to adjust / dial in?

With the GF water heater it's all or nothing. I just had to open it and then close it once it rose above the grain bed a little.

What is everyone doing as far as the sparge goes? When traditionally fly sparging on my old all grain system, I kept the water a inch or so above the grain bed. I would target a 45-60 minute sparge time with a 10 gallon batch. This of course could be achieved by throttling bak the outflow of my mash tun. Obviously we can't do that with the GF so do you still try to keep the water above the top of the top screen/grain bed or let it drain awhile and then add more water?

When I try to do it the traditional way, it seems to go quicker than what most are reporting here. Mine is about 20 minutes. I do push the screen down to contact the grain bed after raising the malt pipe and before I begin adding my sparge water.

 

[Grzebyk26]

I did double

 

[Grzebyk26]

I can't say I've noticed any. I figure that it would stop some grains from falling through, and I like the idea that all the recirc is going thru the grain bed. Its quite simple to operate this way, and fills my need to do something during the mash!



No I don't turn off the GF while doughing in. So long as on mash it won't overheat I figure. I'm trying to understand the above, did you wish to hit 150? (sounds like that based on what temp you were trying to attain on the outflow). If so, then it appears a strike of 158 would've been sufficient to land at 150, right? Small grain bill? I'd expect maybe +10-12 F on strike temp based on my notes from my last pre-GF brew (+12, 14# bill) but was about 1F high.



Not sure your own grain mill would change this so much- likely you'd grind it finer than LBHS. Questions that I think of are:
1) was bottom plate seated perfectly at bottom? i.e. rubber gasket in place and not folded over anywhere, was fully at bottom
2) Were you careful enough while filling the grain basket that no grains slipped in between basket and boiler?
3) may sound dumb, but did you have the grain stopper in place while filling?
4) lastly, if all above were good, did you allow wort to overflow during the recirc period of the mash? I know some will fall through if you don't, but not sure that would make up all of what you experienced. I control the valve to avoid this, most here I do not think practice this and have not complained about any adverse effects.

Nothing else I can think of, but maybe someone else can?

I did try all of those things during my brew day. I may just need to add some rice hulls to filter a little bit better. It was my first batch and I could have easily overlooked some things. I did have an issue getting up to boiling temp. I was stuck at 212 for about 45 minutes before it went to 214 and a nice rolling boil. I lightly scraped the element and everything. Could it be because i was using and extension cord?

 

[Tang10]

I'm using a half pound of hulls in each batch. I think a little courser crush is a good option to help with flow.

 

[Yambor44]

I did try all of those things during my brew day. I may just need to add some rice hulls to filter a little bit better. It was my first batch and I could have easily overlooked some things. I did have an issue getting up to boiling temp. I was stuck at 212 for about 45 minutes before it went to 214 and a nice rolling boil. I lightly scraped the element and everything. Could it be because i was using and extension cord?

Possibly. when I first got my GF I thought it was broken due to the long times and slack boil. I found out there was a lot of appliances (commercial ice machine, fridges, freezers and kegerator) ALL on one breaker. Once I dedicated an outlet to just my GF and used no extension cord it greatly improved.

 

[Diamonddave74]

Did my first all grain brew with the grain father. Honestly I was somewhat intimidated going head first to all grain but the experience was great. I brewed in my garage which has its own 20 amp circuit (to accommodate high amp tools) and nothing other than led lights running. I almost had a boil over and had to paddle and starsan spray it down. Don't think I really need to insulate this just yet.

Pump didn't clog but I was brewing a Belgian wit with little hops. I may pick up some 6-12 cup tea leaf holders I found on Amazon when I try an IPA.

Chilling I had an issue as I didn't clamp down the cold In from the garden hose and it popped off making a minor flood. That was fixed.

If I did my math right I got 76% efficiency which I'm happy with as a rookie. May be the rice hulls and compressing the grain basket helped there.

Well I have 2 more weeks till I keg this but I'm excited about this system and reccomend it to anyone who may be on the fence.

Dave

 

[HCbrewing]

Does anyone else have issues with their FGs finishing way low? I ferment cool and slow, but all my GF brews are finishing well below my target. For example, my last IPA with 001 finished at 1.006 and my target was 1.012. The only thing I can think of is that my mash temp is actually much lower than what my readout on the GF is. Anyone else experiencing this or have any advice on how to rectify?

I had the opposite problem. I had a hard time getting my first 2 beers to finish. One of them I had to shake the fermenter to get more yeast back in suspension to get the job done.

 

[Grzebyk26]

Possibly. when I first got my GF I thought it was broken due to the long times and slack boil. I found out there was a lot of appliances (commercial ice machine, fridges, freezers and kegerator) ALL on one breaker. Once I dedicated an outlet to just my GF and used no extension cord it greatly improved.

Thank you for the feed back I will consider it this weekend on my next brew day. It makes sense.

 

[Brewing_CSU_Ram_Fan]

If you use BrewSmith to develop your recipes, it will assist in establishing the right strike water temperature by entering the grain temperature in the mash profile. I've found it does a rather good job providing you have changed some settings in BeerSmith to fit the Grainfather. Use the attached profiles and explanation to make the necessary changes. By the way, by making these changes, BrewSmith's inability to accurated calculate mash and sparge water quantities are also fixed

Thanks for this. I have been toying with Beersmith profile as well... but just haven't nailed it down yet. Will give this profile a try on my next brew in a couple of weeks.

 

[Kampenken]

...What is everyone doing as far as the sparge goes? When traditionally fly sparging on my old all grain system, I kept the water a inch or so above the grain bed.... This of course could be achieved by throttling bak the outflow of my mash tun. Obviously we can't do that with the GF so do you still try to keep the water above the top of the top screen/grain bed or let it drain awhile and then add more water?

When I try to do it the traditional way, it seems to go quicker than what most are reporting here. Mine is about 20 minutes. I do push the screen down to contact the grain bed after raising the malt pipe and before I begin adding my sparge water.

I'm pouring (for now) onto the top plate, trying to maintain ~1/2" of water on top and not let it fully drain off the plate. I'm getting closer, maybe by May, to getting my brew area done in the basement where I will have an elevated kettle and adjust the valve. I was thinking you could put an inline valve on your hose there to control the sparge flow (and elevate it the 5" or so you mentioned!).

I did try all of those things during my brew day. I may just need to add some rice hulls to filter a little bit better. It was my first batch and I could have easily overlooked some things. I did have an issue getting up to boiling temp. I was stuck at 212 for about 45 minutes before it went to 214 and a nice rolling boil. I lightly scraped the element and everything. Could it be because i was using and extension cord?

I'm confused, thought your question was about grain in the boil? I don't know if hulls will help that, though I suppose it would improve the speed of recirc, and thus less chance of water in the overflow. I haven't yet found a need for hulls, the recirc runs about 3/4 open and it really moves a good amount of wort through. If cord was long definitely you could've lost some power, and more so if you plugged into a 15a outlet. If in 20a and you need a cord, either find a shorter 20a rated one or make one if you are comfortable with that project.

...and starsan spray it down. ..
Chilling I had an issue as I didn't clamp down the cold In from the garden hose and it popped off making a minor flood. That was fixed.

If I did my math right I got 76% efficiency which I'm happy with as a rookie. May be the rice hulls and compressing the grain basket helped there.
Dave

Congrats Dave! (VH fan, huh?!). I've seen guys starsan spray boils to get them down, but I don't know why. I stir as the hot break forms and starts to shake (boiling underneath at this point) with no boil over, or even blow on it! Besides if you wish to spray, just use plain water- no need to use sanitizing solution at this point in the brew.
You're in good company here with those that had the cold inlet come off, that and the "hot" (more lukewarm at best) outlet hose jumping out and making a mess! Good job, and on your first AG day! I wish I started right in with the GF too.

 

[MT2sum]

I almost had a boil over and had to paddle and starsan spray it down. Dave

I've had success by just using a small fan to blow a hole in the foam. I also stir with a SS spoon once it settles down, so it won't foam up again.

 

[MeanLowerLow]

I've had success by just using a small fan to blow a hole in the foam. I also stir with a SS spoon once it settles down, so it won't foam up again.

Fermcaps is worth having on hand. It cost me $5 at my LHBS and it's probably a lifetime supply if kept refrigerated. I use it primarily to control boil overs when making a starter, but it is nice to have if anything gets out of control including fermentation.

 

[MT2sum]

I was all excited about the GF, but now I'm not too sure any more. I see too many posts that say you have to adjust your water, adjust your recipe, etc. I'm wondering about just electrifying the pots/kettles I already have, buy a low cost controller and pump from someone like Brau Supply that will work with a single pot BIAB (whether bag or basket), HERMS system and do it that way. I've looked at the others, and here it says that the GF takes about 5-7 hours from start to finish ...... BrewBoss claims 3 1/2 hours, start to finish, but their system is double what a GF is, I've read that the Zymatic has leak problems, Braukaiser has other problems and Easy-brew is wayyyy to expensive ....... so I'm still looking around, (like I said earlier, it will be at least July or August before I'll have enough money saved for a GF anyway), so I have lots of time to research. I'm not totally giving up, I just want to be sure that I'm buying what's best for me.

 

[MT2sum]

Fermcaps is worth having on hand. It cost me $5 at my LHBS and it's probably a lifetime supply if kept refrigerated. I use it primarily to control boil overs when making a starter, but it is nice to have if anything gets out of control including fermentation.

But what kind of chemicals are you putting in your brew? I don't know what's in Fermcaps , so I'll go take a look-see, but I want no chemicals (especially the ones I can't pronounce) in my beer - but that's just me!

 

[MeanLowerLow]

I've never personally noticed or ever heard of fermcaps causing any problems/flavor etc. - that being said your point is well taken. I really only use it for starters, and I only make starters for high gravity beers. Without it my Erlenmeyer flask would geyser the wort at boil.

For the Grainfather, I make sure I'm present at boil and use my paddle to dissipate the foam. Learned that trick from the GF intro video and have done it every brew on the GF (I think I'm around 10 now?).

 

[MT2sum]

I got this off homebrew-stackexchange.com There's more comments, I just took a few.
NOTE: Denny Conn answered in this thread. And this is one of those chemicals I can't pronounce - I'll just stick to my fan and spoon.

What is Fermcap-S and what does it do? http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/3661/what-is-fermcap-s-and-what-does-it-do
Lately I've been doing some very large boils -- 7 gallons in a 7.5 gallon kettle. To prevent boilovers, I've been using Fermcap-s. It's great, and I've had no boilover problems, but I have no idea how Fermcap works or what's in it. What is this stuff? Other than preventing boilover and excessive kreusen, does it have any effect on my beer?

Here is a link to FDA outlaying the CFR for dimethylpolysiloxane. http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=173.340 – user3708 Aug 8 '13 at 18:14 7

Fermcap-S is a silicone (Dimethylpolysiloxane) based emulsion that works by breaking surface tension. It has no effect on the finished product if used in the boil at designated dosage. If used in the fermenter, I have read that it will increase residual bitterness by ~10%. This is likely due to the compound binding to the yeast cells before the dissolved bittering compounds do, thereby leaving more bitterness in the beer. I have not verified this myself.
Stick to recommended dosage, or you will exceed FDA guidelines for silicone content in your beer.

The FDA has recently decided that Fermcap S should be filtered before you drink your beer. Fortunately, there's Fermcap AT which is fine to use without filtering.

Here's some info from Birko, which makes a product very much like Fermcap..

"Brewers should not use silicone-containing antifoam for unfiltered beers. The FDA allows active silicone to be used up to 10 parts-per-million (ppm) but stipulates that the silicone must be removed prior to packaging by either filtration or centrifugation. In the case of unfiltered beers, use a food grade, non-silicone antifoam. We sell a food grade, canola oil based antifoam that works well for this purpose and has an added benefit of being yeast-friendly at the same time. Look for my article on antifoams in the brewery in the July/August issue of The New Brewer. Please contact me directly if you would like to discuss this or any other matter further.
Cheers!
Dana Johnson Brewery Technical Representative BIRKO Corporation Henderson, Colorado www.birkocorp.com:


edited Sep 6 '11 at 12:19
Ray
395211

answered Apr 12 '11 at 16:20
Denny Conn♦
27.7k12353

Could you link to something that describes this decision? – Hopwise Apr 12 '11 at 19:05
I'll try to find it, but it may take a while. IIRC, it was on the probrewer forum. – Denny Conn♦ Apr 12 '11 at 20:53
Here's info from a guy at Birko, which makes a product very much like Fermcap... – Denny Conn♦ Apr 13 '11 at 15:10
So a guy that's selling a competitor to fermcap says don't use fermcap. This is not the most convincing argument. Still, I'll probably give Fermcap-AT a try if I can find some. – Hopwise Apr 13 '11 at 17:36 2
Here is the regulation (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2012-title21-vol3/pdf/CFR-2012-title21-vol3-sec173-340.pdf) that limits occurrence of the active ingredient in Fermcap to 10 ppm. – Chino Brews Oct 15 '14 at 18:49

 

[gspot]

I was all excited about the GF, but now I'm not too sure any more. I see too many posts that say you have to adjust your water, adjust your recipe, etc. I'm wondering about just electrifying the pots/kettles I already have, buy a low cost controller and pump from someone like Brau Supply that will work with a single pot BIAB (whether bag or basket), HERMS system and do it that way.

Not sure what you mean about having to adjust everything specifically for the GF. I build my water from RO but have made perfectly good beer with regular tap water. This would depend on your local water supply of course and has nothing to do with the GF.

As far as the recipe, I use less grain because the GF is so efficient. But it's not really that much less, and you could make fine beer without adjusting anything--it would just be a wee bit stronger than the recipe intended if you are getting more than 70-75% efficiency. Adjusting for efficiency is something you'd do with any setup including the others you mentioned or a homemade one.

I don't think there'll be many people in this thread who will try to talk you out of the GF as most seem pretty pleased with it, myself included. If, for whatever reason, the GF were no longer available at some distant point in the future when I needed a replacement, I might try building a clone myself, but as long as they are on the market for ca. $900, that seems more trouble than its worth.

 

[Grzebyk26]

What have you guys done to minimize the grain in your boil kettle? I have heard of people using paint strainer bags or SS mesh screens. Has anyone tried these methods?

 

[d-bone]

brew boss is 3 1/2 hrs if you are using their 240v system, I would guess. If thats what you want, go for it. but if you buy thier 120v system, I am betting you would find the times to be about the same.

 

[gspot]

What have you guys done to minimize the grain in your boil kettle? I have heard of people using paint strainer bags or SS mesh screens. Has anyone tried these methods?

I'm not getting any grain in my boil. If, when you dough in, you are careful not to spill any down the sides between the mash tun and kettle sides, and you use the overflow tube "cap," you shouldn't have any. What little comes through the bottom screen will be caught above the top screen during recirculation. At first, it'll flow down the overflow, but over the course of the mash as wort quits running down the overflow and mostly through the grain, it'll get filtered out.

 

[Diamonddave74]

To the question about time my first brew took 6.5 hours BUT I mashed for 90 minutes and lost 30 minutes due to my set up mistake. I honestly think that once I get a few brews under my belt ill get that time down.

Also no grain in my wort floating around. I think I had a few hulls but those were filtered out when I removed the grain basket.