Grainfather!!

Williams 728
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jaymosbeershack said:
This is what has me so unsure about the kettle sour i have planned for wednesday. Never done it before, and i really want to. Im just nervous. Atleast i know Brocks Homebrew Supply has great customer service from when my first unit got replaced.
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I kettle soured in mine too. 90F for 3 days, no issues. Turned out to be the best beer I have made.
 
Has anyone tried replacing the plug themselves? I remember watching a video on youtube about some guy replacing a bunch of them. My plug hasn't fused yet, but I'm getting a little nervous that it might.
 
so, does anyone know how to replace the clear hoses for the CFC? my hoses are no longer clear, they are dark stained good. was hoping to find a DIY video online somewhere but no luck. would have thought that GF would have instructions. thanks in advance.
 
pkgmsu2000 said:
so, does anyone know how to replace the clear hoses for the CFC? my hoses are no longer clear, they are dark stained good. was hoping to find a DIY video online somewhere but no luck. would have thought that GF would have instructions. thanks in advance.
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I just did this because my CFC fell (my fault) and snapped 1 of the hoses. It was very easy.

You need these:
https://www.homebrewing.org/The-Grainfather-Chiller-Silicone-Hose_p_6040.html

And some clamps to replace the little clamps you have to break off (the toughest part. I just used some snip plyers and a screwdriver).
https://www.homebrewing.org/Stainless-Steel-Adjustable-Hose-Clamp_p_430.html

Took me 5 minutes.
 
skleice said:
I just did this because my CFC fell (my fault) and snapped 1 of the hoses. It was very easy.

You need these:
https://www.homebrewing.org/The-Grainfather-Chiller-Silicone-Hose_p_6040.html

And some clamps to replace the little clamps you have to break off (the toughest part. I just used some snip plyers and a screwdriver).
https://www.homebrewing.org/Stainless-Steel-Adjustable-Hose-Clamp_p_430.html

Took me 5 minutes.
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how did you break apart the T's? Unless I am mistaken, the clear hose runs all the way through the entire CFC? the clear hose isnt just what you see on the inlet to pump and outlet to fermenter?
 
pkgmsu2000 said:
how did you break apart the T's? Unless I am mistaken, the clear hose runs all the way through the entire CFC? the clear hose isnt just what you see on the inlet to pump and outlet to fermenter?
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The hose does not run all the way through. If you loosen the nuts where it connects it will come right off in your hand. Loosen another nut to expose the hose and pull it off. Ezpz
 
skleice said:
The hose does not run all the way through. If you loosen the nuts where it connects it will come right off in your hand. Loosen another nut to expose the hose and pull it off. Ezpz
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there is a visible clear hose that runs from pump connection to CFC inlet... there is a visible clear hose at CFC outlet that eventually goes into your fermentation vessel... are you saying once the HOT wort travels inside of the CFC it no longer travels through a hose? it just magically goes from a clear hose into nothing and then back to a clear hose :yes:
 
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couchsending said:
Am I the only one that thinks the new app is so unbelievably terrible!?!?!
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It's not all bad. The temperature profile is kinda cool.
I think the next release they'll have a button for ordering pizza, which will get delivered right after you mash in.
 
Just downloaded the latest but haven’t used it since two versions ago when it was unusable. Planning a brew this weekend so we’ll see.
 
I did a brew with the last update which worked fine . Brewing a Belgian Wit tomorrow with the newest update . Wish me luck lol.
 
The autocorrect on the web sites recipe builder is one of the dumbest things I've seen on the web in a long time (and I've visited the HBT tap room).

Why is my gravity 1.3? Oh because to get 0.25 you need to enter 0..25, except the 2nd time it does it correctly.
 
Question for grainfather users: If cost and space were not an issue, would you rather have a 3v electric brewery type setup, or the grainfather?

I always regarded the electric brewery as the gold standard. I know someone selling their complete setup super cheap. I originally figured the GF would hold me over until I was ready for a 3v, but now I'm not sure its preferable to the GF.
 
murphyslaw said:
Question for grainfather users: If cost and space were not an issue, would you rather have a 3v electric brewery type setup, or the grainfather?

I always regarded the electric brewery as the gold standard. I know someone selling their complete setup super cheap. I originally figured the GF would hold me over until I was ready for a 3v, but now I'm not sure its preferable to the GF.
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Space isn't an issue for me and, in fact, I previously used (and still have) a 3V system, albeit propane fired. That system works great but it does present a lot of little extra bits to worry about cleaning - more hoses, valves, vessels, etc. For me, switching this to an electric system would only have alleviated a small part of the inconvenience (specifically dealing with the propane). I went to the GF not because of the small footprint but because of its all-in-one nature and ease of cleaning. So, personally, I would rather have my GF than an electric 3V system.

Now, all this being said, double brew days on a GF are a pain.. ..and long. On my 3V system I could have the second batch mashing while the first was boiling and could crush out two brews in ~5-6 hours, which is not something I can come close to with the GF. So, to me, this is the only real upside of an electric 3V system.
 
murphyslaw said:
Question for grainfather users: If cost and space were not an issue, would you rather have a 3v electric brewery type setup, or the grainfather?

I always regarded the electric brewery as the gold standard. I know someone selling their complete setup super cheap. I originally figured the GF would hold me over until I was ready for a 3v, but now I'm not sure its preferable to the GF.
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For me, I would prefer an electric system over a 3 vessel system. If you live in a cold-weather area or a warm-weather area or somewhere it rains a lot, brewing inside has a number of advantages.

I have a grandfather and my ice chest mash tun and propane burner and kettle I still use on occasion, but there's nothing like brewing inside when it's 95* outside.

I would also look at induction systems.

YMMV
 
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Yes, this would be a 3v electric system similar to the electric brewery (high gravity control unit). I'll probably stick with the GF. Like @hopjuice_71 said, its so simple and enjoyable to brew on.

I'm just afraid of my GF breaking or something and then ending up wishing I hadn't passed on this great deal.
 
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murphyslaw said:
Question for grainfather users: If cost and space were not an issue, would you rather have a 3v electric brewery type setup, or the grainfather?

I always regarded the electric brewery as the gold standard. I know someone selling their complete setup super cheap. I originally figured the GF would hold me over until I was ready for a 3v, but now I'm not sure its preferable to the GF.
Click to expand...

I don't have a GF but a very similar home built system (I wanted more watts to save time), space or money were not the deciding factor. Simplicity, time, ease of setup and clean up were the biggest deciding factors.
 
murphyslaw said:
Question for grainfather users: If cost and space were not an issue, would you rather have a 3v electric brewery type setup, or the grainfather?

I always regarded the electric brewery as the gold standard. I know someone selling their complete setup super cheap. I originally figured the GF would hold me over until I was ready for a 3v, but now I'm not sure its preferable to the GF.
Click to expand...

For me, it really depends on what you mean by cost and space. If cost and space weren't an issue, I'd have to have a dedicated brewery room. Strictly for brewing, cleaning and fermenting. If that were the case, I probably would have a 3v system. Right now, I don't have a dedicated brew space, it's shared with the laundry room. And even though I do have room for the 3v in there. It's not set up how I would want it to deal with the extra cleaning that would go along with a 3v system.

So yeah, if the sky were the limit on money, then I probably wouldn't use the grainfather. But, without that dedicated brew room, I think a 3v system, although theoretically, have the space, would be in the way of other chores that have to be done. So I would have to move things around and worry about people putting stuff on it or in it's space. The compactness of the Grainfather really is a bonus. It's easy to just move it where it needs to be and move it out of the way, when other things are going on. I have too many other things that need to be done and paid for though, before a dedicated brew room would be in the cards, so for now, it's the Grainfather all the way for me.

The best part is if the laundry room is being used, then I can go to the kitchen. If it's a nice day, I can go outside on the patio or in the garage.
 
murphyslaw said:
Question for grainfather users: If cost and space were not an issue, would you rather have a 3v electric brewery type setup, or the grainfather?

I always regarded the electric brewery as the gold standard. I know someone selling their complete setup super cheap. I originally figured the GF would hold me over until I was ready for a 3v, but now I'm not sure its preferable to the GF.
Click to expand...

Only if I wanted to increase my production (ie batch size).
 
Clonefan94 said:
For me, it really depends on what you mean by cost and space. If cost and space weren't an issue, I'd have to have a dedicated brewery room. Strictly for brewing, cleaning and fermenting. If that were the case, I probably would have a 3v system. Right now, I don't have a dedicated brew space, it's shared with the laundry room. And even though I do have room for the 3v in there. It's not set up how I would want it to deal with the extra cleaning that would go along with a 3v system.

So yeah, if the sky were the limit on money, then I probably wouldn't use the grainfather. But, without that dedicated brew room, I think a 3v system, although theoretically, have the space, would be in the way of other chores that have to be done. So I would have to move things around and worry about people putting stuff on it or in it's space. The compactness of the Grainfather really is a bonus. It's easy to just move it where it needs to be and move it out of the way, when other things are going on. I have too many other things that need to be done and paid for though, before a dedicated brew room would be in the cards, so for now, it's the Grainfather all the way for me.

The best part is if the laundry room is being used, then I can go to the kitchen. If it's a nice day, I can go outside on the patio or in the garage.
Click to expand...
That's how I always felt. I was going to peice together a 3v but didnt have a dedicated space and went with the GF, which I love.

Now we're trying to buy a new house and it has a 2nd kitchen in the basement in it's own room. A perfect dedicated brewery space. And I know a guy trying to sell his 3v electric system (blichmann Boilermakers, high gravity controller, pumps, stainless work table, everything) for $1k (!!!).

So everything is falling into place, but I'm not sure I even want a 3v anymore. I love brewing on the GF. Also feel like this 3v is such a good deal that I dont want to miss it and later regret it.

Talk about first world problems!
 
murphyslaw said:
That's how I always felt. I was going to peice together a 3v but didnt have a dedicated space and went with the GF, which I love.

Now we're trying to buy a new house and it has a 2nd kitchen in the basement in it's own room. A perfect dedicated brewery space. And I know a guy trying to sell his 3v electric system (blichmann Boilermakers, high gravity controller, pumps, stainless work table, everything) for $1k (!!!).

So everything is falling into place, but I'm not sure I even want a 3v anymore. I love brewing on the GF. Also feel like this 3v is such a good deal that I dont want to miss it and later regret it.

Talk about first world problems!
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IMHO, for that price and with a dedicated space, it would be worth grabbing the system. Of course, if the $1K isn't an issue. I guess one way to look at it, what would that larger system give you that the GF doesn't? Right now, if I were to move to a 3v system, it would strictly be to do 10 gallon batches. I always forget, until the summer rolls around, how many people stop by to drink my beer. Winter always seems to be OK, but when the summer is here, it would be nice to double up batches and keep the pipeline a little better stocked. For me, that's the only thing with the GF, it limits the batch size you can brew.
 
Got an American Stout on the boil right now. Tiny grey text so couldn't read the hop amounts on my iPhone so installed GC on the iPad, not much better, but at least I can bring up a PDF and zoom that. This is seriously bad UI design.
I get adds for the local beer festival though so I guess it's working as intended.
 
Does anybody know why I have literally melted the heat plug into the controller? The only thing I do different is use a 10 ft. 12 gauge extension cord. I had to pry the plug out and broke the plug and it had melted part of the inside of the controller. This thing brews great but I am baffled.
 
Seaug1122 said:
Does anybody know why I have literally melted the heat plug into the controller? The only thing I do different is use a 10 ft. 12 gauge extension cord. I had to pry the plug out and broke the plug and it had melted part of the inside of the controller. This thing brews great but I am baffled.
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Cheap hardware. How old is your model? They should send you a new one for free.
 
The way I understand it ( and I might be wrong ) is because for whatever reason UL didn't approve the 220V model for the US
 
Pkrd said:
Because you’re running 110v on a system originally designed for 240v.
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I'm not an electrician but I wouldn't think that plugging into less power then what it's designed for would damage it . Are the 240v plugs having issues ? Are people using extention cords or leaving it on for kettle sours ? Could that be the issue? What's the % of just plugging into a regular outlet ?
 
This is the email I sent toUL Canada, I'm very curious to see what they'll reply,

Hello,

I am Jacques from Montreal.

I contact you about the homebrewing equipment named "Grainfather".

It was developed in New Zealand.

The model is sold in New Zealand, Australia, Europe and south America is the 220 Volts model.

For whatever reason ( I suspect that UL is involved in that decision ) the model sold in the U.S. and Canada is a 120 Volts model.

The problem is that there are several cases of severely melted receptacles connecting the controller unit to the heating element.

More important, all those melted receptacle cases happened exclusively on the 120 Volts model.

I am aware of those cases because they were reported on the "homebrewtalk" , the biggest homebrewing forum.

If you want I can supply the complete link to that thread , and I can email you those scary pictures.

So, could you tell me who decided to prohibit the sale of the 220 Volts model in North America ? and for what reason ?

For your information here are some information displayed on the unit:

Grainfather T500

Model # 10197

120V - 60 Hz 1600 Watts

Conforms to UL std 197

certified to CSA STD C22.2 No. 109



Best regards
 
eimar said:
This is the email I sent toUL Canada, I'm very curious to see what they'll reply,

Hello,

I am Jacques from Montreal.

I contact you about the homebrewing equipment named "Grainfather".

It was developed in New Zealand.

The model is sold in New Zealand, Australia, Europe and south America is the 220 Volts model.

For whatever reason ( I suspect that UL is involved in that decision ) the model sold in the U.S. and Canada is a 120 Volts model.

The problem is that there are several cases of severely melted receptacles connecting the controller unit to the heating element.

More important, all those melted receptacle cases happened exclusively on the 120 Volts model.

I am aware of those cases because they were reported on the "homebrewtalk" , the biggest homebrewing forum.

If you want I can supply the complete link to that thread , and I can email you those scary pictures.

So, could you tell me who decided to prohibit the sale of the 220 Volts model in North America ? and for what reason ?

For your information here are some information displayed on the unit:

Grainfather T500

Model # 10197

120V - 60 Hz 1600 Watts

Conforms to UL std 197

certified to CSA STD C22.2 No. 109



Best regards
Click to expand...

I think it is a marketing decision to sell 120V because that is what US households have. We have 220V for driers and stoves, but, many people won’t want to unplug those major appliances to brew.
 
Jag75 said:
I'm not an electrician but I wouldn't think that plugging into less power then what it's designed for would damage it . Are the 240v plugs having issues ? Are people using extention cords or leaving it on for kettle sours ? Could that be the issue? What's the % of just plugging into a regular outlet ?
Click to expand...
Watt's Law. A 1600 watt heater pulls over 13 amps at 120 volts, but less than 8 amps at 240. Amps x Volts = Watts. The amperage is what ends up overloading the connections and melting them. That's why you need larger diameter wire for a 20 amp circuit than for a 15 amp circuit even though both are the same voltage.

They probably sized the connectors for 240V and the lower amperage and since they were "good enough" for the higher amperage of a 120 system just used the same ones. Now it turns out good enough may not be!
 
My question is at what point in the chain do you have to adjust for the higher amperage. Is it just the plug or is it the wires behind the plug as well? I saw someone earlier in this thread who took out the plug completely and hardwired to an extension cord. I’m thinking that’s the best option but then your plate where the plug was is completely open
 

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