Sight Glass on the Grainfather

[Surly_goat]

Has anyone put a sight glass on their grainfather?

I like the system for the most part but you can't see what your volume is while you are sparging since the markings are inside the kettle and the basket covers it.

It"d be nice to know when to stop collecting wort for preboil volume. I suppose I could just lift it off and look but then your getting wort everywhere.

 

[walther]

I've been thinking about it.
But maybe using an ultrasound transducer/receiver at the top of the vessel, to measure distance to the wort surface.

I find that in large grain bills, the calculations add too much water, so that the wort level is high on the sides of the sieve, preventing gravity from pulling the wort down.

Have you experienced that ?

 

[doogster]

Has anyone put a sight glass on their grainfather?

I like the system for the most part but you can't see what your volume is while you are sparging since the markings are inside the kettle and the basket covers it.

It"d be nice to know when to stop collecting wort for preboil volume. I suppose I could just lift it off and look but then your getting wort everywhere.

I use small thin piece of wood (think yardstick). I measured out known volumes of water into the GF, and marked up the stick. When I am sparging, I periodically dip the stick into the wort through the gap between the grain basked and boil kettle to check the liquid level against my markings. Simple and works great.

I am not sure I really need to do this anymore as I have my system pretty well dialed in and I usually end up sparging with just the amount of water I pre-measured out but I still do.

 

[Frilock]

I just use the calculators GF has in their app/on the website. Has put me right on the money so far every time without looking!

 

[Surly_goat]

Just needed to dial things in a little tighter on beer Smith. Was having issues because you couldn't tell when the damn thing is boiling so I'd be sitting at 99c for 20 minutes before it hit 100c. I ordered a hot rod though and should have it shortly. I can't stand how slow to heat and weak the boil is.