Grainfather disasters

Anyone else seem to make more of a mess than beer when having a brew day?
I have made maybe 6 brews in my grainfather including one today and each and every one leaves the kitchen floor sticky and very wet.

I also have never achieved og or fg despite following the recepies with military precision. To be honest I got better results with biab in a water boiler.

Rant over

I make a bit of a mess but that's just me, 😀 each brew gets a bit cleaner. Previously I made 8L batches on the stove which keeps things a lot tidier.


Having said that, other than the AG kit I've exceeded my OGs as I seem to be be getting 85% efficiency. Not sure why really, lots of stirring when mashing in and slow thorough sparing I guess.

madonion said:

Anyone else seem to make more of a mess than beer when having a brew day?
I have made maybe 6 brews in my grainfather including one today and each and every one leaves the kitchen floor sticky and very wet.

I also have never achieved og or fg despite following the recepies with military precision. To be honest I got better results with biab in a water boiler.

Rant over

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I documented my many GF disasters on the Forum. If you ask, I will try to find them!

Basically they came down to:

Rushing the doughing in
Knocking the central tube back into two bits
Panicking over apparent temperature variations.

The videos that David Heath does are very good.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMqIsTQhMHQ[/ame]

This is a bit of a slow start, but you can access the others from there on U-Tube.

Yeah I've watched lots of David Heaths vids. Quite helpful for some things but doesn't address what to do when things go wrong - more how to avoid it.

Without doubt, a big mop and bucket is a brewing "essential"! :thumb:

Regardless of how you are going about your brewing, another two are:

1. Lots of time. i.e. "Thimk!" before "Cock-up!"

2. A Checklist of what you MUST do at EACH stage of the brew.

Here's my own Checklist for a SMASH using EKG Hops. It will be used in the next couple of days.

SMASH WITH EKG LEAF
Brewed ??/03/17​

INGREDIENTS
5.00kg Maris Otter Malt
50g EKG Leaf
Wilco Ale Yeast
Yeast Nutrient

PREPARATION
Mill 5.0kg of Maris Otter Malt
Prepare 2 x 15g and 1 x 10g EKG Hop Leaf
Put out 1 x Protafloc Tablet
Put out Wilco Ale Yeast
Put out Yeast Nutrient

MASH METHOD
Strike Water = 2.6 litres per 1kg of grain = 13 litres at 68 degrees
Mash at 60 to 65 degrees for one hour.
Run off wort and circulate using TWO vessels until wort runs CLEAR.
Heat SPARGE water to 70 degrees.
Sparge at one litre per minute. Stop sparge when runnings reach SG1.008 / SG1.012.
Overfill boil kettle to 27 litres so that there is no need to add more water later.

BOIL METHOD
Boil with 15g of EKG Bittering Hop Leaf for 60 minutes.
Add Protafloc tablet and boil for 10 minutes.
Add 10g of EKG Aroma Hop Leaf for 5 minutes.
Flame Out
Add 15g of EKG Aroma Hop Leaf and steep for 30 minutes.
Cool to 20 degrees, Whirlpool and run off into FV via a Sieve.

FERMENTATION/BOTTLING
Take OG.
Add 1tsp of Yeast Nutrient.
Pitch yeast and ferment at 20 degrees.
Take FG.
Add 80g of sugar and Hop Tea prepared from 10g of EKG Hop Leaf before bottling.

Enjoy! :thumb:

Slid said:

I documented my many GF disasters on the Forum. If you ask, I will try to find them!

Basically they came down to:

Rushing the doughing in
Knocking the central tube back into two bits
Panicking over apparent temperature variations.

The videos that David Heath does are very good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMqIsTQhMHQ

This is a bit of a slow start, but you can access the others from there on U-Tube.

Click to expand...

Good advice .David Heaths videos are excellent. I stir my mash halfway through now and its still clear after an hour.

My input on the Gf saga....well at the start lot n lot of fine tuning!!
Getting the floor sticky and wet is part n parcel of any set up tbh..
With me I'm parltial disabled...one good hand and one duff hand.left body smashed and my brain isn't what it was...hence the wet floor...
Every brew I analyse everything!!
Tbh all the programes are just a guideline and most of the time the brews are over or under what I was expecting..but I adjust accordingly.
The whole gf experience like any setup gets better n better.
Got no qualms with the kit!!
But with my brain!!!!!! Any mistake or misshap is human error not the kit...
Tbh what a emazing bit of kit....getting it right n then you know it's worth all that money.
Like I said just my opinion...I've brewed three tier etc & will not go back...got it too good with the GF.
Bri

Manxnorton said:

...........Any mistake or misshap is human error ..........

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Ah, where would we be without "Human error!" to blame things on? As a catch-all to explain accidents it comes a very close second to "Blame the dead guy!"

My favourite "human error" was the Herald of Free Enterprise. The judge in charge of the enquiry actually had the temerity to lay blame on a man who was fast asleep in his bunk at the time that it happened!

Dutto said:

Ah, where would we be without "Human error!" to blame things on? As a catch-all to explain accidents it comes a very close second to "Blame the dead guy!"

My favourite "human error" was the Herald of Free Enterprise. The judge in charge of the enquiry actually had the temerity to lay blame on a man who was fast asleep in his bunk at the time that it happened!

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haha! miscommunication, and getting cofused.....takes a lot for info to sink in
was i in a former life the person that sent the Light Brigade to the wrong artillery battery:lol:

in getting a dab hand with the GF, large and small batches...but waiting for not thinking creeping in

I brew outside where it is easy to wash the floor but these days I don't make any mess. I guess outside I have more room and everything as a place and I try not to rush things.

Leon103 said:

I brew outside where it is easy to wash the floor but these days I don't make any mess. I guess outside I have more room and everything as a place and I try not to rush things.

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Yeah good idea Leon.
Think the plenty of space and not worrying about spiilages.
Seems to me a comfortable and not rushing things, may be away ahead...but when the weather gets warm, that is...
Mind I've got the set up right for me...plenty of time going ova my check sheet and working out the next task!!
Have I missed something out!!! Haha! Treble checked that....usually the protofloc...
Keep saying the no chill is my best friend...less to do..and have plenty of time..a yeast starter once I done the cleaning and putting away...and something to do the next day..
:-)
Bri

Human error is my worst enemy! Everything went well on yesterdays brew until I knocked an unsanitised beaker into my fermenting bucket just after taking a gravity reading! The wort has started to ferment in my fermenting fridge but paranoid about infection now!

madonion said:

Human error is my worst enemy! Everything went well on yesterdays brew until I knocked an unsanitised beaker into my fermenting bucket just after taking a gravity reading! The wort has started to ferment in my fermenting fridge but paranoid about infection now!

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I am living proof that The Lord looks after people who make mistakes so don't worry! :thumb: :thumb:

At this time of the year wild yeasts are thin on the ground and any that made it into the brew should be rapidly swamped out by the yeast you've pitched in there!

BTW, before beating yourself over the head, have you ever looked at The Darwin Awards? Here's one to show any adventurous boys you may have!

http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2016-03.html

Dutto said:

I am living proof that The Lord looks after people who make mistakes so don't worry! :thumb: :thumb:

At this time of the year wild yeasts are thin on the ground and any that made it into the brew should be rapidly swamped out by the yeast you've pitched in there!

BTW, before beating yourself over the head, have you ever looked at The Darwin Awards? Here's one to show any adventurous boys you may have!

http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2016-03.html

Click to expand...

Here's hoping! Thanks for the reply.
The fermenting temperature is holding perfect in my fridge fermenters maiden voyage so I am glad about that at least.

Seen loads of those darwin awards before and my eldest son is a likely candidate. 😮

I find that if you lift the re circulating hose out of the wort first and suspend it for a few seconds, the wort runs back in to the boiler so when you disconnect the re-circ arm it doesn't dribble hot wort all over.
V pleased with my Grainfather, not so much with the impact it had on my bank account

Pawlo7671 said:

I find that if you lift the re circulating hose out of the wort first and suspend it for a few seconds, the wort runs back in to the boiler so when you disconnect the re-circ arm it doesn't dribble hot wort all over.
V pleased with my Grainfather, not so much with the impact it had on my bank account

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I'm not knocking the grainfather at all it is a superb system and without doubt a thousand times better than my biab setup I used before! Its me thats the problem lol

madonion said:

Anyone else seem to make more of a mess than beer when having a brew day?
I have made maybe 6 brews in my grainfather including one today and each and every one leaves the kitchen floor sticky and very wet.

I also have never achieved og or fg despite following the recepies with military precision. To be honest I got better results with biab in a water boiler.

Rant over

Click to expand...

Having only brewed BIAB I sometimes watch grainfather brew days on you tube and cant help but think what a load of faff..

madonion said:

I'm not knocking the grainfather at all it is a superb system and without doubt a thousand times better than my biab setup I used before! Its me thats the problem lol

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My first 5 or 6 goes on the GF were a bit comical, TBH, but after that, the process is fairly smooth.

This thread is just fantastic:

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=61335

Our thanks, again, to pcz :thumb:

JFB said:

Having only brewed BIAB I sometimes watch grainfather brew days on you tube and cant help but think what a load of faff..

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Nothing wrong with biab. I went from kits to biab and was amazed at the difference. The grainfather can be a pain in the **** (for me especially - it seems) but its still early days for me and the advantages over biab are already evident.