Upgrading my equipment, but what to get

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Grainfathers with the new control box are silly money, defo look for older stock, the combination of new control box and the nose dive with the pound have pushed the price beyond realism (these are imported from new zealand) for fresh imports.
 
Braumeisters are beyond realism...let alone the 64l SS Brewtech Chronicle I am looking at too...realistically.
 
I have 24 brews on my GF now and if you can afford it, it is great ! I get 26 liters in the FV regularly, I use the GF sparge water heater, it tops out at about 19liters and on lighter brews where there is very little water in the mash I have sparged over the 19 liters it can hold, I just add the extra water into the the sparge water heater as soon as there is space. One feature I really like is the ability to fill up the GF the night before and set the timer, I wake up in the morning and it is @65degrees, I dough in and let it do it's thing while I get the kids off to school, my brew day is done by 12:00, clean up and all. The chiller gets a full batch down to 19 degrees in about 20 minutes. Don't bother with hop spiders or bags or anything, even with 200 grams of hops in a big IPA, just give it a big whirl pool whilst chilling it in the GF with the chiller down to 80, let it sit for 10 minutes and then cont. to chill it as it goes into your FV.

If your looking at FV's, have you considered the FastFerment ? No need to rack to secondary (gives you time to use some of the Gym equipement) and super easy to harvest yeast, that alone will save you what it costs for fastferment over time.

If you have any more questions about the GF I will be happy to help.

There's a lot could be put off parting with the dosh to buy a GF...but if you can afford it..to me it's the best thing I bought.
I've got the small piping aswell for small brews, the 16l gf HLT, and a BrewBucket!
With my one arm disibilty and my damage brain, I manage just fine...even with lifting the larger FV's (usually 2 x 10l batches then into the the brewbucket with another hands to help!)
To me the no nonsense approach to the set up, even cleaning.
I had a issue with not using a hop spider or muslin bag! I hit the side of the filter and blocked the pump! I didn't know at the time...but with only one arm I got frustrated and confused! Eventually Binned the brew all thogether! (Just had nuff at that time..could of saved it..live n learn)
Now I've got a SS hop basket to try.
TBH if your serous with the hobby, and can put savings away every month it's well worth the money!
Tweaking your brews are made easy by a lot of YouTube brews and tips etc.
Saving placed if you haven't much room aswell.
 
Be careful with those hops spiders, I tried recirculating into mine with about 120 grams of pellets in it and the wort did not go through the spider, it overflowed out the top of the spider so I am not sure how much utilisation these spiders inhibit.
 
Im looking at the bulldog brewer and with that one you empty the grain from the grain basket and then put it back in which acts as a hop basket for the boil. Part of the saving on the brewer will go towards a sparge water heater.
 
cant argue about the price of the bulldog system, and its only fair i declare my fanboy owner status with a grainfather. But the position of the temperature control device will require counter top sitting or be prepared to kneel down with your head inches off the ground.. a feature it could be worth a little more expense to avoid alone ;)


A sparge water heater can be knocked up with a tapped FV and a single kettle element for less than £20.. With the grainfather some sparge with tap hot water from a combi boiler, others sparge with cold water and dont report huge drops in efficiency either.

the optimum mesh/perforated stainless steel plates for grain mashing and hop containment are significantly different afaik, 2mm holes with minimum 30% open for grain containment, and #30 mesh for flower hops, #40 for pellets.. perhaps they include a mesh overlay for the hops?? or sandwich it between 2 plates??
 

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