Grainfather trial feedback

Evening all. I got my gf loan unit this week, but in a rather inauspicious start it arrived with the control unit smashed. No fault of the gf people, it presumably happened in transit.

Anyway I emailed paul at imake and they very promptly sent me a replacement casing so will get to test my diy skills as well as the gf. Good customer service so far then!

Unfortunately I'm away this weekend or I'd have got my brew on immediately. However I will get one on the following weekend then ship the unit on. I'll only do the one brew with it, and will have the benefit of reading all the various trialist's and owner's reviews and comments so hopefully won't have any disasters. Watch this space. Big ups to Paul@Imake for the loan and help.

Replacement control panel arrived today and was easily fitted. As F00b4r says, the modular design makes it very simple. It just slotted in place.

Had a read of the instructions, first impressions were that it seems complex, but I'm sure when following them to actually brew they will make more sense.

Looking forward to giving it a go. Sadly my wife has already stated she doesn't want one around the house. Boo!

Brew outside. :wink:

That's what mine said after the first brew indoors in the kitchen. I'm now in the process of including a brew house in our new extension.

I normally do but no leccy/water outside for grainfather!

The issue was where I could store it, anyway.

Maybe move house just so I could get one?

Anyway, enough from me on this thread til I review it. I'm doing a Timothy Taylor landlord clone, with a few alterations. Will post recipe when I do the review

Aaaarggghhhhhh

Set up the gf to do my brew today. Got it all put together, added mash water...which leaked out all over the kitchen floor.

The hose attaching the boiler to the pump was torn and the pump casing cracked, presumably a result of whatever bump broke the control unit casing.

I've emailed them about it but I can't see this will be an easy fix so suspect it will have to go back.

Not their fault but this has been a very frustrating experience and I'm not sure I'll bother with getting a fixed one sent back, it's been too much hassle.

Grainfather feedback

Firstly, a huge thank you to Manse Masher for sorting out this trial, and huge thanks to Paul Dodd at imake, for letting peole like me get their grubby mitts on one of his machines.

I've been making 10 litre ag batches since the start of this year and I've been looking to upgrade my equipment to make bigger brews, so I thought the Grainfather might be an interesting piece of kit for my needs.

It was easy to put together, and I found it very easy to use, although I had done a lot research online, and watched quite a number of youtube videos as well as those available on the Grainfather website to ensure I was up to speed. The instruction manual supplied is fairly basic, and it would be a difficult machine for a complete newcomer to ag to get their head around.

The temperature controller worked superbly, and allowed me to keep a very consistent mashing temperature, and the recirculating pump was very efficient (and eerily quiet). I already have a good sized stockpot for heating sparge water in, so that wasn’t a great concern, but again if you were new to brewing and didn’t have that kind of stuff to hand I could see it being frustrating. In boil mode, the unit achieved a rolling boil in good time, and held it perfectly with no issues. I used hop bags for all my hop additions, as I have read that some people have had filter clogs using loose hops, but I had no problems. The wort chiller was very impressive indeed, chilling 23 litres from boiling to cold in fifteen minutes, and being able to pump straight from the boiler into the FV made the whole process very smooth.

I made four brews, a full batch version of a Gales HSB clone that I’ve been tweaking in smaller batches, an American Pale ale with Chinook and Citra, that again, I’ve had success with in smaller batches and wanted to see if I could re-create, a 23 litre version of Clibit’s Irish Red Ale recipe and a Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale. The first two are ready to drink now and are excellent, really clear, great tasting and I’m delighted with the result.

As others have noted the efficiency is tremendous, I was using recipes in Brewmate set at 80 percent efficiency and hitting the numbers consistently.
I think it’s an excellent machine, and it makes excellent beer. I mentioned it to a brewing friend, who was very scathing, saying that “it takes the fun out of brewing”. I have to say this is nonsense. I posted on another thread about this, after a comment from a poster saying that all it involves is “sticking in the sack of grain and pressing buttons". My response then (and I stand by it) was: “It’s not an automated brewing machine - think of it more as a very efficient mash tun that doubles up as an easily controlled boiler. You still have to keep an eye on the boil, add your hops and other additions and sparge by hand, and its no help to you once the wort is in the fermenter, where the usual choices of yeast, fermentation temperature, dry-hopping and all the other variables that will affect the brew take place. I also make my own bread and I use a bread maker for kneading and proving, as I've done enough of that by hand over the years and I don't miss it! I don't use the machine for baking as you have no control over temperature, and it produces odd shaped loaves, but as a machine for getting a great dough ready to work with I find it very useful, and I'm beginning to think of the Grainfather the same way”.

My only criticism would be that the lid badly needs some kind of handle, as it’s a tricky thing to take on and off, especially when hot. I also echo the comments made by a previous poster regarding the short power lead, which seems a bit odd, but hardly an insurmountable problem. The build quality is good, and even though its much lighter than I expected, it seems fairly robust. I imagine the test unit I was using has done a lot of brews in a short space of time, and been transported around the country a fair bit, but it worked fine for me. Would I buy one? I still don’t know. For the price, I could buy a very good mash tun, boiler and chiller and have a lot left over, but I have to say the ease of use of the Grainfather, the ease of cleaning and small storage space make it very tempting. I’m moving house in the New Year, and what kind of brewing space I have in the new house will very much dictate the kit I end up buying, but I am very tempted indeed….

Excellent review mate, thank you!

Good review Harrow. Now I'm even more annoyed that the one I got was broken.

Not to worry, Paul is sending me another one later in the year so I'll review it then. Might have to take a day off work so I can cram in a few brews without writing off a whole weekend!

I do have concerns thaT it over automates the process but see your points on that.

Garethhuwwilliams said:

Good review Harrow. Now I'm even more annoyed that the one I got was broken.

Not to worry, Paul is sending me another one later in the year so I'll review it then. Might have to take a day off work so I can cram in a few brews without writing off a whole weekend!

I do have concerns thaT it over automates the process but see your points on that.

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I find it strange that people say it over automates it! what can anyone get out of watching a pot heating up to a certain temperature!
All the grainfather dose is heat the water/wort to a set temperature but gets good efficacy by pumping the wort over the grain, timing and all additions are done by the brewer
You would have to be a complete ludite to think that a water heater with a thermostat and pump was automation, it just takes the labour out of water heating

Soton said:

You would have to be a complete ludite to think that a water heater with a thermostat and pump was automation, it just takes the labour out of water heating

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Cool your jets dude!

I find the whole process of setting up, testing water temps, all that stuff is an integral part of my enjoyment of brewing. I'm sure I'm not alone there.

Just because you prefer to press a few buttons doesn't mean everyone thinks that way.

And by the way, whatever way you cut it, a thermostat controlling temperature and a pump to move water around without your intervening IS automation!

Just my two-penneth (as a non beer brewer)

Just because you prefer to press a few buttons doesn't mean everyone thinks that way.

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I may be missing something buy don't think he is trying to tell people how they should make their beer just how he prefers to do it.

And by the way, whatever way you cut it, a thermostat controlling temperature and a pump to move water around without your intervening IS automation!

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If you threw everything in switched it it on then came back a couple of hours later to find it finished i would agree but this is not fully automated by any stretch of the imagination.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY29_865C8o[/ame]

I'm fully with Chippy on this. It's not a beer making machine, it's a very efficient mash tun and boiler. I could buy a burco boiler, make the necessary fiddles to the electrics, rig up some kind of thermostat and use that to boil, as many brewers on here do. Would that be "automating the process"? Would it somehow take the fun out of brewing? I don't think so. The only reason I wouldn't do that is because I'm hopeless at anything electrical and I'd blow myself up within seconds of picking up a screwdriver.

Let's just be clear I haven't actually said it does over-automate the process, I haven't used the damn thing yet. And having not used it I've no idea if it over automates, it's just a concern I have.

At ease, people.

My turn at trialing the Grainfather.

Trial unit turned up yesterday all safe and well and have assembled (easy) ready to start brewing at the weekend. can't wait.

Brewing involves a lot more than making wort. Some people have the time, the energy and actually enjoy the hands on aspects of mashing and boiling. Others don't. That's why I got an 'automated' wort maker. For me, it's all about the yeast and fermentation. Regardless of whether it's a GF (with a flashed STC1000 :thumb:), a BM or a whatever, it is progress for home brewers, in terms of controlling what can be a hit-and-miss aspect of brewing.

Dads_Ale said:

My turn at trialing the Grainfather.

Trial unit turned up yesterday all safe and well and have assembled (easy) ready to start brewing at the weekend. can't wait.

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Looking forward to your review mate - I'm sure it will be a good one!

new work pattern means I get to start brewing tomorrow...
Brew liquor prepared ready to go in the morning. Will be using one of the HBC AG kits (see I bought some after winning the raffle, good marketing ploy).

Warning - may include loads of photos :-D

Brew day completed and what a great bit of kit the Grainfather is.

Full report to follow in next couple of days

Here goes. I kept a log as I was brewing and have used this for the feedback with a few photos added

Grainfather Trial

23rd October 2015

Using HBC all grain Apollo mash kit.

Grainfather assembled as per instruction with no issues, pretty straightforward.

Start 08:30
Not using the HBC instructions but using GF ones so needed to weigh out grain and use the water volume calculator on the GF website. Grain 6140g, final volume 23litres, mash water 20 litres, sparge water 12.8 litres.

First off a bit of a clean using PBW (as recommended by GF).



• Minor Point 1 ��" the power lead is quite short so you will probably need an extension lead.
Power on, filled with cleaner solution, chiller connected and pump to run. Impressed how quite the pump is. Clean completed including water flush of chiller (not mentioned in the instructions)

No problem with the screw fitting for the re-circ arm (moaned about in vids on YouTube)

09:30
Start brewing
• Minor Point 2 ��" check the acceptable load for your extension lead cut out (if fitted). Had to change over to my longer lead with a higher rating..

10:26
Grain added and mash started. No problems. Temp went up to 69c for a minute or so before dropping to 65c. Possibly switched to the low power a bit early as had to revert to full power to get it back to 67c but this only took 30s.
Sparge water heating up in HLT



11:50
Mash finished and sparge under way. Really easy this bit. Now wait for the grain bed to drain out.
• Minor Point 3 ��" The lid is not that easy to get off when it is hot





12:30
Grain bed fully drained and removed. 28.5lts in boiler. Set to boil mode. Note to self ��" make a note of the intermediate level marking increments before they are covered with wort. EDIT - Bigger note to self - you can see them on the outside doh



Seems to have stuck at 88c on temp gauge. Have scraped the bottom, see what happens. Don’t want to go too mad in case I dislodge the filter. First bit of concern.
Panic over now up to 94c

13:10
Reached rolling boil (temp showing 99c). Just need a bit of stirring at the beginning to stop it frothing up. Nice rolling boil, not too fierce. First hops added. Second hops added as per kit instructions



14:10
Boil finished. O min hops added and chiller coil set up. Left to stand for 15mins. Then hot wort circulated through chiller for 5 mins. Volume is about 25litres.

Re-circ on ��" fingers crossed as few comments on the Grainfather forum about the chiller blocking.



14:35
cooling started. Cooler is very efficient and water flow was knocked right back to get wort to 19c. water flow turned off for about a minute to allow FV temp to come up to 21c.

15:00
transfer complete. Went without a hitch although some break material transferred into FV.
Volume in FV ��" 25 ltres ish (Note to self - must mark levels on FV) at OG of 1060. So 2 litres extra at pretty much same OG as 23 litre. So very good efficiency.

16:20
Finished but need to have another go at cleaning the bottom of the boiler.


So what did I think?

I followed the Grainfather instructions, both written and the video on their website, and the day went without a hitch. I found them easy to follow.

Cleaning was also easy although I do have to have another go at the bottom of the vessel above the element as you do get a bit of crud stick to it.

Would I recommend it?

A definite yes to this one. It worked a treat and made brew day easier but still allowing a good degree hands on input. Just add a HLT and you are ready to go. It is also compact so does not take up too much space.

Value for money?

I think so. You get everything except a HLT and FV. The HLT can be easily made from a FV, tap and element.

Will I be buying one?

This is a distinct possibility although I have to decide between this or a larger posh SS mash tun.

All in all a great bit of kit that does what it says on the tin.
Big thanks to MM and Grainfather for giving us the chance to try it out :thumb: