ManseMasher
Regular.
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2014
- Messages
- 463
- Reaction score
- 345
Excellent write up, thank you. I can't wait to try one for myself!
Grainfather trial feedback
- Thread starter ManseMasher
- Start date
Help Support The Homebrew Forum:
Thanks for the informative write up. I have also recently got one of the GF's. I haven't used it as yet, as i need a few more bits of brewing paraphernalia.
But can't wait to get started. It will be the Cascade Single Hop Ale from Greg Hughes' book.
But can't wait to get started. It will be the Cascade Single Hop Ale from Greg Hughes' book.
ManseMasher
Regular.
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2014
- Messages
- 463
- Reaction score
- 345
Just to let you all know, I have emailed David at Grainfather UK with a link to this thread. He thanks all concerned for the feedback, and has found it very useful.
Thanks again for some excellent reviews!
MM
Thanks again for some excellent reviews!
MM
I'll be having another go with mine on Saturday.
Can't wait as was very impressed with the first attempt..
Can't wait as was very impressed with the first attempt..
Just heard from David at Imake, I've got another unit on its way to me by the end of the week, perfect timing as I had a 20L brew planned for Sunday. This means I get to brew in the house instead of the shed. Zingo!
Watch this space for rambling reviews and my opinion (-ated views) on the all important question: does the grainfather over automate the process...?
Watch this space for rambling reviews and my opinion (-ated views) on the all important question: does the grainfather over automate the process...?
Made a boddingtons clone in the grainfather today. Recipe is my post on the brew day board. This post is all about my experience of the grainfather.
Well...all in all it was possibly the faffiest brew day I've ever had, and I'm not terribly convinced that at �ã600 it adds enough value to make it a replacement for my gas burner + pot biab set up. Shame, but that's my first impression.
I won't detail the process of using the machine, others have done that, just my thoughts on it as a brewing device, and I'll detail couple of the things that led me to this conclusion.
Before going into to it though, I will say it's a very clever, well made bit of kit. I'm just not sure it's worth the investment.
Here's the detail:
1) water calculations. These were easy enough to do, but it didn't work out. I ended up with 17.5L at 1044 instead of 20L at 1037. I had to dilute back. Not the end of the world and I'm not sure why I was so short, but still a surprise (and I know I measured the volumes right)
2) sparging. Given you have to heat sparge water separately, it kinds of negates any advantage over a one pot biab set up. I had three pots on the stove heating up 5L each. Having to sparge manually with a jug took 30 mins or so; totally tedious. I don't really sparge with my biab setup. Sure I get less efficiency but it's way quicker and I can adjust the grain bill a bit to compensate if want to.
3) the counter flow chiller. Great idea in principle but the pump filter got so clogged that the wort slowed to a drippy trickle. It got to 37c and then stopped cooling because there was no wort running through the chiller anymore. I ended up scraping all the hops and break material off the pump filter but it still came through slowly. I stopped recirculating it and pumped it straight into the fv, but it took about an hour to fill. Very frustrating, and where i scraped the crud off the filter it just stirred it all up and meant the wort going into the fv was very cloudy. Not sure what the solution is here?
4) time spent. With all this faffing this was a 6 hour brew day and I've yet to properly clean the machine. I'm sure that can be cut down with experience and solutions to the above, but I had expected better. I can do biab in five or less depending on brew length
5) brewing In the house. Not a problem with the machine of course, but my wife and kids were unimpressed that I was stinking out the house again after brewing in the shed for the last few times, so a disadvantage for me.
So...to the big question...does it over automate? No, quite the opposite. It was more complicated than my biab set up and didn't really offer any major advantage.
I'm going to give it another go before I send it back, with a rye pale. Hopefully i can improve on this experience.
I'd be interested in other owner's and trialist's thoughts on the above points. I feel like maybe I'm missing something that everyone else has really bought into?
And sorry to Imake for the negative review! Just giving my honest thoughts.
Well...all in all it was possibly the faffiest brew day I've ever had, and I'm not terribly convinced that at �ã600 it adds enough value to make it a replacement for my gas burner + pot biab set up. Shame, but that's my first impression.
I won't detail the process of using the machine, others have done that, just my thoughts on it as a brewing device, and I'll detail couple of the things that led me to this conclusion.
Before going into to it though, I will say it's a very clever, well made bit of kit. I'm just not sure it's worth the investment.
Here's the detail:
1) water calculations. These were easy enough to do, but it didn't work out. I ended up with 17.5L at 1044 instead of 20L at 1037. I had to dilute back. Not the end of the world and I'm not sure why I was so short, but still a surprise (and I know I measured the volumes right)
2) sparging. Given you have to heat sparge water separately, it kinds of negates any advantage over a one pot biab set up. I had three pots on the stove heating up 5L each. Having to sparge manually with a jug took 30 mins or so; totally tedious. I don't really sparge with my biab setup. Sure I get less efficiency but it's way quicker and I can adjust the grain bill a bit to compensate if want to.
3) the counter flow chiller. Great idea in principle but the pump filter got so clogged that the wort slowed to a drippy trickle. It got to 37c and then stopped cooling because there was no wort running through the chiller anymore. I ended up scraping all the hops and break material off the pump filter but it still came through slowly. I stopped recirculating it and pumped it straight into the fv, but it took about an hour to fill. Very frustrating, and where i scraped the crud off the filter it just stirred it all up and meant the wort going into the fv was very cloudy. Not sure what the solution is here?
4) time spent. With all this faffing this was a 6 hour brew day and I've yet to properly clean the machine. I'm sure that can be cut down with experience and solutions to the above, but I had expected better. I can do biab in five or less depending on brew length
5) brewing In the house. Not a problem with the machine of course, but my wife and kids were unimpressed that I was stinking out the house again after brewing in the shed for the last few times, so a disadvantage for me.
So...to the big question...does it over automate? No, quite the opposite. It was more complicated than my biab set up and didn't really offer any major advantage.
I'm going to give it another go before I send it back, with a rye pale. Hopefully i can improve on this experience.
I'd be interested in other owner's and trialist's thoughts on the above points. I feel like maybe I'm missing something that everyone else has really bought into?
And sorry to Imake for the negative review! Just giving my honest thoughts.
ManseMasher
Regular.
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2014
- Messages
- 463
- Reaction score
- 345
So, what are your thoughts on automation now that you've used it? Ah, I've seen what you put about it not automating.....
I didn't get any clogging. Did you use hop pellets or leaf ? I used leaf.
Yeah, lead, though there was about 65g which is a lot once they've taken on water. It was a total pain. In reflection that was my main annoyance but it did taint the whole exercise. I'll try the bag next time, at least for the 60m addition, which will reduce the amount of hops floating free.
How long were you re-circulating the wort through the chiller? From reading your report it sounds like you were re-circulating with the chiller running.
I just ran for 5 mins without the water running and then turned the water on and drained straight into FV without a problem. I thnk the longer you run the pump the more tightly packed the hops get around the filter.
I see on the website they now sell a different filter
I just ran for 5 mins without the water running and then turned the water on and drained straight into FV without a problem. I thnk the longer you run the pump the more tightly packed the hops get around the filter.
I see on the website they now sell a different filter
A fair while, yes, but that seemed to be what the instructions said to do. Did you turn it off when you put the water on?
How did it continue draining without the pump running? Gravity?
You need to run for 5 mins without the water running to sterilise the chiller unit before re-directing the outlet into the FV and then run with the water on, so pump the cooled wort straight into the FV. Also check the ball valve is fully open, I would also take it apart and check for crud as this may hamper flow (especially if the previous user didn't clean it properly)
I must say that my second brew did run slower than the first but both transferred OK. The chiller is very efficient so you need to keep an eye on wort temp as it can get too cold
HarrowBrewer
Regular.
As noted, I used hop bags for all my hop additions and had no clogging issues.
Giving this another go with a rye pale. So far so much easier than the first one. I don't think I out enough mash water in first time which is why I got less wort at higher OG. This time I added more mash I water (there's no calculation for small batches, you have to guess it) and it looks much more like the wort in the video.
Got to start heating some sparge water in a mo. More to follow.
Got to start heating some sparge water in a mo. More to follow.
Having done another brew with the gf today, it's time for a reappraisal.
I found this session less faffy, mainly as I ironed out time wasting where I hadn't done something the optimum way first time round.
For instance, I didn't bother weighing anything out til I had mash water heating. I didn't bother with sparge water til the mash was mostly done.
This cut the main action down to just over four hours, pretty good, though cleaning will add another one to that. I'll do that now the kids are in bed.
I tried the hop bag idea, but it was a drawstring one, and within five minutes had opened and the hops all came out, so I fished out the bag and gave up on that. Filter clogged again, but as I wasn't recirculating during cooling it wasn't that big an issue.
I still don't like sparging, though on reflection that's not the grainfathers fault. I'm just used to not bothering with biab, and it's a pain heating enough water on an electric cooker.
I also had the lower volume of wort at a higher Gravity again, despite adding more mash water this time. I think with practice it would be easy enough to adjust though.
Clean up is tiresome but not really more so than my biab set up, which is messy cause of soot. This takes longer but is less messy.
So, a good piece of kit that does take some of the hassle out of brewing, but adds some other hassles in.
I've warmed to it. It was certainly a lot easier second time round. It's not for me though. Might be more inclined if the wife and kids didn't hate me brewing in the house, but I still don't think I'd get one.
I can see the appeal more now though, and understand why people like them, and if I was doing step mashes it would really come into its own.
We'll see in due course what the beer is like, but I can't see any reason why it will be any worse than anything else I've made.
Big ups to manse and the mods for organising and the Imake team for being brave enough to lend us their toys.
I found this session less faffy, mainly as I ironed out time wasting where I hadn't done something the optimum way first time round.
For instance, I didn't bother weighing anything out til I had mash water heating. I didn't bother with sparge water til the mash was mostly done.
This cut the main action down to just over four hours, pretty good, though cleaning will add another one to that. I'll do that now the kids are in bed.
I tried the hop bag idea, but it was a drawstring one, and within five minutes had opened and the hops all came out, so I fished out the bag and gave up on that. Filter clogged again, but as I wasn't recirculating during cooling it wasn't that big an issue.
I still don't like sparging, though on reflection that's not the grainfathers fault. I'm just used to not bothering with biab, and it's a pain heating enough water on an electric cooker.
I also had the lower volume of wort at a higher Gravity again, despite adding more mash water this time. I think with practice it would be easy enough to adjust though.
Clean up is tiresome but not really more so than my biab set up, which is messy cause of soot. This takes longer but is less messy.
So, a good piece of kit that does take some of the hassle out of brewing, but adds some other hassles in.
I've warmed to it. It was certainly a lot easier second time round. It's not for me though. Might be more inclined if the wife and kids didn't hate me brewing in the house, but I still don't think I'd get one.
I can see the appeal more now though, and understand why people like them, and if I was doing step mashes it would really come into its own.
We'll see in due course what the beer is like, but I can't see any reason why it will be any worse than anything else I've made.
Big ups to manse and the mods for organising and the Imake team for being brave enough to lend us their toys.
Soton
some random guy
With regards to the wort chiller slowing to a standstill I now remove the ball bearing and the spring from above the pump flow tap as small amounts of hops were catching on the spring and were slowing the wort flow, since I started doing that it's quick and easy to pump the wort straight out of the grainfather into the fermentation bucket at the exact temptpreture
Maybe that was the issue. Don't know. I'm going to send it back this week anyway, I've done two brews and I want to make sure others get a pop at it. I think manse will explode if he doesn't get it soon.
On that note, can any othe the other trialist's recommend a reliable courier to take it back?
HarrowBrewer
Regular.
There is a calculator for smaller batches, it's a bit hidden away on the back page of the manual.
I used interlink to send mine back. Boxed it back up and dropped it into one of their depots.
You can pay online and print out the label. Cost about ã18 . I put the weight down as 12kg
You can pay online and print out the label. Cost about ã18 . I put the weight down as 12kg
Similar threads
