Grainfather Cutout

I got the following response from GF and as it looks like a general guide to identifying the root cause of similar issues, it appears below:


My apologies for the issue you experienced with our product. Could you please provide the following information in order to investigate further;

• Batch No/ Serial Number (underneath the unit on a white sticker)

• Have you tried pressing the reset switch on the base of the boiler while the unit is turned on, then turn it off at the wall and try again?

• Is there anything burnt on the bottom of the boiler?
  
• What is the size of your grain crush?
  
• Is the red switch at the base of the boiler set to "Normal" or "I"?
• Are you using the original control box or the Connect Control box?
  
• Can you test the unit with just water and try bringing this to the boil and let me know what happens?

• To rule out the control box as the issue, can you fill the unit with water and try plugging the heating element plug directly to a wall socket rather than through the control box? Does it heat up then?
  
• If still no heat when directly plugged to wall socket, can you please unscrew the lid under the base of the mash tun and take photos of the heating element for us?
• Can you please provide photos and/or videos if helpful, to illustrate the problem further?

• It would be very helpful if you could please provide us with as much information as possible for our technical team to be able to investigate this issue as soon as possible.

Customer Experience Advocate - Grainfather

 

And today, GF confirmed the recommended crush range as 1.27 to 1.40mm

 

OK so today's brew was a Brown Porter along the lines of the GH recipe, but with more mashing malt and using Williamette hops.

Crushed the grain in the suggested range and it looked as if quite a few grains were intact. There was very little of the dust that causes me problems with the GF, but the GF still cut-out on me at 80C post sparge. There was some stuff on the bottom, not particularly stuck onto it, let alone burnt. Great feeling of deflation when I realised that it had zoned out again on me.

The efficiencies on this brew were just terrible. Like - when I first used it and was too scared to mash in properly. I will be going back to a "credit card" gap from now on. A credit card is 0.76mm thick, gives me a tennis ball sized lump of dust at transfer to PECO boiler, instead of today's table-tennis sized ball, but the efficiencies today were just pants. So, it looks like I am doing BIAB in a GF for the foreseeable future.

Won't be crushing at that gap width, anytime soon,for sure

 

Not sure that a bypass is the answer. My work-around takes me about an hour on the brewday, that's all. A by-pass could lead to real problems.

 

I'm thinking of somewhere around half way between the credit card and the one I used yesterday. That might be an experiment.