my brew set up

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DavidHatton

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Evening all, back in 2018 I started putting together parts to go totally electric.
I wasn't pleased with the lethargic boil I was getting on the stove top gas ring, I decided to put something together that would allow me to brew inside and outside, like today 26/08/2019 it has been 33c so was perfect to get the kit out and brew outdoors.

Brew set up.jpg


I sourced the parts from a few countries, the element enclosure (hotpod) from Bobby at Brewhardware in NYC
the 2.8kw element and high temp cable from a seller in the Netherlands, and for the life of me I can't remember who D'oh.

A grainfather connect controller runs the boil kettle and I sometimes do Brew in a Basket with it, also as pictured the grainfather sparge water heater, which I use to heat the mash and sparge waters.
Ss Brewtech 10 gallon pot has tri-clamp fittings for the element and a grainfather temp probe thermowell upgrade kit, that cost £12.50 from malt miller. had to drill it out a bit as it doesn't fit the connect probe.

Basically I wired the element with 2.5mm cable I bought that had the relevent fittings to plug straight into the controller and same with the controller power.
Chose the grainfather connect controller because it has certain features that I wanted but wasn't ready to build a similar controller, and this way I can create a recipe on beer smith and export it into the grainfather community app! which is a real bonus when having to set alarms and reminders in the past..

Seen other controllers, that cost 3 times more that do less.

Anyway if anybody is interested further, happy to share more info..

Cheers
 
Love the idea of using the Grainfather Connect in your own system. How did you rig that up?
 
Love the idea of using the Grainfather Connect in your own system. How did you rig that up?

In Short, I wired a heating element with the same connectors as the controller and just put it in the boil pot with tri-clamp fitting, so I guess it just works as if its on a grainfather minus the mash steps, that I use when I use the brew in a basket method.
 
That's pretty awesome. Figured they could be wired up to other systems but wouldn't begin to know where to start.
 
@DavidHatton Good setup
I'm trying to hook a Grainfather Connect controller up to my all in one system (Brew Devil / Guten). Trying to work out what to do with the GF temp probe.

Any chance you could post some more pics of your thermowell please?

Also what is the upgrade kit you mention? Do you have details or a link?

The only things I can find on Malt Miller are:

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/grainfather-thermometer-probe-cover/&
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/grainfather-thermometer-cover-nut/Which I'm not even sure if they are the right thing, and totals to nearly £20.

Thank you!
 
@DavidHatton Good setup
I'm trying to hook a Grainfather Connect controller up to my all in one system (Brew Devil / Guten). Trying to work out what to do with the GF temp probe.

Any chance you could post some more pics of your thermowell please?

Also what is the upgrade kit you mention? Do you have details or a link?

The only things I can find on Malt Miller are:

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/grainfather-thermometer-probe-cover/&
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/grainfather-thermometer-cover-nut/Which I'm not even sure if they are the right thing, and totals to nearly £20.

Thank you!
Hi, sold it on recently, from memory what would you like to know about the thermowell, it does need drilling out with a drill bit to allow the probe on the new connect controller to fit..
 
@DavidHatton Good setup
I'm trying to hook a Grainfather Connect controller up to my all in one system (Brew Devil / Guten). Trying to work out what to do with the GF temp probe.

Any chance you could post some more pics of your thermowell please?

Also what is the upgrade kit you mention? Do you have details or a link?

The only things I can find on Malt Miller are:

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/grainfather-thermometer-probe-cover/&
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/grainfather-thermometer-cover-nut/Which I'm not even sure if they are the right thing, and totals to nearly £20.

Thank you!
Magical Pancake put this up some time ago.
 
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