Hmm, not posted anything here for ages. Main reason is that I have done nothing particularly new, interesting or even different for months. Golden Ale, a Weissbier, Orkney Dark, Old Peculier clones, Patersbeer and Tripel with M31, all done before.
The Grainfather has cut out around 80C on the way up to boil for years now and I have developed a rather tedious methodology for using BIAB bag and Peco Boiler (the HBC kit) to work around this. I do the mash and sparge in the GF and use the Peco Boiler for the sparge water. After sparging, I jug the wort into the Peco via a BIAB bag, which filters out a lot of little bits of grain - between a ping-pong ball and a tennis ball sized lump. Then after boiling in the Peco, jug it back into the GF to cool and put in the FV as per any normal A-i-One system.
During this palaver, SWMBO asks "why don't you just get a new one? How much are they anyway". A quick search showed Lovebrewing @ £675. I dunno if this is the latest version or not of the G30, but I don't have an i-phone, (on principle - that principle being that everyone I know with one, lives via this interface onto reality) so not too fussed about the tech stuff. I did think about a cheaper alternative, and did minimal research, but WTH and SWMBO completed the purchase whilst I was messing around with the cleaning up.
For what its worth this was today's beer, the Orkney Dark Island Clone grain bill:
Maris Otter 3,980g
Wheat 250g
Crystal 280g
Chocolate 180g
CTZ hops to bitter and NZ Cascade 20g @ 15m and 35 @ 2mins. The old workhorse, US 05 for the yeast. Got 27L of wort and 80% efficiency.
SWMBO expects me to take the old one to the tip. If the new one works OK, anyone interested in collecting from BL1 could save me a job, if they would have any use for a partially functional unit. It heats water, mashes OK, does the cooling with a Counterflow chiller and cuts out at circa 80C. A sparky could by-pass the safety cut-off, but that is far too risky for me to even think about.