Mate, nothing to worry about if you have a 1064 beer finish at 1016, that's quite normal. If you want to get it lower next time then just drop your mash temp by 1 or 2 degrees. But if it's stable now at 1016 then she's ready to go.
I don't, I clean it separately. I hook the chiller up, then put the return arm onto the wort out tube on the chiller, re'circing back into the Grainfather.
No probs on pushing the plate down, the sparge water's still getting through the mash.
How did you scoop the wort out for an sg reading, just from the top? Looks like you got mostly water. Make sure you give the wort a really good stir to ensure consistency before taking a sample. And if you...
That'll do it. With most grains you'd probably get away with doing the 67C for 45m, then doing your mash out. Just remember to start sparging (with 75C ish water) pretty quickly after pulling up the mash pipe, or your sparge will take a lot longer.
You could buy a 2nd complete grainfather then sell the counter flow chiller. They're top notch chillers and you'd easily get over $200 for it I reckon.
I just let the fermenter sit in the fridge until it's at the temp I'm happy to pitch at. You can be pretty liberal with your pitching temps, e.g. if you're planning to ferment at 18C, don't worry about pitching the yeast when it's at 22 or 23 degrees. The yeast actually perform better in the...
I did a Weizenbock in my Grainfather for the Merri Mashers' case swap last year that was really well received. WLP300, 8.1% abv, 21 IBU, 33 EBC. Happy to share the recipe if anyone's interested...
380 is more clove & phenolic driven, so you should end up with a more tart/spicy hefe with that strain. A little more like a wit then a hefeweizen. WLP300 is more like Wyeast 3068, tending more towards the banana profile I enjoy in classics like Weihenstephener's hefe...
Don't get too stressed about step mashing your hef's. I've been making this style regularly since my first ever home brew, it's the beer that got me in to craft in the first place. I've found step mashing to be unnecessary to make a great hefe, it's all about under pitching the yeast a little...
I have dumped it into the bin with the grain before, but usually take it off since then. It's been 4 months since I've brewed so buggered if I can recall now.
Didn't make any difference to my brew though, no grain through to the wort, hit all my numbers spot on. I guess it's not all that...
Did you not recirc during the mash? You're certainly supposed to.
On the temp overshoot, did you switch the element over during the mash so it was only using the 500w instead of 2kw?
Why the DME? 5kg of grain is a breeze for the GF, with the right crush, mash out and sparge you should be...
I figure the soak/holds for the earlier steps aren't considered as temp critical, whereas sacc is. But I reckon you'd be fine using 2kw to ramp, then switching to 500W for each hold step regardless of temp.