Dedicated Grainfather Guide, Problems and Solutions Thread

[jc64]

My immersion chiller is huge, chills fantastic when the wort is whirlpooled. I just want to do a few comparisons between the CFC and the IC.

 

[Hippy]

I pushed the limits of the system the other night. Did a Dogfishead 90 minute IPA clone with a grainbill of 9.18 kg.

Apart from misjudging the strike and sparge water volumes, knocking the top of the return tube off into the mash, having to do an extended boil, making a mess of the kitchen, scorching the wort to the to element and springing a leak in the chiller, it was a complete and total success. Textbook brewing.

RE the scorching, it was a royal motha flippa to clean carbon from the bottom of the urn, and now my wort has an unwanted toasty (burnt) flavour. Has anyone else had issues with scorching with he grainfather?

I'm assuming its because the water to grain ratio was pretty low, but I don't know. Its never happened with more standard grain bills. Thoughts?

 

[HBHB]

I pushed the limits of the system the other night. Did a Dogfishead 90 minute IPA clone with a grainbill of 9.18 kg.

Apart from misjudging the strike and sparge water volumes, knocking the top of the return tube off into the mash, having to do an extended boil, making a mess of the kitchen, scorching the wort to the to element and springing a leak in the chiller, it was a complete and total success. Textbook brewing.

RE the scorching, it was a royal motha flippa to clean carbon from the bottom of the urn, and now my wort has an unwanted toasty (burnt) flavour. Has anyone else had issues with scorching with he grainfather?

I'm assuming its because the water to grain ratio was pretty low, but I don't know. Its never happened with more standard grain bills. Thoughts?

Ouch.

If you suspect there's a bit of crap that might get squeezed through the bottom plate, then it's best to give the bottom of the pot a bit of a scrape off to make sure there's no flour caked onto it. If it's that bad, I would have expected the thermal protection to kick in and cut the power to the element off. I haven't had any major problems and no burned/scorched tastes from any of the brews. Did have a small bit of crap on the element plate that was a bit dark from one brew.....I think it a was stupidly large Black IIPA with a fair bit of Rye in it from memory. I've just recently done a 90 minute IPA and a Pliny the Elder clone through it with no problems. I did cut the volume back a couple of litres to fit in the grain bill though.

A brew day like that would be enough to drive you to drink.

 

[acarey]

Ouch.

If you suspect there's a bit of crap that might get squeezed through the bottom plate, then it's best to give the bottom of the pot a bit of a scrape off to make sure there's no flour caked onto it. If it's that bad, I would have expected the thermal protection to kick in and cut the power to the element off. I haven't had any major problems and no burned/scorched tastes from any of the brews. Did have a small bit of crap on the element plate that was a bit dark from one brew.....I think it a was stupidly large Black IIPA with a fair bit of Rye in it from memory. I've just recently done a 90 minute IPA and a Pliny the Elder clone through it with no problems. I did cut the volume back a couple of litres to fit in the grain bill though.

A brew day like that would be enough to drive you to drink.

The more I think about it, the more I think it might have just been due to loads of protein. The scorching/carbon was caked on the bottom of the urn in the middle centre circle. In other smaller brews I've done, there is always a buildup of protieny stuff there. Its just never burnt before. I did get a couple of big chunks of material forming freely in the boil. The biggest of which was about as big as the top joint of my thumb.

It was 92% pilsner malt. I dont know it that has more protein than pale malts, or maybe just because the grain bill was big, or maybe because I turn the big element on to ramp between steps or maybe, just maybe, I have no effing idea what I'm talking about

edit: more info on chunks

 

[carniebrew]

What are you guys finding 'normal' in terms of grain getting through? Here's a couple of pics from my most recent brew. It was a small batch, so I had a little higher water to grain ratio than I usually would have.



One side of the malt pipe. The other side didn't have much at all on it.


I'm wondering if I'm milling too fine. I'm using 1.1mm on a Mashmaster MiniMill.

 

[kaiserben]

^^^^ only once have I had that many grains end up above my top plate. Usually it's just a smattering of grains.

As long as they're not all going down the the recirc pipe it shouldn't matter, right?

 

[carniebrew]

Yep, that's what I figured. There wasn't much grain in the wort at all, so I wasn't too worried. Might move the mill out to 1.2mm next time and see if it makes a difference.

 

[nads]

Not sure whether I'm in the right spot for this question but I would appreciate some advice re my recent Grainfather aquisition. I'm new to all grain brewing and had initially decided to step up from kit brewing to BIAB but stumbled across the Grainfather and decided this was it. My question is if the recipe calls for Protein rest mash in, then Saccarine rest, then Glyco protein rest, does the wort have to recirculate during all these steps or should this only start when the Saccharine rest starts.

 

[carniebrew]

Hey nads, welcome aboard. You should be re-circing for all steps...it'll give you consistent temps and faster ramp-ups.

 

[MastersBrewery]

To clarify the above; systems such as this recirc for the entire mash start to end of mash out, same for herms/rims/braumiester. The big advantage is the clarity of the wort at boil.
cheers

MB

Ed typo

 

[nads]

I have another question re the use of hop socks. I used one in my first Grainfather brew and still ended up with a lot of loose hop matter on the filter which reduced the flow substantially when pumping the wort to the FV. Would it be a help to use a stocking inside the hop sock to reduce this as it is a much finer weave than the hop sock. When I was kit brewing someone sugested using a stocking for dry hopping which seemed to work.

 

[TIGGA351]

I have another question re the use of hop socks. I used one in my first Grainfather brew and still ended up with a lot of loose hop matter on the filter which reduced the flow substantially when pumping the wort to the FV. Would it be a help to use a stocking inside the hop sock to reduce this as it is a much finer weave than the hop sock. When I was kit brewing someone sugested using a stocking for dry hopping which seemed to work.

I use a brew in the bag bag to line the space between the inside of the boiler and the grain basket to reduce the amount of sediment getting through . If you did this and used a hop sock , then you should capture just about all of it . I know its not always possible , but I use whole hop flowers where I can instead of pellets .... makes a huge difference !!!

 

[TIGGA351]

Yep, that's what I figured. There wasn't much grain in the wort at all, so I wasn't too worried. Might move the mill out to 1.2mm next time and see if it makes a difference.

Just be careful with your grain crush size mate ... I found once I went over 1mm , my efficiency went south big time and I think it was due to the grain not being cracked enough ....more bruised than cracked you might say . I went back to 1mm and have never had an issue since .

 

[bradsbrew]

Just be careful with your grain crush size mate ... I found once I went over 1mm , my efficiency went south big time and I think it was due to the grain not being cracked enough ....more bruised than cracked you might say . I went back to 1mm and have never had an issue since .

Is that 1mm with a mashmaster minimill and whats your sparge like?

Cheers

 

[TIGGA351]

Is that 1mm with a mashmaster minimill and whats your sparge like?

Cheers

The type of mill doesn't matter , its the gap between the rollers which is the critical part ... in my case 1mm . Sparging works well , but I often add rice hulls to the grain bill when the recipe permits and this aids a better sparge also .... it helps space out the grain and allow a better flow through of the water .

 

[bradsbrew]

The type of mill doesn't matter , its the gap between the rollers which is the critical part ... in my case 1mm . Sparging works well , but I often add rice hulls to the grain bill when the recipe permits and this aids a better sparge also .... it helps space out the grain and allow a better flow through of the water .

Believe it or not the type of mill does matter as it also relates to the length and diameter of the rollers. I will be trying some rice hulls next brew.

 

[carniebrew]

I agree with Brad, there's lots of talk out there recently about the difference in mills...unfortunately the gap isn't all that matters. We've even found on our club mill that the speed you mill at makes a noticeable difference to the end result.

I'm getting around 81% efficiency on the 1.1mm setting on my mashmaster minimill, after getting 65% using the same (and smaller) setting when I was doing BIAB. Brewers in our club with Braumeisters have used this mill at 1.2mm with good success, so I'll try that out for the GF next brew and report back.

Oh and nads, I've been using a hop sock ever since I got the grainfather, I read it was highly recommended given the way the pump filter works. On my last brew though I decided to throw 40 grams of cascade in at flameout, and chucked it in the boil rather than the sock, and had a similar issue...major clogging of my filter, leading to a slow drain into the fermenter. Got great heat exchange through my chiller of course though!

 

[nads]

I use a brew in the bag bag to line the space between the inside of the boiler and the grain basket to reduce the amount of sediment getting through . If you did this and used a hop sock , then you should capture just about all of it . I know its not always possible , but I use whole hop flowers where I can instead of pellets .... makes a huge difference !!!

When using a brew in the bag bag does this create a problem as it must be sitting very close to the element. With my last brew using a hop sock there was a lot of burnt on matter on the SS above the element which was quite hard to remove, however maybe the bag minimises this.

 

[kaiserben]

I've always used hop socks (even before I got my Grainfather), so it's just second nature.

I always get plenty of hop matter that escapes the sock, but once the boil is rolling the hop matter just isn't going to settle on the element area, so no worries there. However it will collect around the filter. It's never been a massive issue for me though. One time with a particularly hoppy IPA it did slow down significantly towards the end of transfer to fermenter, so I gave the filter one very small scrape with a mash paddle (in a direction that wouldn't cause that filter to pop off) and it flowed more quickly again.

However after an incident when brewing with 51% rye I'm now paranoid about grains/proteins gathering around the element at any time I need to ramp up the temperature. Moreso when the inner basket is in and I can't scrape the bottom with my mash paddle. But in reality this'll only be a problem in extreme circumstances (eg 51% rye).

 

[TIGGA351]

When using a brew in the bag bag does this create a problem as it must be sitting very close to the element. With my last brew using a hop sock there was a lot of burnt on matter on the SS above the element which was quite hard to remove, however maybe the bag minimises this.

Haven't had any dramas so far nads ... the bag hasn't been burnt yet and the base of the boiler is never to much trouble to clean up . I find the Grainfather cleaner does a good job of softening everything up and makes cleaning a bit easier . The next brew I'm going to use a hop spider I purchased from Keg King to see if that also can cut down the amount of sediment .... will let you know if it makes a difference .