Dedicated Grainfather Guide, Problems and Solutions Thread

[butisitart]

Hi Guys first time post on here, I have brewed two AG brews with the new Grainfather and finding there's an unusual taste to the brew.
The taste comes during fermentation and Im not sure if its normal. Its hard to describe but the beer looks good. I have done an AIPA and an English Bitter.
The brews were all temp controlled too. Here is a few questions -
further to other responses, but in no way negating them,
the gf is going to boil for an hour, so not much point in sanitizing it. cleaning it post brew is a lot more important. especially the wort chiller.
good idea to take a bottle to your hbs as they may (or may not scientifically be able to) nail it in one, but should offer a good starting point if it's a particular issue.
things i found personally, about gf and all-grain, is that gf is a lot more sensitive to what you put into it than perhaps biab or kit. eg i had to tone down the roast barley in my irish dry stout cos the gf really grabs the flavour of grains. 2 week ferment is pretty much base standard (extending from there if you want) to clear beer and clarify flavours. i find that the beers, regardless of ale, bock, stout etc, seem to balance in together at about 4 weeks, and can have some odd (but not overly strong) flavours in the earlier weeks. especially if they have only fermented 1 week. this is all based on beers around 3.6 - 4.2%abv, cos that will extend when abv climbs over standard, eg 6 or 8% abv.
adding a little pale crystal malt (around 100EBC at 2-5% of mash grain) is apparently good for smothering cardboard odours.
i guess another test is whether you are getting whatever this flavour is in you pale beers only, or in pale and dark beers. my theory there is that if darker beers are masking the taste, then it is not some weird diseased thing in your brew cos it would show in your dark beers, but more that the dark beer will mask the lack of fermentation via stronger dark grain flavours overriding a lack of fermentation. that's just my observation and i could be either spot on, or way off the mark.

 

[carniebrew]

From Grainfather Mark I:



To Grainfather Mark II!

 

[nads]

STC - 1000 Upgrade, Automated step mashing.

Found this if anyone is interested.

http://homebrewery.nz/process/grainfather-stc-1000/

 

[Benn]

Bookmarked.
cheers :beer:

 

[fishingbrad]

Nice link Nads. have you done this?

 

[welly2]

I'm going to have a go. Just ordered an STC-1000 suitable for this upgrade. I have said before about the ALVA seems like a bit of money just to not press buttons but at $30 (plus an arduino) compared with $450, I don't mind spending $30 in this case. I'll let you know how I get on!

 

[meathead]

I ordered via The Country Brewer in Daylesford. Got my GF there and the service is great. Mark, the manager, is happy to order things in. Plus they sell food smoking, fly fishing and other gear that I'm always happy to spend money on. Works out well as the wife is happy to wander around the town and I can have a beer and browse in the shop...and sneak a few things into the car while she's distracted elsewhere . I shop in Melbourne too but it's always a good excuse for a day trip.

Nice work thanks

 

[nads]

Nice link Nads. have you done this?

Not yet as I want to order the Grainfather upgrade first.

 

[McMelloW]

See this video on the use of an Open ArdBir and the GrainFather.
The software is open source and the hardware based on an Arduino Uno. It cost a bit more and you have to do a bit more DIY. See also this link

 

[Gorgar]

Nice link Nads. have you done this?

I did that on my GF (STC1000+ Brew) and it works like a charm!
A little more complicated than Ardbir to program the first couple of times but when it's done it works perfectly!
No modding needed to be done to the GF itself, just unscrew the leads from temp controller, heater and so on and lift out the STC200 and pop in the STC1000 (same form factor)
If you want to get a little more advanced you can also solder in the pump control and steer it via the STC1000 as well

 

[Hallze]

Just a quick question. Do the new units come with the "T" filter as standard or is it only available as a $25 upgrade?

 

[HBHB]

Just a quick question. Do the new units come with the "T" filter as standard or is it only available as a $25 upgrade?

Standard fitting in the current crop Hallze

 

[Hallze]

Cheers mate. I bought one about 4 weeks ago and I asked them was there a upgraded model coming out soon. They told me there wasn't so I bought one they had. A bit peeved they *********** me. Is the new filter any better than the previous one?

 

[HBHB]

Cheers mate. I bought one about 4 weeks ago and I asked them was there a upgraded model coming out soon. They told me there wasn't so I bought one they had. A bit peeved they *********** me. Is the new filter any better than the previous one?

It's not an upgraded model as such it's just got a new designed filter. But reality is, they probably wouldn't have known. We certainly didn't until they turned up.

 

[carniebrew]

Cheers mate. I bought one about 4 weeks ago and I asked them was there a upgraded model coming out soon. They told me there wasn't so I bought one they had. A bit peeved they *********** me. Is the new filter any better than the previous one?

Does yours have all the rest of the upgraded bits, just not the filter?

 

[carniebrew]

Ok, I just brewed on my GrainFather for the first time in a couple of months, and the first time since I committed to trying the "straight away" sparge method. I got everything ready to go, pulled the malt pipe up, waited for it to drain to the top of the tabs on the top plate, then poured a litre of 75C water in. By the time I filled my litre jug up with the next lot of sparge water, it was time to pour that in too. Sure enough my 11 litre sparge was over in not much more than 10 minutes! I was rapt as it's taken me 45 minutes previously.

BUT...(why is there always a but??)...after removing the malt pipe I took an OG, and was a good 6 points under what was expected! It's the first time this has happened to me on the Grainfather. I used some dextrose to get up to the OG I wanted (I didn't mind for this beer as I'm going for a dry hoppy pale). Later on I plugged my numbers back into Beersmith and it tells me I got a little over 70% efficiency, rather than the 80-82% I normally get. That's almost as low as I used to get no-sparging on my BIAB system.

To be clear, it's total efficiency I'm talking about here...here's a snip from Beersmith.


I'm sure we discussed efficiency with the "fast sparge" method previously and those doing it indicated no issues. But it's the only thing I changed on this brew...I left the roller width the same on my mill 'coz I wanted to only change 1 thing at a time.

Anyone else switched to the fast sparge method and noticing a big efficiency drop?

 

[GalBrew]

Ok, I just brewed on my GrainFather for the first time in a couple of months, and the first time since I committed to trying the "straight away" sparge method. I got everything ready to go, pulled the malt pipe up, waited for it to drain to the top of the tabs on the top plate, then poured a litre of 75C water in. By the time I filled my litre jug up with the next lot of sparge water, it was time to pour that in too. Sure enough my 11 litre sparge was over in not much more than 10 minutes! I was rapt as it's taken me 45 minutes previously.

BUT...(why is there always a but??)...after removing the malt pipe I took an OG, and was a good 6 points under what was expected! It's the first time this has happened to me on the Grainfather. I used some dextrose to get up to the OG I wanted (I didn't mind for this beer as I'm going for a dry hoppy pale). Later on I plugged my numbers back into Beersmith and it tells me I got a little over 70% efficiency, rather than the 80-82% I normally get. That's almost as low as I used to get no-sparging on my BIAB system.

To be clear, it's total efficiency I'm talking about here...here's a snip from Beersmith.

efficiency.JPG

I'm sure we discussed efficiency with the "fast sparge" method previously and those doing it indicated no issues. But it's the only thing I changed on this brew...I left the roller width the same on my mill 'coz I wanted to only change 1 thing at a time.

Anyone else switched to the fast sparge method and noticing a big efficiency drop?

Same thing happened to me. Took a pre boil gravity reading that was 15 points lower than predicted. Dumped 1.1 kg LDME to bring it back up to expected gravity. Post boil gravity ended up 15 points higher than expected. I neglected to give the wort a good stir before taking the same as my mash paddle doesn't fit well in the GF.

 

[carniebrew]

Haha...I did think of that before taking the reading, gave it a really good stir (with my new schmick narrow GF stainless paddle!). My post boil OG was spot on (after adding the dex), so unfortunately not the problem for me.

 

[McMelloW]

I did that on my GF (STC1000+ Brew) and it works like a charm!
A little more complicated than Ardbir to program the first couple of times but when it's done it works perfectly!
No modding needed to be done to the GF itself, just unscrew the leads from temp controller, heater and so on and lift out the STC200 and pop in the STC1000 (same form factor)
If you want to get a little more advanced you can also solder in the pump control and steer it via the STC1000 as well

The pump control is already there in the ArdBir. The heating is controlled with a SSR and PID / PWM in the software. This is more acurate then just on/off. Ofcourse it is an other price.

 

[butisitart]

BUT...(why is there always a but??)...after removing the malt pipe I took an OG, and was a good 6 points under what was expected! It's the first time this has happened to me on the Grainfather. I used some dextrose to get up to the OG I wanted (I didn't mind for this beer as I'm going for a dry hoppy pale). Later on I plugged my numbers back into Beersmith and it tells me I got a little over 70% efficiency, rather than the 80-82% I normally get. That's almost as low as I used to get no-sparging on my BIAB system.

I'm sure we discussed efficiency with the "fast sparge" method previously and those doing it indicated no issues. But it's the only thing I changed on this brew...I left the roller width the same on my mill 'coz I wanted to only change 1 thing at a time.

i'd do it again and see whether you get efficiency or no. i hadn't considered that a slow sparge might increase efficiency, but would be nice to test. must say i not convinced at this point. for me, a slow sparge is due to stuck grain, so i don't envisage greater efficiency, and maybe an increase of tannin if sparge water is gripping on some grain. also, i would have thought that a slow sparge may mean that some grain is pretty starved of sparge water anyway, thereby decreasing overall efficiency. dunno. no doubt there are far more scientifically knowledgeable brewers out there than me.