Dedicated Grainfather Guide, Problems and Solutions Thread

[GalBrew]

How small is your measuring cup?!

Sorry, I tell lies. I did lift the lid up wearing gloves and then used the measuring cup to take a sample. I use those red, plastic coated chemical resistant gloves from Bunnings. They are thick enough to keep you from burning your hand.

 

[Linkatme]

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!

Hello! I saw the Alva project, looks much better than ArdBir but I guess they work with same components and same software. Probably ArdBir has more languages programmable (I'm Italian but GF is sold worldwide). I think that with less than 100 € (about 100 $ US) is possible to buy all components and installing the software could be a piece of cake, what do You think? Have You done anything since your post? I don't like the STC-1000 project, It's cheaper but....less control and too difficult to be programmed, many videos tell the same. Let me know, cheers! :beerbang:

 

[welly2]

So I'm a bit of a plonker it seems. Had a brew day today making a black IPA. The sparge seemed to go through a bit too quickly compared with last time and when I took a gravity reading, it was a million miles off. My pre-sparge gravity was 1.075. After I sparged, my pre-boil gravity was 1.015 and after boiling it was 1.045.

This is what I think I did wrong:

I put the top overflow pipe in upside down, which meant the top plate was only really resting on the overflow pipe. The sparge water (13L of it) went more down the overflow pipe than through the grain and so basically diluted the wort rather than extracting more sugars from the grain.

Shit.

Still, even at 1.045 it'll still be beer but probably not the heavy black IPA I had planned. Oh well.

 

[welly2]

Hello! I saw the Alva project, looks much better than ArdBir but I guess they work with same components and same software. Probably ArdBir has more languages programmable (I'm Italian but GF is sold worldwide). I think that with less than 100 € (about 100 $ US) is possible to buy all components and installing the software could be a piece of cake, what do You think? Have You done anything since your post? I don't like the STC-1000 project, It's cheaper but....less control and too difficult to be programmed, many videos tell the same. Let me know, cheers! :beerbang:

Still waiting on my STC-1000 to be delivered. I think it should arrive this week coming. I think for $40 (for the STC-1000 and an Arduino) versus $450 (for the Alva) or $100+ for the Ardbir, it will suit my needs of programming mash steps to save me pressing a few buttons. It's an inexpensive toy for the lazy.

 

[DU99]

i just one for retirement gift..let's see how good it is..been doing BIAB

 

[carniebrew]

So I'm a bit of a plonker it seems. Had a brew day today making a black IPA. The sparge seemed to go through a bit too quickly compared with last time and when I took a gravity reading, it was a million miles off. My pre-sparge gravity was 1.075. After I sparged, my pre-boil gravity was 1.015 and after boiling it was 1.045.

This is what I think I did wrong:

I put the top overflow pipe in upside down, which meant the top plate was only really resting on the overflow pipe. The sparge water (13L of it) went more down the overflow pipe than through the grain and so basically diluted the wort rather than extracting more sugars from the grain.

Shit.

Still, even at 1.045 it'll still be beer but probably not the heavy black IPA I had planned. Oh well.

Welly, you sure about that pre-boil gravity? You should only get 4 or 5 gravity points back during the boil, not 30. Sounds like perhaps your sparge water sat on top of the more dense wort underneath, and your pre-boil sample came from that possibly?

 

[welly2]

Welly, you sure about that pre-boil gravity? You should only get 4 or 5 gravity points back during the boil, not 30. Sounds like perhaps your sparge water sat on top of the more dense wort underneath, and your pre-boil sample came from that possibly?

Could well be. I actually thought something like that might have occurred. It's chilling at the moment and so I'm going to take another OG reading before I pitch the yeast, just in case!

 

[carniebrew]

Has anyone thought of an easy way to stir your wort and take a gravity sample through the recirc outlet before removing the malt pipe? Thinking I might have to hook up a pulley system to suspend the malt pipe high enough above the main kettle that I can get in there with my mash paddle. It'd be nice to get an idea of the specific gravity of the wort at various stages throughout the sparge.

Maybe you could leave the recirc arm on, but pivoted away at the side, then feed the silicon hose through the little gap under the malt pipe so at least it's re-circing. Not sure if we'd get hot side aeration issues with that setup though....for those that believe in HSA anyway...

 

[Linkatme]

I had the same problem with the Specify Gravity reading. I think it depends by the refractometer reading (it was the first time) or by a wrong sparging. Sparging should be slow but not too long in order of being effective. Next time i will rise the mashing water volume and reducing the sparging. For the gravity i will try both refractometer and the other one (sorry i don't know the name in English!).

Automation: from eBay I think ArdBir will cost me less than 80€, next week I start a deep search!

 

[McMelloW]

I don't stir the wort. It is done by the reciculation. I take a lttle bit with the hose in a cup. Leave for a few minutes and take the sample with a pipette from the cup for my refractometer. I don.t use a hydrometer.

Automation: Received the ArdBir last week. Just received a box and all connectors etc. This week I will start to put it all together to a nice Open ArdBir Control Box.

 

[BrewedCrudeandBitter]

Just out of interest how long does chilling take for everyone and how much water does it use?

I've only done one batch and my groundwater was coming through at about 16 degrees so I was hopeful that it'd be quite quick but it took way longer than I thought and probably used about 70-80 litres of water. Or am I just doing it wrong?

 

[fishingbrad]

Just out of interest how long does chilling take for everyone and how much water does it use?

I've only done one batch and my groundwater was coming through at about 16 degrees so I was hopeful that it'd be quite quick but it took way longer than I thought and probably used about 70-80 litres of water. Or am I just doing it wrong?

That sounds about right. I try and collect as much as I can for wash up.

 

[carniebrew]

I don't stir the wort. It is done by the reciculation. I take a lttle bit with the hose in a cup. Leave for a few minutes and take the sample with a pipette from the cup for my refractometer. I don.t use a hydrometer.

But the recirculation's not happening during sparge though? I'm talking about taking gravity readings mid-sparge.

 

[nads]

Just out of interest how long does chilling take for everyone and how much water does it use?

I've only done one batch and my groundwater was coming through at about 16 degrees so I was hopeful that it'd be quite quick but it took way longer than I thought and probably used about 70-80 litres of water. Or am I just doing it wrong?

My last brew took around 25min with water temp at 12deg to get down to 40deg recirculating, I then reduced the wort flow till the wort temp was 23 deg and pumped into fermenter which took around another 15 min. I did not measure the amount of water used but it was running quite slowly.

 

[carniebrew]

Just out of interest how long does chilling take for everyone and how much water does it use?

I've only done one batch and my groundwater was coming through at about 16 degrees so I was hopeful that it'd be quite quick but it took way longer than I thought and probably used about 70-80 litres of water. Or am I just doing it wrong?

I don't measure how much water I'm using, as I run it out via a long hose into my garden beds. But it's very quick for me this time of year, with 13C water coming out of my tap (Melb), I'm re-circulating back into the pot for 5 minutes or so, then it's at a point where the wort is around 22C coming out of the chiller so into the fermenter it goes. 22C is the perfect starting point for pitching yeast on your ales. Hold until fermentation begins then drop it to your desired ferment temp.

 

[carniebrew]

My last brew took around 25min with water temp at 12deg to get down to 40deg recirculating, I then reduced the wort flow till the wort temp was 23 deg and pumped into fermenter which took around another 15 min. I did not measure the amount of water used but it was running quite slowly.

nads, I'd be surprised if you need to wait anywhere near that long...with 12C water you should be able to start transferring when your temp is showing around 80C during the recirc. Stick a sanitised thermometer into the flow and you should see it's low 20's after about 5 minutes.

 

[welly2]

I don't stir the wort. It is done by the reciculation. I take a lttle bit with the hose in a cup. Leave for a few minutes and take the sample with a pipette from the cup for my refractometer. I don.t use a hydrometer.

Automation: Received the ArdBir last week. Just received a box and all connectors etc. This week I will start to put it all together to a nice Open ArdBir Control Box.

Would be keen to see some photos and how you're putting it together. I'll probably stick with my firmware-updated STC-1000 when it arrives but interested in what the ArdBir offers.

 

[BrewedCrudeandBitter]

Yeah it took me close to half an hour to get it down to about 25 degrees. So I put it in the fridge for a couple of hours to get it down to pitching temp.

 

[Wadey]

Hi folks.

Finally got the grainfather and did a maiden brew on Saturday. So just thought I would post my experience and get some feedback. I decided to do a Aussie Lager and everything was going great guns, sparge only took about 10 minutes so that wasn't bad from what I've read. Then I started the boil and a few dramas kicked in

1) I was worried about wort getting burnt on the bottom so in the course of trying to scrap the element I knocked the filter off, not cool. So I pushed on wasn't much I could do about, lucky I was using a hop spider.
2) first time using a chiller of any sort but I went through a shit tin of water. Next time I will work on the flow rates and see how it goes but I ended up throwing the fermenter in the fridge to get to 12c
3) other than those issue it went well

Question for the forum, I noticed the control panel work light was coming on even when I had the switch in the '0' position, is that normal?

 

[welly2]

Hi folks.

Finally got the grainfather and did a maiden brew on Saturday. So just thought I would post my experience and get some feedback. I decided to do a Aussie Lager and everything was going great guns, sparge only took about 10 minutes so that wasn't bad from what I've read. Then I started the boil and a few dramas kicked in

1) I was worried about wort getting burnt on the bottom so in the course of trying to scrap the element I knocked the filter off, not cool. So I pushed on wasn't much I could do about, lucky I was using a hop spider.
2) first time using a chiller of any sort but I went through a shit tin of water. Next time I will work on the flow rates and see how it goes but I ended up throwing the fermenter in the fridge to get to 12c
3) other than those issue it went well

Question for the forum, I noticed the control panel work light was coming on even when I had the switch in the '0' position, is that normal?

I've found (in the two grainfather brews I've made) that you get a little, not much, but a little scorching on the element. Nothing more than expected though. I probably wouldn't worry about it.

Not used the chiller yet, I'm just no-chill cubing it right now. Do plan to put it into use next batch though, before the ground water up here gets too hot.

Which switch did you put into the 0 position? I assume you're referring to the three way switch (boil/mash) on the right rather than than the pump switch on the left? I'm pretty sure it stays on during the boil, and when you're set to boil mode on the control panel, as it is in work mode.