Dedicated Grainfather Guide, Problems and Solutions Thread

[jc64]

Thinking of getting one of these units. What is the wort clarity like pre boil?

 

[bradsbrew]

You can use more than a litre at a time, as long as the sparge water does not go over the return. Should just be able to raise the return up so you can fit more water in.
I tested out an 80% volume mash yesterday.
experimental mild
Filled to 26L , heated to 68 and added 3.875kg of grain(3.2kg base)
after the mash had drained I added another 6L of water.
22L into the cube + 2 L in a flask @ 1.041, have not done the calcs but efficiency was a log higher than what I had expected.

Has anyone tried deviating from the grainfather strike and sparge water calculations? I've done one brew and it called for 14 litres of sparge water. This was painful.

So does anyone see any issues with using a greater amount of strike water so the sparge doesn't need to be so big? I'm not doing another brew for a week or so and would like to get others thoughts.

I will be pushing the mash in volume next batch to as much as I can get in then just sparge to get to the 28L pre boil. I am hoping a 5L jug will be enough.
I have not yet fermented the batch above.

 

[HBHB]

Has anyone tried deviating from the grainfather strike and sparge water calculations? I've done one brew and it called for 14 litres of sparge water. This was painful.

So does anyone see any issues with using a greater amount of strike water so the sparge doesn't need to be so big? I'm not doing another brew for a week or so and would like to get others thoughts.

Yep, tried a straight 50:50 split and it worked OK, but no better than the formula set out in the booklet.

If you drop your sparge back too far expect to get similar efficiencies to BIAB. Personally, I'd be sparging with at least 10 L.

OR, fix the problem. If you're getting a stuck sparge, adjust your milling a touch, pay attention to mash pH and get your sparge water UP so it passes through the grain at about 75-76 degrees C. Expect it to take 30 odd minutes + to drain through. Be patient and have a home brew.

Thinking of getting one of these units. What is the wort clarity like pre boil?

Crystal clear mostly see pic

 

[acarey]

Cheers. I didn't have any problems except heating that much sparge water since I had to sell my birko to buy the GF. Now I'm saving for a small urn... Sigh.

But I'll play around with the volumes and see how my efficiency goes.

 

[bradsbrew]

Instead of spending your hard earned on an urn, seriously consider one of these and an over the side element. I got one with the GF but already had the element. The mash pipe of the GF also fits in to capture the last of the wort as well.
Instead of the element you also can just use hot water from the tap plus a cheap kitchen kettle, wouldnt take long to work out the volume ratio to hit your target sparge temp. Qldkev would probably have a calc. http://www.nationalhomebrew.com.au/multi-purpose-parts-and-accessoriesfermenters-parts-and-accessoriesmangrove-jacks-stainless-steel-fermenter-25l
cheers

 

[Bomber Watson]

THats the same price as the urn?

 

[jc64]

Is that crystal clear clarity after lifting and draining the malt pipe? If so I'm on it tomorrow

 

[bradsbrew]

THats the same price as the urn?

Can't send the chilled wort back to the urn.

 

[Florian]

Is that crystal clear clarity after lifting and draining the malt pipe? If so I'm on it tomorrow

from the pic it looks like it's on top of the malt pipe before lifting. so no.

 

[jc64]

Well that would suck. Surely the benefit of this and the Braumeister is to provide a grain bed to give better pre boil clarity than BIAB can provide when it is removed. The cloudy wort was the only thing that moved me from the pillow case to 3v.

 

[Snow]

Well that would suck. Surely the benefit of this and the Braumeister is to provide a grain bed to give better pre boil clarity than BIAB can provide when it is removed. The cloudy wort was the only thing that moved me from the pillow case to 3v.

There is a grainbed in the grainfather. You pull it out of the boiler prior to sparging. The wort left behind is clear.

 

[HBHB]

Clarity post elevation to mash out and post sparge are as pictured, though the pic is about 45 minutes into the mash, recirculating. The malt basket is lifted, drained and sparged over the top, through the grain bed as normal. It's typically pretty clear.

 

[jc64]

Clarity post elevation to mash out and post sparge are as pictured, though the pic is about 45 minutes into the mash, recirculating. The malt basket is lifted, drained and sparged over the top, through the grain bed as normal. It's typically pretty clear.

Thanks for the info.

 

[HBHB]

Here's a better one pre-boil Munich Dunkel going through my unit now

 

[kaiserben]

Munich Dunkel

Slightly off-topic, I'm keen to make a dunkel, but specifically want to try to clone the Weltenburger Kloster Baroch Dunkel (extensive forum and google searching hasn't really helped, and my palate isn't refined enough to tell me in what direction to take a basic dunkel recipe and make it more like a Weltenburger). Any tips would be greatly appreciated (maybe via PM to keep this thread on topic).

 

[bradsbrew]

Clarity of the end product is pretty good to.

 

[Hippy]

Clarity of the end product is pretty good to.

Gravity defyingly good :lol:
Are there any filtering or clarifying agents involved there bb?

 

[bradsbrew]

Bit of irish moss in the boil and gelatine in the keg.
No filtering required.

 

[Hippy]

OK good to know,thanks.
About ready to crash chill my first two brews.

 

[wambesi]

Although strictly not a Grainfather guide it is a solution I have come up in support of the Grainfather brewing system.

I just spent the day wiring up a new control panel to "pimp the urn".

Most of the components (except the timer) was in my existing previous HERMS control panel so it was just the addition of the timer and a control box I had lying around and came up with this.

It controls the urn and the mag pump to pump the water across - pretty happy with the outcome!

Now to get ready for another brew day.