Dedicated Grainfather Guide, Problems and Solutions Thread

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Can't really hear it sounding different, but I can certainly see air in there. Soap??? I wonder?? I guess it is possible that it could be the cleaner, that wasn't rinsed enough? But I think it's just froth from air bubbles :)
 
Oh and I recently took out the ball valve. So I think either drawing in air there or just a to fine crush, that didn't affect my mash on 5+kg brews. But does on the 4kg ones.
 
Would have thought too fine a crush would just result in wort running down the overflow. Won't be the removal of the ball & spring, most of us ripped that out early on with no impact. Perhaps use the lever to slow the recirc a little and see if this prevents the frothing?
 
Killer Brew said:
Would have thought too fine a crush would just result in wort running down the overflow. Won't be the removal of the ball & spring, most of us ripped that out early on with no impact. Perhaps use the lever to slow the recirc a little and see if this prevents the frothing?
That makes sense. In fact, I think you have me realizing the issue.

When the wort was dropping down the overflow it was going fine, when I came back 30 mins later, the top plate had dropped down to the grain bed, which was lower than the lowest setting on the adjustable arm, so there was a small gap (say 8mm) between the bottom of the recirc widget and the hole in the plate (where widget is supposed to sit).
So that means the wort is recirculating back down directly down the gap on to the top of the grain bed. Which means that I was literally sparging and not re-circulating. Which is why it is taking to long to get to the base and thus, the pump is sucking air.

So if the grain bed is lower than the adjustable arm (4.2kg ) the short arm kit should work better right?
 
I quite often have the issue where I can't get the overflow completely down but still works ok. I think you are right and this confirms the issue as too fine a crush. You are effectively getting a stuck sparge and starving the pump which in return is sucking air. Turn down the recirc flow right down and see is this eliminates the frothing and then slowly increase until you get the max flow without air. You may take a bit of a hit on efficiency but wouldn't be major I expect.
 
Just following up from my 1st brew.

I brewed Dr. Smurto's Golden Ale. Mashed for 60 mins @ 66 Degrees.

I ended up with 20L 1.048 in the VF and pitched (rehydrated) BRY-97 at 18 degrees. I have a gravity of 1.007 today.

I'm confident that I got the mash temperature correct. Pretty high attenuation. Not that I'm complaining.
 
How are you guys at hitting your target gravity's? I've been using brewersfriend.com to adjust recipes, plugging in a 70% efficiency, I find I'm falling short of hitting pre-boil gravity. Using a 1.2mm crush with one of those fleabay -$100 mills.
 
A.B. said:
How are you guys at hitting your target gravity's? I've been using brewersfriend.com to adjust recipes, plugging in a 70% efficiency, I find I'm falling short of hitting pre-boil gravity. Using a 1.2mm crush with one of those fleabay -$100 mills.
I have changed mine to 80% as that is what I have been achieving constantly. But I am going to back off my crush slightly due to a couple of stuck sparges with less than 5kg grain bills.
 
Woohoo picked up a gf and gf urn etc about a month ago second hand for a pretty good price .
The guy also gave me a AG kit from cheeky peek, American pale ale
The only thing I didn't pick up was the box of i know what I am doing :)
This is the brew sheet
image.jpg

There's a few things I do understand no a few things I dont. Rather than say what my understanding is and ask for comets I thought it may be easier if anyone willing to give me a blow by blow step by step on the process
Hoping to this on Saturday morning
 
Seems fairly straight forward. Single temp mash at 67 degrees for 1 hour at a guess. Sparge at 75 degrees. Mash and sparge volumes should be as per GF calcs (avail in booklet or app). Boil 1 hour.
 
doctr-dan said:
Woohoo picked up a gf and gf urn etc about a month ago second hand for a pretty good price .
The guy also gave me a AG kit from cheeky peek, American pale ale
The only thing I didn't pick up was the box of i know what I am doing :)
This is the brew sheet
attachicon.gif
image.jpg
There's a few things I do understand no a few things I dont. Rather than say what my understanding is and ask for comets I thought it may be easier if anyone willing to give me a blow by blow step by step on the process
Hoping to this on Saturday morning
Ok mate, can't read the receipe on my IPad, but basically do this for single batch,
1. Fill GF upto about 16 ltrs. Make sure inlet strainer at bottom is in place.
2. Adjust temp to 66 or whatever the receipe asks for. Flick the bottom switch at base to normal setting.
Turn switch at controller to mash setting.
3. Inset grain basket, with centre pipe, adjust length about 2/3 rds up, insert stop tube down centre. This stops grain
Going down when filling.
4: when temp gets to 66-67 you will notice on controller the "work light" switches off. The element is off now.
Switch bottom switch at base of unit to mash setting. Leave top switch on controller to mash.
5: time to mash in grain, slowly add about 1 kg at a time, stir in and break up and down with the mash stirring
To make sure all lumps are broken up. Stir in till all grain is in. Looks like a runny porridge.
6: place top plate down over pipe into stainless mash tube, and insert evenly down to top of grain bed only just
Touching it. Keep the little lugs on top perforated plate upwards. Remove grain filler blocker,
Insert the round sleeve over the pipe and position downwards the sleeve while the tube slides down
To the perforated plate and into the hole of plate and locks in.
7: screw on pump outlet tube, insert thru the glass lid hole, and start pump.
8: check temps and set timer for 1 hr. I use my iPhone timer.
9: adjust temp to 78 for mash out , switch base unit switch back to normal,
And stay with unit till temp gets to 78, and then switch back to mash, and leave for 15 mins for mash out .
10. At end of mash out , switch the bottom switch to normal, top switch to boil, and lift basket up and lock in for sparge.
11. Sparge till you get to the 28 ltr level, with 75-80 degree water. Lift out totally the grain basket.
12: wait to boil starts, the controller will beep when ready, then wait 30 mins, then start hop additions etc over the,
Next 60 mins or whatever your receipe asks for.
13: when finished shut top boil switch to off. And either use the chiller, or do what I do and fill a 20 ltr cube. You
Will have approx 23-24 ltrs at end so after losses I usually get 22 into a 20 ltr cube filled to the brim.
14: when cool, do fermenter and yeast etc.
15: after a few runs, you'll want to get into double batching standard grav beers in this thing which is what I always do now.
Using an immersion heater and cubes, I get 2 cornies in basically the same time.

Great units, make good wort.

Others may chime in with other techniques, but this is what I do.

Cheers
 
As Killer Brew said, easiest to input the grain weight into the grainfather calculator and it will tell you how much water to add.

Cold space has done a wonderful job taking you through the steps. A few points in there to pay attention to, or you will have issues. (Read that as things I and/or others have forgotten to do and regretted it).

1. As cold space said, make sure you have the filter in place! I missed that once, thankfully before adding the grain, but not before the water had reached 60! Thankfully just had to transfer to the sparge heater and then start again.

2. Make sure the bottom plate is in! I haven't done that yet, but was close!

3. Make sure if you remove the ring that the grain basket sits on during sparge (yes it comes out! I only realised that after a few brews), that you put it back in before you attempt to lift the full basket out. I know someone on here made that mistake once.

4. Enjoy the brew day, it really is a breeze with this bit of kit!
 
doctr-dan said:
Woohoo picked up a gf and gf urn etc about a month ago second hand for a pretty good price .
The guy also gave me a AG kit from cheeky peek, American pale ale
The only thing I didn't pick up was the box of i know what I am doing :)
This is the brew sheet
attachicon.gif
image.jpg

There's a few things I do understand no a few things I dont. Rather than say what my understanding is and ask for comets I thought it may be easier if anyone willing to give me a blow by blow step by step on the process
Hoping to this on Saturday morning
What Coldspace said.

Also download the app. it's really good and it will walk you through the process.
Happy brewing
 
As Killer Brew said, easiest to input the grain weight into the grainfather calculator and it will tell you how much water to add.

Cold space has done a wonderful job taking you through the steps. A few points in there to pay attention to, or you will have issues. (Read that as things I and/or others have forgotten to do and regretted it).

1. As cold space said, make sure you have the filter in place! I missed that once, thankfully before adding the grain, but not before the water had reached 60! Thankfully just had to transfer to the sparge heater and then start again.

2. Make sure the bottom plate is in! I haven't done that yet, but was close!

3. Make sure if you remove the ring that the grain basket sits on during sparge (yes it comes out! I only realised that after a few brews), that you put it back in before you attempt to lift the full basket out. I know someone on here made that mistake once.

4. Enjoy the brew day, it really is a breeze with this bit of kit!
 
Great thanks guys, confirmed a few things and filled in a few gaps.

A couple more things, the brew sheet says, desired mash temp 67 degrees and then strike water temp 70.4 degrees?

And again desired sparge temp 75 degrees and then soarge water temp 106.9 degrees?

Also do I check the sg just after mashing? Do I just scoop some worr out with a cup or something and let it cool to about 20 degrees before taking the reading?
And then again after the boil?
 
Having strike water a bit higher than mash temp is a method of catering for the grains being cooler than the water. I don't bother with that.

Sparge temp should be same as mash-out temp, that 106.9 deg seems crazy wrong to me.

You can check the SG whenever you like!. My preboil readings have been a few points off the recipe targets in the 4 brews I've done.
 
Okay so I mash for 1hr at 67 degrees and then heat to 75 degrees once at 75 degrees leave it for 15 mins the start sparging?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top