Dedicated Grainfather Guide, Problems and Solutions Thread

[chopdog]

Nar, just pushed it until the plate was covered with liquid. Cheers

 

[chopdog]

I reckon I have a stuck sparge!! It's taking so long, 30 mins to put 5l thru. Any ideas??????

 

[HBHB]

Not much you can do now unless you either wait it out or try to break the grain bed up a bit. What was the grain bill and mash steps?

 

[chopdog]

Simple apa, 5kg pale
500g wheat
Mashed in 66 deg, 60mins

 

[chopdog]

I ended up lifting the top plate, loosening up the grain bed. Put the top plate back on and rest of sparge went well. I know I'll prolly have a cloudier wort but I can live with that.

 

[acarey]

Dunno. I've had slow sparges but not that slow. You could put some pressure on the top plate to squeeze some wort out. Probably not best practice though and will compact it further making the problem worse. Typically I do that if i'm almost at pre boil volume and just need a bit more. Not sure what you should do.

Maybe just put the rest of the water in on top and use the small element to bring it to the boil slowly as it drains through at a glacial pace. It heats up at about 1 degree per 3 and half (ish) minutes in my experience.

Good luck.


edit : whoops, didn't see your post above. As you were. Nothing to see here h34r:

 

[chopdog]

Ended up with 26l after sparge. You guys obviously use a refractometre to take your readings? Had to scoop some out with a jug for hydrometer! Not a fan!

 

[acarey]

Ended up with 26l after sparge. You guys obviously use a refractometre to take your readings? Had to scoop some out with a jug for hydrometer! Not a fan!

Yeah, get one. It'll change your life. Around $36 for keg king when I got mine I think. You won't regret getting one thats for sure.

 

[chopdog]

Yeah I'll order one tonight. Never really felt the need for one until now

 

[meathead]

Simple apa, 5kg pale
500g wheat
Mashed in 66 deg, 60mins

Its always wheat
Chuck in a handful of rice hulls

 

[chopdog]

Just had a HOLY **** moment!!!!!! I just mashed in and forgot to flick the switch to mash. Checked temp 10 mins later and it was at75!!!!!!!! Should I just dump it now and cut my loses??? I added 2l of cold water from the fridge but only dropped 3degs

 

[chopdog]

Once I turned the pump on it's dropped to 67, which is my mash temp. Should I extend the mash to 90mins?

 

[meathead]

Brewed a DSGA today
Not as fine a crush as last time and used 2 extra litres of mash water and therefor 2 less litres of sparge water
Sparge ran well, SG 1047

Used the wort chiller for the first time
Ran it for 5 mins to sterilise
Turned the valve back about half way
Wort was still pretty warm, hot day in Melb probably doesn't help
Just wondering what is the best way to use the chiller

 

[postmaster]

I run the tap water through a pre chill set up 1st. Its like a large 16 litre bottle in which I put 8 meters of copper tubing and kept filled with water. Which I chill in in the fridge before I brew.
I use about 25 litres of water to chill 26 litre to approximately 30 deg. I keep the hot water for cleaning. (just need to get the flow ratio right for the wort and water).

 

[meathead]

Seems like a lot of fecking around, must be a better way

 

[slcmorro]

Or you could just recirculate the wort from the chiller back into the GF for 10 mins. That'll do it

 

[slcmorro]

Remember, the cooling rate will drop exponentially the closer the wort temp gets to the tap temp. If you're dragging 28c water out of your tap, you will *NOT* get lower than realistically 30c unless you recirc for a long time, or do something to lower the input water temp.

 

[meathead]

30 would have been fine
It's been 5 hours now in the fridge and it's still 27

 

[slcmorro]

Did you recirculate back into the unit for 10 mins before transferring into the FV really slowly? Should take 20 mins total to get it down to within 5c of tap water temp really, using this method.

What temp would you say your tap water came out at roughly?

 

[meathead]

Tap water 26
Maybe not 10 mins recirc but def 5
Perhaps 10 recirc and even slower fermenter fill next time

 

[chopdog]

Are you running the tap water slow? The wort coming out slow? Or both

 

[meathead]

Tap water normal flow, wort slow
However I've read that 20 mins recirc could be the go

 

[chopdog]

That's pretty much how I ran it, re circ until wort was around 50 deg. Wort into fermenter was still 28-30deg. Used a heap of water tho. Might make a ice slurry in a esky and run the water feed thru that first

 

[hughbert]

anyone else had issues with leaks on the pump output? Had to remove those and stick a tie on a bit tighter.

 

[postmaster]

This is what I use for BeerSmith. Whilst the individual Mash and Sparge volumes do not agree, the total volume does agree when the correct preboil litres are put in.
View attachment Grainfather setup for BeerSmith.zip

 

[Maheel]

anyone else had issues with leaks on the pump output? Had to remove those and stick a tie on a bit tighter.

are they using zip ties instead of clamps ?

is it so no one tightens up a clamp and busts a pump nipple ?

 

[kaiserben]

Last few brews we've had some issues with a leak in our chiller around the hexagonal nut adjacent to the part where the red hose is attached. (and the leaks only happen once the chiller has a tap water running through it).

Yesterday we took apart the chiller and found the (white) o-ring for that thread/connect was in very bad shape (it was warped, with hardened bits, and also with fraying bits coming off it).

Without a replacement o-ring we had no option but to put it back together and hope we hadn't made the problem even worse. Once we started using the chiller, the leak was just the same as it had been in the past. We used a towel to stop the leaking water making its way over the edge of the lid and risk it getting back into the wort.

(We've contacted iMake about this, so I'm hoping they'll send a replacement o-ring and that'll fix that problem).


Also, yesterday we had another, separate issue. We started pumping the wort, via the chiller, into a fermenter. About 8L into the transfer the blue hose popped off the chiller and water went everywhere (thankfully mostly over the brewers and the floor. We convinced ourselved that none went back into the wort, but in reality it surely must have). We re-attached the blue hose, made sure the clamp was nice and tight, and continued the transfer with hopefully no serious harm done to the beer.

So check your hose clamps!

 

[mrsupraboy]

I swear ur on the Facebook page lol. Use thread tap over the rubber ur putting on.

 

[hughbert]

are they using zip ties instead of clamps ?

is it so no one tightens up a clamp and busts a pump nipple ?

I have put a hose clamp on now, however you can't put the pump cover back on with a clamp or even a bigger cable tie as it needs a bit of clearance to get up under the black plastic to close.

better than leaking wort of all over the place tho! This was just testing it out on saturday, i have not made a beer yet.

 

[azampech]

Would a small spring clamp like what you find on radiator overflow hoses work?