Dedicated Grainfather Guide, Problems and Solutions Thread

[Coodgee]

I'm doing consecutive batches in my grainfather at the moment. I pumped out the first batch into my birko urn while i was sparging.worked well. Now I'm boiling the first batching and mashing the second.

 

[nads]

Thanks MastersBrewery I'll follow your suggestion.

 

[Coldspace]

I'm doing consecutive batches in my grainfather at the moment. I pumped out the first batch into my birko urn while i was sparging.worked well. Now I'm boiling the first batching and mashing the second.

Good idea,

I've got a spare urn, mite try and get 3 double batches out in a day .

 

[Coodgee]

Good idea,

I've got a spare urn, mite try and get 3 double batches out in a day .

Turned out to be a fairly long day in the end. I can only chill one brew at a time because i only have the chiller that came with the grain father. Maybe i should try and no chill a batch. I've always liked to have my wort sealed up with yeast added before i go to bed though.

 

[kaiserben]

I'm troubleshooting a stuff up from a couple of weeks back when I tried to brew my first truly BIG beer, an attempt at a RIS.

I used Beersmith to draft up a recipe and was aiming for OG of 1.102.

I dropped the efficiency setting down to 62% and set the batch size to 16L.

I used 8.05kg grains and 250g sugar.

The Grainfather calculator suggested I use 25.24L mash water and 2.20L sparge. (in the end I did 23L at mash and 4.5L at sparge).

I forgot to do any water chemistry additions. (EZ Water suggested my mash pH would be 5.54 without any additions, so not expecting a massive issue here).

Mashed for 60 mins at 67C. Mash out for 10 mins at 75C.

Actual OG into the fermenter (was well mixed) ended up being only 1.068. Missed my target by a whopping 34 points.

I then realised I forgot to add that 250g sugar. I reckon this would explain a loss of about 6 points of gravity, so no idea how to explain the other 28 or so points. Any ideas? Have a stuffed up a calculation/setting somewhere?

 

[HBHB]

Got me mate. But that really blows.

I'd hazard a guess to say big cereal balls or poor flow through the grain bed, but either way, those small sparges aren't going to do much of a wash out. Personally, I'd be looking to do a slightly thicker mash and reserve a bit more water for the sparge. Be worth while to do a big addition of malt extract to up the gravity where you wanted it,

 

[Coodgee]

after the 4.5L sparge, was the grainfather full to the brim? you can keep sparging until you get right up to 30L+ of wort collected.

 

[kaiserben]

Is there any use, at this late stage (been in fermenter for 16 days, and planned to leave it there at least another week anyway), boiling up some malt extract to bump it up a bit?

Not necessarily hoping to emulate my initial target of 1.102, but would like to at least get it within RIS style guidelines.

 

[HBHB]

worth a try

 

[Coodgee]

My personal preference in that situation would be to enjoy a nice all grain "regular" stout and go for an ris next brew.

 

[carniebrew]

I dropped the efficiency setting down to 62% and set the batch size to 16L.

Actual OG into the fermenter (was well mixed) ended up being only 1.068. Missed my target by a whopping 34 points.

I reckon 62% is way too high for a really big 1.100+ high grav brew. Closer to 50%. But I'd be keen to hear what others have experienced with super high gravity brews in the GF.

 

[Wadey]

Hi all.

Ive just finished my 3rd brew on the grainfather and I'm finding that I'm not hitting the 28ltr pre boil volumes. I seem to be up to 2ltrs short. Today's brew was only 26.5lts pre boil. My sparges are only taking about 10 minutes and I let the grain drain while the kettle is coming up to a boil.

Any suggestions as to what the issue might be?

Cheers

 

[nads]

I've done 8 brews on the Grainfather and they have all been between around 1 - 2 liters short of the 28 ltr pre boil volume. I've just added 2 or so liters extra to my sparge water and continue to sparge till the wort hits the 28 ltr mark.

 

[Reedy]

I had the exact same experience with my first brew on the Grainfather last weekend, and only ended up with 19L in the fermenter instead of the 23L as stated in the recipe.

Used the mash/sparge volumes stated, but was short in both post & pre boil volumes. No issues with gravity though, spot on at 1.050, so no idea what the issue is.

For my next brew, I will continue sparging until I reach the target pre-boil volume.

 

[carniebrew]

Hi all.

Ive just finished my 3rd brew on the grainfather and I'm finding that I'm not hitting the 28ltr pre boil volumes. I seem to be up to 2ltrs short. Today's brew was only 26.5lts pre boil. My sparges are only taking about 10 minutes and I let the grain drain while the kettle is coming up to a boil.

Any suggestions as to what the issue might be?

Cheers

Volumes shouldn't matter as much as your expected gravity. If you're trying to make say a 5% beer, then getting your pre-boil gravity correct will matter a lot more than if you've got 26.5 litres or 28 litres pre boil.

When you say you're not hitting 28l pre boil volumes, what's telling you that you should? A recipe? Beersmith or other software? Did you hit your target gravities, or were you over/under?? It's impossible to tell what's going on without all the information.

 

[Wadey]

Thanks guys, sounds like I'm not alone with this one, hitting target gravity no problems so I will just add more sparge water to hit the 28ltr mark. I'm am plugging my recipe into the grainfather calculator and using the app, which aims for a 28ltr pre boil. The only other thing is that the grain bills have been , 5, 3.1 and 4.5kg

 

[Futur]

Same here, did an IPA yesterday and using the Andrew Hammond Beersmith Profile I hit 24L pre boil volume when 26L was my target. The Andrew Hammond beersmith profile calculations are identical to the Grainfather calculations so there may be an issue with grain absorption numbers??

This has also happened for all my other previous batches, mind you my OG has been spot on or only a point off each time. It would be nice to know what to adjust to hit the correct volume for each batch....

 

[btrots87]

Did my first grainfather brew on the weekend, hit all my volumes perfectly but my efficiency was really low, around 58% brewhouse efficiency. Not really sure why, my sparge seemed really quick so maybe it was channeling through the grain bed.

I've got another brew planned for next weekend, I'll see if it improves before I get too concerned. Beer tastes good out of the fermenter so far though.

 

[carniebrew]

Did my first grainfather brew on the weekend, hit all my volumes perfectly but my efficiency was really low, around 58% brewhouse efficiency. Not really sure why, my sparge seemed really quick so maybe it was channeling through the grain bed.

I've got another brew planned for next weekend, I'll see if it improves before I get too concerned. Beer tastes good out of the fermenter so far though.

There does seem to be an emerging theme of fast sparge and lower efficiency being directly related to the grain not being milled finely enough.

 

[btrots87]

I'm getting the grain crushed when I buy it since I don't have my own mill yet. Website said their mill was set at 1.2mm as standard, should I ask for a smaller gap next time?

Won't help for this weekend since I already have the grain.