Dedicated Grainfather Guide, Problems and Solutions Thread

[Coodgee]

Yeah if you skim the foam most of the bits of grain get caught up in it or are rising to the surface and getting tossed around in the boil. Random scooping of the top third of the wort should get most of it. No need to sanitise the strainer as the wort is boiling.

 

[Camsteele]

Has anyone tried doing smaller batches? I'm thinking of brewing up a few 10L test batches. I usually use the GF Android app for water calculations, so I assume that would work most things out, but just wondering if I'd run into other issues.

 

[paulyman]

My GF and Urn arrived today. Just read through the instructions to set it up, seemed pretty straight forward. The only bit that wasn't terribly clear was the step where I had to connect the discharge pipe to the silicone tubing on the pump outlet, exactly how far do I have to try and push the discharge tube in? Mine went in but not very far and appears to be secured with the black oring provided, as far as I can see it looks like it does in the GF upgrade video on their website.

 

[Seaquebrew]

Same story with mine when I got it

Pushed on to limit, ran with water, no leaks

Has not been a problem all brews since

Cheers

 

[paulyman]

Cool. I'll do a leak test and clean if it passes the leak test tomorrow. Then hopefully a brew or two on Sunday, planning two simple Blonde Ales to start with, same recipe one with Saaz and one with Tett.

 

[paulyman]

Passed the leak test. Now going to do a clean and test boil with water to see how it goes.

 

[paulyman]

Just completed a 20L boil test. The rise from tap water temp to 90 was pretty good, didn't actually time it though, I was pottering around the garden. Took 10-15 minutes for the final rise to the boil, although the controller stayed at 99. Given it only shows 1 degree increments I guess that's okay, seemed vigorous enough and was definitely at a gentle roll.

Need to put a dedicated circuit or two out the back anyway, that might help speed things up not having to compete with fridges etc for power?

 

[Seaquebrew]

You will go to boil from mash temperature, put it to boil as soon as you lift the malt pipe to sparge

An extra circuit will make no difference

When are you doing your first brew and what will it be?

Cheers

 

[paulyman]

Hopefully doing a brew or two tomorrow, just a simple Blonde Ale, one with Saaz and one with Tett.

Probably get the circuits put out the back anyway, will come in handy regardless and avoid the chances of tripping anything, with the current setup the wife often trips the breakers when she forgets I'm brewing and turns on the kettle or toaster or microwave.

 

[stuartf]

Snap reedy, did the exact same thing today when trying to stir in my grain, managed to fish the pipe out with my paddle and reinstall. Glad it isn't just me and I had just read your post before I did it. My current issue is that the temp seems stuck on 99, occasionally getting to 100 (hh) which is very annoying as the alarm keeps beeping when it flicks over to 100. Has this happened to anyone before? Last brew was fine (well apart from 40% efficiency but I've tracked that back to be down to poor crush from hbs). Don't really think its an issue brew wise that it is sitting between 99 & 100 just annoying when the alarm keeps going off.

 

[paulyman]

Hey mate, just had that on my first boil test today. Sat at 99, never went higher. It was definitely boiling, I think it is just the stc200 only showing 1 degree increments. So it's at 100, but the temp sensor might only be registering 99.something which shows on the lcd as 99. If didn't get the hh alarm at any point, I can imagine that being annoying.

Once I do an actual wort boil, hopefully tomorrow, I let you know how it compares.

 

[carniebrew]

Snap reedy, did the exact same thing today when trying to stir in my grain, managed to fish the pipe out with my paddle and reinstall. Glad it isn't just me and I had just read your post before I did it. My current issue is that the temp seems stuck on 99, occasionally getting to 100 (hh) which is very annoying as the alarm keeps beeping when it flicks over to 100. Has this happened to anyone before? Last brew was fine (well apart from 40% efficiency but I've tracked that back to be down to poor crush from hbs). Don't really think its an issue brew wise that it is sitting between 99 & 100 just annoying when the alarm keeps going off.

I reckon you should report that temp issue to the Grainfather guys, see what they say. It sounds like a fault to me.

 

[stuartf]

I measured with a separate digital thermometer that has always measured the same as the gf reading and it was reading 99C too so thinking it may be a fault. I'll report to ibrew and see what they come back with, other than that and knocking off the overflow pipe it was a pretty good brew day

 

[Killer Brew]

I reckon you should report that temp issue to the Grainfather guys, see what they say. It sounds like a fault to me.

Agree. If it doesn't get past 99 on your proper brew run i would be reporting it.

 

[azampech]

Where abouts do you live? Water boils at 100degC at sea level. As your altitude increases, the tempreture decreases.

 

[paulyman]

Okay brew one on the boil. Had great difficulty getting my Keg King 3 roller mill setup for the grainfather, I cannot get the gap wider than 1.2mm and for some reason it decided to tear the grain to shreds and was mostly flour. So stuck mash and stuck sparge which took regular stirring to free up. Efficiency was at the 75% I'd set beer smith at though. Once at the boil had a near boil over with the lid on, then had the 99/HH beeping that Stuart spoke about before it settled down at a constant 99 on the controller. It is rolling and as I said nearly boiled over with the lid on. Won't be anything to do with sea level, as I'm at sea level.

 

[paulyman]

Nope I was wrong. It is constantly going on and off now! WTF!

Edit- I'm an idiot! I hadn't pushed the temp probe far enough into the thermowell. There was even an iMake video I watched that went through that. I repeat, I'm an idiot.

 

[stuartf]

Hey paulyman did that fix the issue with the temp not getting to 100? Totally possible I've knocked mine during cleaning or something. Tested again today with just water and wouldn't get over 99 again. Definitely a good rolling boil going off in the kettle. Ps rtfm they say not to boil with the lid on .

 

[paulyman]

It did, had no issues with the controller after that. The temp probe looked like it was seated properly but it pushed in another 1cm or so.

Only had the lid on getting up to boil to speed things up, removed as soon as it got to the boil... Well after it got to the boil, I was a bit slow hence near boil over.

 

[stuartf]

Managed to burn my finger with the steam coming out of the lid today trying the exact same thing. I'll have a look at the temp probe tomorrow and see if its the same issue for me.