New Grainfather and no recipes!

[DeanCostigan]

Hey all, I'm a newbie to the forum, and have only been brewing all grain for about 8 months. I've been doing BIAB with a sweet little cheap set up I bought from the local brew shop, usually 5-6kg grain bill and using 27.5L of water for an hour mash and hour boil, no sparge. This was working well, but I recently bought a Grainfather! I've used it once with a "Chur pale ale" kit that came with the purchase.
My biggest issue now is I'm struggling to find how to structure a recipe... I used to just think 5kg grain bill = 5% ABV roughly and work off that. Now with the Grainfather, I don't think I can do this! I've tried downloading a few apps like Beersmith etc, but I'm a bit daft, and confused with the equipment style and just don't know where to start.

Basically, has anyone else got a Grainfather, and what rules of thumb do you use when brewing/ making a recipe?

I'm a bit hesitant of just 'having a go', and wasting grains/beer/time! Any info would be great.
Thanks guys!

 

[A.B.]

here are some recipes...

https://www.brewdog.com/lowdown/blog/diy-dog

 

[tugger]

It's the same.
If you use beersmith you can search for a grainfather recipe and download the equipment profile from the recipe and save it in your profiles.
Have a go mate, you can't make bad beer as long as you follow basic recipe guidelines eg don't go crazy on the crystal.
As a general rule 5kg grain 19l mash 15l sparge. Top up to 27l preboil.

 

[kaiserben]

I've tried downloading a few apps like Beersmith etc, but I'm a bit daft, and confused with the equipment style and just don't know where to start.

There is a Grainfather equipment profile in BeerSmith that you should be able to upload/install.

There's this Grainfather thread on this forum: link (heaps of useful info in there, including about the BeerSmith profile somewhere within the 50+ pages)

There's this Grainfather Users group on Facebook: link (it has links to updated versions of the BeerSmith profile)

Once you have your Grainfather equipment profile set up in BeerSmith you can take any recipe and scale it for your equipment.

 

[kaiserben]

As a general rule 5kg grain 19l mash 16l sparge. Top up to 27l preboil.

Grainfather calculator suggests 5kg grain, 17L mash, 15L sparge, top up to 28L (for 23L batch size).

 

[tugger]

Does that work for u mate.

 

[tugger]

And welcome to ahb.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Once you have your Grainfather equipment profile set up in BeerSmith you can take any recipe and scale it for your equipment.

Yep. Thats it

 

[DeanCostigan]

Hey guys, thanks very much for all the info. I was sure it must have been brought up before, so Thanks. I've tried downloading the Beersmith 2 file, but the bloody thing wont work on my Microsoft Surface. Until I get my laptop back, I'll just have a go and throw a few grains together and keep brewing in the garage

Thanks again guys, and I'll slowly work out how to utilize everything the forum has to offer!

 

[A.B.]

heres a GF profile for BeerSmith2 - I cant comment on its accuracy...

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/82035-the-grainfather/?p=1245415

 

[butisitart]

you might need to look for gf profile on beersmith under 'add ons' tab.
there's also a lot of other good stuff there, like updated ingredient lists etc.
your mash and sparge water quantities are on the gf calculator, on the gf site. good idea to bookmark it.
checking out the 'style' tab on beersmith is a good way to get a feel for the ingredients for a given style of beer
and don't be shy. it's not easy to stuff up a brew off gf.

check the thread here called 'dedicated grainfather guide'. it should allay a lot of concerns.

 

[Chridech]

Here's the Beersmith profile I use for the GF. It's based on posts on various forums and the info supplied By Imake. I suggest using the new equipment wizard in Beersmith and inputting these or similar values if you can't import the published profile. It has worked for me. You also need to change the grain absorption ratio to 0.8 in the advanced settings menu. The above link to a GF profile looks a little odd at first glance to me. Especially as the mash tun dead space is set as 7.5L. It is definitely 3.5L as per Imake. The predicted mash water and sparge volumes don't come out well in Beersmith using the profile I have supplied. I still use the formulas supplied by Imake to calculate water volumes. After trolling many of the forums this is also the experience of others.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Personally, what you need to do is stop looking for recipe's and create your own

Its not that scary


You need to get base line values from brewing a few very simple fundamental beers first

This will give you valuable knowledge about how to calibrate your Grainfather.

It is important to know how to adjust a recipe to suit your system


A very simple Pale Ale


5-8 % Med Xtal
Ale Malt

Single Hop to about 35 IBU, ( 27 IBU at 60min, 6-8 IBU at about 10mins )

SG 1055


Brew that and take note of your readings and settings like temp, gravity etc. Dont worry, it is a very forgiving recipe so its hard to screw it up

Play with things like mash temp to get an idea of how these things can change the same recipe

 

[Drick]

Just search "grainfather" in the brewsmith recipes and several will come up. Just choose a popular recipe, save the grainfather to your equipment profile and tweak as required after doing a few brews. There's now perfect profile as everyone's hardware, setup, water etc.. Will be different so it better to start somewhere now than spending months trying to get a 100% fit.