The Grainfather

[HBHB]

Was this a full volume mash, or was there a sparge step?

Sparge from a second urn.

Thanks for the report and pics. I'm pretty close to commiting to buy.

A couple of questions.

Is the draining to fv or cube fairly straight forward. Pumped or gravity?

My house is 100% solar so current draw is a big consideration when switching to electric. Will this need a 15A power supply?

Cheers,

Trev
Edit: spelling.

Transferred to the FV via the pump & CFWC.

10A is all you need Trev

 

[MastersBrewery]

I can see much like matho's clone gave ppl a cheaper entry into repeatable controlled 1v, and I think we're now seeing considerable take up. This will give brewers a great option to brew all grain using little space at a cost outlay that brewer's significant others are less likely to kill them for. I'd also think like the BM once brewers get some time with the machine there will be tweaks that will improve the process and efficiency. I for one will be watching closely over the next 18mnths.

There is nothing obsessive about wanting 2 1V systems h34r:

 

[vykuza]

Thanks for the rundown HBHB! How does it look to clean up afterwards?

 

[HBHB]

Thanks for the rundown HBHB! How does it look to clean up afterwards?

Pretty easily really Nick. You just pull up a chair in the corner and chat to Peter and Joe D while they clean it h34r:

Soft brush some of their preferred cleaner and hot water, pump it through the CFWC followed by a rinse with clean water. The units will come with a cleaner pack to get brewers started for the first few brews.

PBW won't be an option due to the mixed metals/soft metal issue if you want them to last, but the cleaner for the units is quite reasonably priced.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

PBW won't be an option due to the mixed metals/soft metal issue if you want them to last, but the cleaner for the units is quite reasonably priced.

Lead , tin , mercury ?
Nev

 

[manticle]

Straight sodium perc no good either?

 

[Blind Dog]

Thanks for the write up

Wonder if it will change the pricing of the BM if or when they get the unit into Europe and the US? Particularly if they add a programmable controller to enable set and forget step mashing.

No doubt they'll be a GF v BM thread soon full of pithy nonsense. Joy

 

[Yob]

Straight sodium perc no good either?

probably would Manticle, but as with my CIP system, you need to add and let sit for a bit, running it through the pump as it is volatizing isnt great fro the pumps...

 

[MastersBrewery]

No doubt they'll be a GF v BM thread soon full of pithy nonsense. Joy

I think there will be pluses and minuses on both sides, the great thing to come out of this will be more great brews being made by more brewers. I note current comp season has shown what judges have described as a high quality of entries across the board, I can see with offerings such as this and more affordable conical offerings, next years comps are going to get even tighter. I say this from the point of view that consistency is key in the learning curve of the craft that is brewing.

MB

 

[HBHB]

Lead , tin , mercury ?
Nev

I'm sure they could cater that in a custom unit if you really want it Nev.

Try the usual suspects of copper brass etc.

I note current comp season has shown what judges have described as a high quality of entries across the board
MB

Guess I'm screwed then :lol:

No doubt they'll be a GF v BM thread soon full of pithy nonsense. Joy

Yep, I can see why people would compare eggs with apples lol

 

[Cervantes]

There is nothing obsessive about wanting 2 1V systems h34r:

My goal is to end up with three..........

 

[Beersuit]

Braumeister V Grainfather


Today I was given the chance to run the Grainfather side by side with our Braumeister. JoeD from Imake let me choose the recipe and brew it. I decided on a rye ipa I have done a few times without fault on the Braumeister. I figured the 24% rye and a protein rest would test the thing out hopefully get a stuck mash. 55 degrees for 10, 66 degrees for 45,72 degrees for 20 then a mash out at 76 for 10

So mashed in the Braumeister first not to give it a head start but so I would have time between the 2 when it came time to remove malt pipes and sparge. Note the gentle trickle of the Braumeister.


Mashed in the Grainfather and Joe gave me a rundown on how the controls work and started recirculating at a rate of knots. I thought you beauty this thing will stick for sure.


Changed the mash temp to 66 and started the timer to see how fast the ramps were. 16 minutes to climb 11 degrees so an impressive 1.4 degree a minute. It seemed to handle everything I threw at it thus far. I took it through to the 72 rest and checked the display on the Braumeister, Still had 15 minutes at 66 left, wow this thing is fast we said. Got it to mash out, removed the malt pipe and sparged to get my volume to 28 litres with ease. No stuck sparge, no problems there at all.

The Braumeister was still chugging away slowly just getting to 72 at this point.

Weighed out 2 x 240 grams of hops, had a beer and chatted to Joe about what there plans were for the units and finally the Braumeister was ready to sparge just as the Grainfather was starting to boil.

Had some lunch and more beer waiting to put in our payload of hops at 10 to go.


Finished the boil and checked the gravity 1.059. 1 point off the expected gravity checked volumes and was 2 litres under for the recipe so roughly 75% brew house efficiency. I had worked the recipe at 80%. Ah well close enough we said. Looked at the Braumeister display and still had 50 minutes left on the boil.

We had to use the counter flow chiller to get the wort out and into a cube as all our fermenting fridges are full. So sorry guys no specks on how quick that works.

Results.
We all know the Braumeister is a good bit of kit and what it does it does well but I was astounded at how well the Grainfather stacked up next to it. Quicker ramp times. Bigger malt pipe and the boil was a lot more vigorous were the first things that struck me. The let downs were a slight over and under shoot by a degree on the temps when getting to them and the slightly lower efficiency. Both of these points could easily be fixed both by the brewer and the manufactures.Talking to Joe he said they are already coming up with a PID control unit that will be upgradeable on all models. They seem to think that people need to feel like they are doing something and that was the reason for the control unit they went for.
After spending a few hours on it I would quite happily buy one especially for the price they are going to go for.

 

[Crofty]

Thanks for the review Beersuit! Great info.

 

[Maheel]

nice one Beersuit

makes me very interested for xmas

 

[Beersuit]

I must admit I was very skeptical of this unit before running it today.

 

[Cervantes]

Thanks for the review.................

I'm now thinking that maybe I'd like to buy one of these so that I can do my own side by side comparison every brew day.

 

[AndrewQLD]

That's what I call a proper review.

 

[Beersuit]

Thanks Andrew. I admit the review could have been better but everyone should get the gist.

 

[Cocko]

Nice one, beersuit! Thanks for sharing.

I am going to have to get one..... to re-build a triple batch version h34r:

:beerbang:

 

[wobbly]

Am I missing something here (no don't answer that)
According to the brochure in an earlier post the heating element is only 2000 watts with a second 500 watt element for mash temperature control.
The BM element in the 20lt unit is 2200 watts so how does the GF achieve faster times than the BM?
Or do both elements in the GF (2000 + 500) operate when ramping and/or boiling.

Cheers

Wobbly