Grainfather Review
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 9:19 am
Finally got the chance to test out the Grainfather. My overall impression was very favorable, although I did find many shortcomings. Some of these were mere mistakes on my part and others were slight design flaws. I tried to identify all the things that I didn't like and will surely not list all the things that I do like about the system. Hopefully this review won't read to negatively, because I do love my new toy. I will definitely have to modify my techniques some, but that is expected with any new piece of equipment. Two big mistakes that I made in this review were: #1 not getting any gravity readings, and #2 not measuring the time to heat from mash to boil. I was doing two beers at once and both of these slipped my mind. But here is what I found so far.
Dry Run
It took about an hour to get to mash temperatures (166 degrees) on 6 gallons of water that started at 77 degrees. I had the pump running during this which runs super quiet! I didn't get to raise it to a boil because my five year old son and wife wanted to go out and eat; what could I do, I was outnumbered. I got back home 2 1/2 hours later and the temperature was 129 degrees; i switched the pump back on and the temperature rose to 138 degrees. So I was pretty satisfied with the heat retention with the element off.
Brew Day
First, the digital readout was hard to read in the bright sun. Not a big deal because I plant to eventually have this thing exclusively indoors, but still definately worth mentioning. It got much better later in the evening. Once again it took about an hour to get my mash water to strike temperature (161 degrees). Here is mistake number one on my part. I raised the basket, added all my grain, and tried to lower the basket. The grain should be added with the basket lowered. Had to pour the grain back into the bucket and start over again. Adding the grain was slightly difficult because because the Grainfather is tall and slender. To make things worse, some of my grain was slightly wet and clumped; I had to be very careful and slow so as not to splash too much. Some also fell in the space between the lauter system and the brew pot (more on that later), and also spilled some on the ground. Also with the tall slender design, I need a longer mash paddle. Another mistake that I made was that I turned the element off instead of just switching from boil to mash while doughing in. Not a big deal. I lost 9 degrees while doughing in, just not sure if it would have been that much had I done it correctly. I did not use the Grainfather app. Couldn't really get it to work right (didn't play with it much beforehand), but it also gave no temperature correction for doughing in which my iBrewmaster app does.
The mash went well and the pump was still super quiet. My propane on my old system was much louder then the pump, I am sure because they were both running at the same time. When it came time to lauter, lifting the basket was much more difficult than I had anticipated. Not only was I lifting the grain, but there was a few gallons of water on top of the grain too. Probably could have used one arm, but used two just to be safe. I was also worried that the handle (which rests in two notches) would slip, but it did not. Still made me nervous. I took quite some time for the wort to drain through the grain; should have timed this too but didn't. Initally wanted to batch sparge in a separate vessel, but when I was how the system was lautering decided to lauter per the instructions. This went very well too, although slow to drain also.
I failed to capture the amount of time to achieve boil. It felt like a long time, but looking back I was probably just impatient. It seemed to reach 200 degrees fairly quick, but the time for the hot break to fall and boil to start seemed forever. Again though I was probably just being impatient, because this time always seems like forever. I didn't get the amount of boil-off (staring and finishing volumes) but it seemed comparable to my propane system. I have both batches in fermenters and the levels look identical. The pump did get stuck once while cooling the wort and I had to disassemble it at the valve and clear some grain (probably a result of my sloppiness while doughing in). But the counter-flow chiller (CFC) worked well and was able to cool much faster and lower than my immersion was. The propane/immersion batch had to be put in the freezer for a while to continue cooling. Another thing of note was that the Grainfather stayed pretty hot throughout the cooling process.
Clean up was amazingly easy! There was very little buildup on the bottom of the pot (less then with my propane setup). I cleaned the bottom and sided with a soapy sponge which came clean with almost no effort. I had previously dumped the grain into a bag and cleaned the lauter system. It too came clean very easily, although the mesh screens are VERY sharp on the edges. I knew this from assembly, but still managed to give myself a few paper-like cuts. After a quick scrub I ran an Oxy Clean mixture through the Grainfather and CFC for ten to fifteen minutes. Lastly I ran a Onestep mixture through both to rinse. Disassembled the valve (twists at two spots) and put everything up to dry. The ease of cleanup may be the best thing about this system!
So overall I was very impressed with the system. While I did find some shortcomings, I believe that they can all be eliminated with small changed to my techniques. The small footprint and user friendly setup are great. I wish that I had taken more data, but I am not used to doing things like gravity readings and boil volumes. My old process was pretty routine and I knew pretty much where my numbers would fall. I will try to add to this as I brew with the system more and any adaptions I decide to make. I will also see if I can add some pictures later.
Dry Run
It took about an hour to get to mash temperatures (166 degrees) on 6 gallons of water that started at 77 degrees. I had the pump running during this which runs super quiet! I didn't get to raise it to a boil because my five year old son and wife wanted to go out and eat; what could I do, I was outnumbered. I got back home 2 1/2 hours later and the temperature was 129 degrees; i switched the pump back on and the temperature rose to 138 degrees. So I was pretty satisfied with the heat retention with the element off.
Brew Day
First, the digital readout was hard to read in the bright sun. Not a big deal because I plant to eventually have this thing exclusively indoors, but still definately worth mentioning. It got much better later in the evening. Once again it took about an hour to get my mash water to strike temperature (161 degrees). Here is mistake number one on my part. I raised the basket, added all my grain, and tried to lower the basket. The grain should be added with the basket lowered. Had to pour the grain back into the bucket and start over again. Adding the grain was slightly difficult because because the Grainfather is tall and slender. To make things worse, some of my grain was slightly wet and clumped; I had to be very careful and slow so as not to splash too much. Some also fell in the space between the lauter system and the brew pot (more on that later), and also spilled some on the ground. Also with the tall slender design, I need a longer mash paddle. Another mistake that I made was that I turned the element off instead of just switching from boil to mash while doughing in. Not a big deal. I lost 9 degrees while doughing in, just not sure if it would have been that much had I done it correctly. I did not use the Grainfather app. Couldn't really get it to work right (didn't play with it much beforehand), but it also gave no temperature correction for doughing in which my iBrewmaster app does.
The mash went well and the pump was still super quiet. My propane on my old system was much louder then the pump, I am sure because they were both running at the same time. When it came time to lauter, lifting the basket was much more difficult than I had anticipated. Not only was I lifting the grain, but there was a few gallons of water on top of the grain too. Probably could have used one arm, but used two just to be safe. I was also worried that the handle (which rests in two notches) would slip, but it did not. Still made me nervous. I took quite some time for the wort to drain through the grain; should have timed this too but didn't. Initally wanted to batch sparge in a separate vessel, but when I was how the system was lautering decided to lauter per the instructions. This went very well too, although slow to drain also.
I failed to capture the amount of time to achieve boil. It felt like a long time, but looking back I was probably just impatient. It seemed to reach 200 degrees fairly quick, but the time for the hot break to fall and boil to start seemed forever. Again though I was probably just being impatient, because this time always seems like forever. I didn't get the amount of boil-off (staring and finishing volumes) but it seemed comparable to my propane system. I have both batches in fermenters and the levels look identical. The pump did get stuck once while cooling the wort and I had to disassemble it at the valve and clear some grain (probably a result of my sloppiness while doughing in). But the counter-flow chiller (CFC) worked well and was able to cool much faster and lower than my immersion was. The propane/immersion batch had to be put in the freezer for a while to continue cooling. Another thing of note was that the Grainfather stayed pretty hot throughout the cooling process.
Clean up was amazingly easy! There was very little buildup on the bottom of the pot (less then with my propane setup). I cleaned the bottom and sided with a soapy sponge which came clean with almost no effort. I had previously dumped the grain into a bag and cleaned the lauter system. It too came clean very easily, although the mesh screens are VERY sharp on the edges. I knew this from assembly, but still managed to give myself a few paper-like cuts. After a quick scrub I ran an Oxy Clean mixture through the Grainfather and CFC for ten to fifteen minutes. Lastly I ran a Onestep mixture through both to rinse. Disassembled the valve (twists at two spots) and put everything up to dry. The ease of cleanup may be the best thing about this system!
So overall I was very impressed with the system. While I did find some shortcomings, I believe that they can all be eliminated with small changed to my techniques. The small footprint and user friendly setup are great. I wish that I had taken more data, but I am not used to doing things like gravity readings and boil volumes. My old process was pretty routine and I knew pretty much where my numbers would fall. I will try to add to this as I brew with the system more and any adaptions I decide to make. I will also see if I can add some pictures later.
There are some quirks, for sure, but I'll say it definitely beats my old traditionsl mash/sparge plus stovetop boil system!