Grainfather 30L

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Jules T

Grainfather 30L

Post by Jules T » Sat Mar 04, 2017 10:19 am

I'm thinking about moving away from my 3 vessel set up (60L boiler & 50L Mash tun) which I've only used for about 10 brews and reducing brew size.

I'm quite keen on moving to the Grainfather and my question is what brew length do you end up with from the 30L capacity unit? I tend to brew beers around the 5% mark.

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Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by dbambrick996 » Sat Mar 04, 2017 11:18 am

If you mean start to finish it's about 4.5 from start to putting it away

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FUBAR
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Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by FUBAR » Sat Mar 04, 2017 11:22 am

I always brew 25 litres with mine which it does with ease, needing a pre boil volume of 30 litres on a 60 minute boil. I know others brew up to 27 litres but the 25 litres suits the size of my FV's when you add on another 6 inches or so of krausen on top.
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Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by Hairybiker » Sat Mar 04, 2017 11:58 am

I used to brew to 27L with my 3v system, but now brew to 23 or 20 (for cornies).
You need to look at ~4L boil off over an hour.
You can do 27L @1050 quite easily.
Or 20L @ 1080 if you wanted to.

Jules T

Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by Jules T » Sat Mar 04, 2017 12:10 pm

Thanks Guys, sounds spot on for what I want.

I started out AG producing 22-24L per brew and that what I was looking to go back too really.

One other question, how do you heat your sparge water? I thought the main advantage with the Grainfather et al was that it was a 1 pot system but having started to look into it you need a second vessel to do this.

I was thinking about selling my 3 vessel system as a whole package but looks as though I might need to keep my (large!) 60L boiler, any thoughts?

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Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by Hairybiker » Sat Mar 04, 2017 12:58 pm

I DON'T, I cold water sparge these days.
After a 75C mashout I just use cold tap water.

Jules T

Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by Jules T » Sat Mar 04, 2017 2:05 pm

Hairybiker wrote:I DON'T, I cold water sparge these days.
After a 75C mashout I just use cold tap water.
That works ok then? I suppose the grain has already given up its sugar and just means the wort starts at a lower temperature for the boil?


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Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by Fil » Sat Mar 04, 2017 5:39 pm

you can also heat up the sparge liquor in advance of the strike liquor (or fill up to max and heat up) then pump out the sparge volume into a FV or insulated bucket.. before topping up the strike liquor and continuing with the mash n brew..

But as you have realised due to the recirculation most of the sugars are already in solution and the sparge is more of a final rinse, while i use @temp sparge liquor i simply pour it into grain tube in one and let it drain through ;) others use cold water and some with suitable combi boilers feed directly from the hot water tap.
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Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by FUBAR » Sun Mar 05, 2017 2:10 am

Jules T wrote:
Hairybiker wrote:I DON'T, I cold water sparge these days.
After a 75C mashout I just use cold tap water.
That works ok then? I suppose the grain has already given up its sugar and just means the wort starts at a lower temperature for the boil?


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Yep, the longer time to come to a boil is the real downside, if you have a cool box just pre heat the sparge water and put it in there, problem solved without any extra expense or great foot print if thats the way you want, or have to go .
I buy my grain & hops from here http://www.homebrewkent.co.uk/


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Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by Hairybiker » Sun Mar 05, 2017 11:20 am

Been doing it for about a year now. Not noticed any downside apart from a slightly longer time to come to the boil, but if you switch to boil when you start sparging it is minimal.

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Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by m_rawdin » Mon Mar 06, 2017 9:03 am

I'm doing something similar, I've just sold my 100 litre 3 pot system as i was only really brewing to 23 litres. I'm going to be buying a Grainfather and was not going to bother with a separate water heater as a few people have said they sparge with cold water or if they've got a combi boiler then use warm water from the tap. I will be at the meet up tonight so will get some advice from everyone tonight.
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Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by DethApostle » Mon Mar 06, 2017 2:00 pm

Jules T wrote:
Hairybiker wrote:I DON'T, I cold water sparge these days.
After a 75C mashout I just use cold tap water.
That works ok then? I suppose the grain has already given up its sugar and just means the wort starts at a lower temperature for the boil?
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I also do this with my GF. You can also use water from the hot tab if you have a combi boiler? I find that hot water, topped up with a boiling kettle full, then it'll be around the temp I need to sparge with.
As Jules says, the only real downside is that it takes longer to get back to the boil.

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Jules T

Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by Jules T » Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:10 am

m_rawdin wrote:I'm doing something similar, I've just sold my 100 litre 3 pot system as i was only really brewing to 23 litres. I'm going to be buying a Grainfather and was not going to bother with a separate water heater as a few people have said they sparge with cold water or if they've got a combi boiler then use warm water from the tap. I will be at the meet up tonight so will get some advice from everyone tonight.
Let us know if you get any more advice Image


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Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by Rad » Thu Mar 09, 2017 1:46 pm

I've been experimenting with pushing my grainfather brew length. The goal was the get 2 full kegs out of my brew day. I got as far as 36L by boiling some DME in a separate pot on the stove. But I decided it was not worth the extra hustle.

I can get 32L brews comfortably. GF is just over 34L to the brim. So I adjust the recipe accordingly and use more sparge water than the calculator calls for. Usually the full volume of the GF urn (~18l).

There's not much space so I always watch it closely as it comes to the boil and knock down any foam with water from a spray bottle until is settles. If I hit or overshot my preboil gravity I'll add water from the kettle to replace the boil off.

I've done 2 brews this way, pale ales with ~6kg grain bill for around 1.050 og. Both came out great. I won't feel comfortable using more than 8kg of grain (idk where they got 9kg capacity from) so for stronger beers I'll aim at 28-30L.

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Re: Grainfather 30L

Post by f00b4r » Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:12 pm

You could try double mashing, it lets me get a 50L batch comfortably with my 20L Braumeister.

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