Grainfather - lessons learnt

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clickhappy
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Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by clickhappy » Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:36 pm

Just completed my second brew, 1st was a wheat beer, second was an IPA both all grain kits from the Home brew co.

1st brew: Bavarian Hefe Weizen OG 1.050 FG 1.05

This was my first brew for many years and first ever AG brew, it took around 6 hours start to finish, hit the OG on the recipe and ended up with some very drinkable beer. After the fermentation finished I put the beer into a bottling bucket then straight into bottles. I think I should have given the beer some time to rest in the second vessel before bottling, the beer stayed cloudy (ok as it was a wheat beer).

- I was too excited to get brewing and didn't clean the unit before use, I'm boiling in it so that will kill all the nasties right? According to some aficionados the beer had a metallic undertone which could have been down to this.
- Didn't check I could connect the cooler pipe work to the tap until I'd started the boil, bit of a panic and a trip to Wickes to get a hoselock fitting and some PTFE tape, not perfect but it worked.
- Heated sparge water in a large stock pot on the hob, very difficult to maintain correct temperature and not convenient to get water out of here and into the basket
- After the sparge I put the grain basket to drain into a bowl but forgot to add this extra wort into the boiler, I still hit the OG in the recipe but this was based on 75% efficiency when Grainfather brews are usually reported to be 80%+
- Forgot to rehydrate yeast which caused a delay, further reading suggests I could have just pitched the dry yeast
- The fermentation quickly foamed through the airlock, removing all the water, fortunately I don't think this had any effect on the end product.
- I mixed some sugar with boiled water and added this into the bottling vessel for carbonation before adding the beer. It didn't mix well and the last few bottles had more sugar in than the ones nearer the top. I didn't have any exploding bottles but this was through luck rather than judgement.

2nd Brew: Exceedingly Good IPA Willamette OG 1.042

From filling the Grainfather with Liquor and setting the mash temperature to having the worst in the fermenter and all equipment clean all equipment in only 4.5 hours and I still think there are some more time efficiencies to be made, 4 hour brew is the target for nex time ( without reducing 1 hour mash and 1 hour boil).

- Bought gf sparge water heater, gf fermentation vessel and graincoat, graincoat insulated jacket is very tight, only just fitting round the unit, sparge water heater is very convenient and the fermentation vessel is very nice if a bit of a luxury.
- Should have set the Grainfather to boil whilst sparking as I had to wait for it to get up to temperature once finished the sparge.
- Tap connection for the wort chiller is still a bit crap, leaking water onto the sink (not part of the Grainfather I hasten to add, something I put together as I don't have a tap for the standard screw thread)
- Lots of hops made lots of mess, didn't block the filter but I think the addition of a hop spider will make clearing up easier

Still fermenting, can't wait to taste it.


Really happy with the progress so far, as I've not experienced the normal 3 vessel method of AG brewing I can't fully appreciate how much time / effort is saved by using a system like this but needless to say I'm hooked and I'm looking forward to many more brews and experimentation to come. This forum has such a wealth of information for any budding brewer to get started, I hope I can make a useful contribution once I have some more experience under my belt.

VANDEEN

Re: Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by VANDEEN » Mon Feb 29, 2016 2:44 am

Sounds good Click, =D> first two of many hopefully .......

Rad

Re: Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by Rad » Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:10 pm

Funny enough I too did weizen and AIPA as my first 2 brews on GF. Both came out great. Only one tiny thing went wrong so far (on my 3rd brew :!:). The live wire in the plug got loose and started melting it. Smell of burning plastic made me panic at first, fortunately it was trivial and I was brewing again 10 minutes later. Brilliant piece of kit, if only they made a 50l model [-o<

clickhappy
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Re: Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by clickhappy » Fri Mar 04, 2016 10:55 am

[quote="Rad"]Brilliant piece of kit, if only they made a 50l model [-o<[/quote]

I'm glad that I'm brewing with a friend as I am only left with a large amount of beer rather than enormous. Also I don't like the thought of bottling 50l, it took me ages to bottle 25l.

Planning 1 brew a fortnight, do you want larger batches to reduce how often you brew or do you sell/give away/drink enough that 50l is desirable?

Have you considered a grain brother?

Rad

Re: Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by Rad » Fri Mar 04, 2016 12:20 pm

For that exact reason I'm moving to kegging. 50l would just split across 3 nicely. I tend to get 25l batches out of it so the next one will split into a keg and ~15 bottles. It'll be the first one I keg so we'll see. As everyone says here it doesn't take much more effort to brew 10l, 25l or 50l. I usually make 3 beers one after another and enjoy them over the next 3 months as I tend to my many other hobbies ;).

I have a few more lessons learnt. My last brew was the most troublesome yet. I guess it was due to me trying to show off in front of an extract brewer friend.

A lot of grist went through the bottom mesh. While it might have been due to the crush, I think I was mixing it too vigorously at doe in. As the result recirculation got clogged at the spring and ball. I didn't realise that until it was time to pump it through the chiller. This resulted in my worst mash efficiency yet @ 77%. It would've been even lower if I hadn't sparged the hell out of it.
Lesson learnt: remove the spring and ball, if I get burned it's my damn fault.

Speaking of excessive sparging. My pre-boil volume was ~32l. About half inch below the wire ring. As I sat there waiting for it to boil, armed with a spray bottle and gently mixing the surface, waiting for disaster, nothing happened. This brew had hardly any hot break. I think I got lucky.
Lesson learnt: it can boil 32l no problem, but do you feel lucky punk?

I recently went full tart and got the grain coat for it. Looks nice, it's easy to clean and isolates well. But it doesn't quite fit. Looks like the pump on my unit is 1/4" closer to the control unit than the coat allows. An the coat it self could be another 1/4 to 1/2 inch longer. My velcros barely grip together. That said I does work well. The temperatures raise faster. The mash temperatures is much more stable. I think the heating came on only twice in 60 minutes. The boil was more vigorous and as a result the boil off was much bigger. I boiled of 4l in 90 minutes.
Lesson learnt: Tart or not, be green and insulate it.

albino

Re: Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by albino » Fri Mar 04, 2016 1:00 pm

Removing the ball and spring makes life a lot easier. My first GF was painfully slow at pumping the wort into the FV after getting blocked. Very frustrating at the time.

bryanferry
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Re: Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by bryanferry » Fri Mar 04, 2016 1:17 pm

Cheers for the tips Clickhappy, My Grainfather got delivered on Tuesday and I am about to start my first batch this weekend. I shall get on with making an insulated jacket and have a spray bottle on hand!

I bought the hefe last year along with some cheap cornies. Came out very nice (despite the bag splitting in transit and losing quite a bit of grain).

Upgrades are always good but now I will need to make some space and sell my electric keggle and copper chiller.
Grainfather conical standard bitter
Corny Keg 1 - Silver still spirits tonic water
Corny Keg 2 - Purple empty
Corny Keg 3 - Copper low % ale
Demi Johns

clickhappy
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Re: Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by clickhappy » Fri Mar 04, 2016 3:26 pm

It was a good tip from Rad about the water spray to avoid boil over at hot break, hadn't heard of this method.

Where are the spring and ball located and are there any negatives to removing them?

I would like to go down the legging route eventually but I feel I've spent enough on brewing kit for the minute.

Rad

Re: Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by Rad » Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:08 pm

The spring and ball are on top of the pump valve. Both were added in 2015 version. Spring and ball is a safety measure in case you forget to switch off the pump or close the valve when disconnecting pipes. When you dismantle it you'll see how simple but effective this solution is. It does get clogged easily though, usually by hops.

I wouldn't get rid of the chiller just yet. The CF chiller is a faf to use and a ball ache to drain after. It's copper too and since I can't see what's it like inside I don't trust it. I'm going to make an immersion chiller and give that a go instead. At least I'll see how clean is the surface that's in contact with the wort.

Rad

Re: Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by Rad » Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:17 pm

If you want to make your own cover, you can find a template here (clickie to reddit post):

Image

At least it'll be made to measure 8)

bryanferry
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Re: Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by bryanferry » Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:48 pm

Cheers Rad, I have some insulation spare from wrapping my keggle and buckets so I'll give this a go.
Grainfather conical standard bitter
Corny Keg 1 - Silver still spirits tonic water
Corny Keg 2 - Purple empty
Corny Keg 3 - Copper low % ale
Demi Johns

clickhappy
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Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2015 4:10 pm

Re: Grainfather - lessons learnt

Post by clickhappy » Fri Apr 15, 2016 8:33 am

Update:

Completed brew number 5 last night, best brew night yet, more relaxed, organised and only 4 hours from cold to fermenter including cleaning. This is the last of my HBC all grain kits, want to try some of the brewdog / mikkeller / beavertown recipes next.

Have got into kegging, loving the control of carbonation and convenience.

Currently 1 in fermenter, 1 in secondary and another kegged :-)

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