Grainfather

[beanstalk]

I was wondering too, can the grainfather do 30l brews then?

[Simon_]

I was wondering too, can the grainfather do 30l brews then?

The capacity is labelled as 30L although it might be a bit more. I've seen the manufacturers recommending to sparging up to 28L pre boil with ~3L/ hour evaporation the most you could probably stretch it to is 25L. With trub loss and dead space it's probably closer to 23L.

I suppose you could dilute it during the boil to end up with more if you really wanted to.

[johnrm]

Tip for both BM and GF users for higher ABV Beers...

If you can only physically fit so much malt into your malt pipe.
Start your mash - run it until such time as the Flour is rinsed from your Malt and is now in solution.
Pump off - add more milled malt - pump on.

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Nice one, cheers!
So it basically allows you to add a little extra malt?

[johnrm]

Pretty much.
I spotted this over on Braumeisters.net there's lots of other stuff there that would be applicable to GF too.

[Will_D]

Sorry John, theres a few things I don't understand here.

Quote:
If you can only physically fit so much malt into your malt pipe. OK so the pipe is full

Start your mash - run it until such time as the Flour (what is Flour?) is rinsed from your Malt and is now in solution.

Pump off - add more milled malt (Err where? the pipe is full of spent malt! New malt needs another mashing) - pump on.

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Hmmmm .... 

[HomeBrewWest]

With the Speidel, its probably easier but will still extend the brew day. Essentially you mash as per normal, remove the grain, refill the malt pipe and repeat but starting with wort instead of water. You can get very high ABV beers this way. Because its all programmed, its rather easy. You just have to be there when it tells you to do stuff.

So, lets say a normal beer takes 5 hours to get into a fermenter. A high ABV beer will take about an extra hour.

Its done as follows:
- program the Speidel to do a mash,
- when it asks you to remove the malt pipe then remove it, refill it and reset the program,
- carry on as per normal.

I've made many Speidel beers, but haven't done this yet. Mostly because we are developing recipes for micros, and high ABV beers are a problem with excise etc. so there is little demand for them. The extra time required is only the time for the mash schedule. With Speidels, this can tend to be more complex than basic infusion mashing (its a feature). But you could just set a simple 60 min mash schedule, and then you only lose an hour. At most, even with complex step mashing, its only another 20 minutes.

The Grainfather should be able to work this way too.

As a hombrewer, I am tempted to add 20% hours to brewday to get close to double abv. But only if the end product is still a great beer.

[HomeBrewWest]

Yes, simples. Use less water! These systems usually do close to full volume at up to 7.5% ABV without extra grain additions anyway.

Still, the attraction of big beer AND big volume is that, if you can double output, then its one brewday instead of two. Or its one brewday plus a "free" brewday to try out something new.

An analogy is winemaking, I've never made a 6 bottle kit because it takes almost the same time and effort as making a 30 bottle kit. Actually, wine making is easier because you can concurrently make a selection of several 6 bottle kits in one brew day! In theory.

[johnrm]

By flour I mean barley flour/sugars.
I have not done this myself but...
https://forum.braumeisters.net/viewtopic.php?p=8075#p8075

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Very interesting link thanks

[Acott]

A quick Q,

I'm putting together the money for a Grainfather and was just wondering...those of you with a Grainfather, or have one on preorder, do you have a fermentation chamber?

At the minute I don't, and the thought occurred, am I putting the horse before the cart so to speak? Should I have a ferm chamber before I fork out €830 on the Grainfather? ( It's not really going to stop me as I have my heart set on one ) but I just wanted to know what others think?

Cheers

[johnrm]

A ferm chamber is not necessary but will give you way better control.

[beanstalk]

I was thinking of ordering a grainfather but wouldn't worry overly much about a fermentation chamber personally unless I'm lagering. All my AG ales and stouts I've been really happy with in just an fv and a heater.

[molc]

A quick Q,

I'm putting together the money for a Grainfather and was just wondering...those of you with a Grainfather, or have one on preorder, do you have a fermentation chamber?

At the minute I don't, and the thought occurred, am I putting the horse before the cart so to speak? Should I have a ferm chamber before I fork out €830 on the Grainfather? ( It's not really going to stop me as I have my heart set on one ) but I just wanted to know what others think?

Cheers

Great beers can be made with any equipment, if you focus on proper yeast pitching rates and temperature control .I'd go as far as to say forget spending on anything else until you can maintain a consistent fermentation temperature. Remember, as many greater minds than me have said, you don't make beer, yeast does.