Grainfather

[Acott]

Deadly. Can you put up a link for that?

I've so much different grain in the house now I don't know what I'll brew first on it at the weekend! Woe is me...

A great problem to have!

I got it on Ebay, it's on Amazon, but a little more expensive. These guys have a sale on at the minute so theres £13 off the original price, which is a bout €20 off

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Kenley-Commercial-Catering-Hot-Water-Tea-Coffee-Urn-Boiler-Stainless-Steel-304-/171228785169?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item27de07ea11

[Andrew]

Mine's arrived...

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

That's pretty cool once you can set the temp and walk away

[Simon_]

....These guys have a sale on at the minute so theres £13 off the original price...

FFS another thing I don't need but will probably buy anyway  This hobby is a money pit

[molc]

....These guys have a sale on at the minute so theres £13 off the original price...

FFS another thing I don't need but will probably buy anyway  This hobby is a money pit

I need a holiday from the forum. Everytime I log on, I see something I want to buy

[Will_D]

Ok, couldn't resist a quick unpack and play!

First observations:

Very well packed
Very good clear instructions
Very well made - good quality stuff used.


First point of assembley to note is fitting the perforated plate to the botom of the Malt pipe:

Page 5
Step #4:
The silicon ring seal wants to unroll itself from the perf plate(18) as you push it down. Wet it with water, hold it at 90 degrees to the bore and genfly slide down to just off the bottom then gently rotate it to sit on the bottom. Gently help it to bed down.

Step #5:
To fit the overflow bottom pipe (23) stand the malt pipe on a work surface, slide it towards you so tou can pop in the tube and do up the nut. Be gentle because as in step 4 above the silicon tube wants to unroll.

Probably the same may happen at page 9 step #7 but by then th pipe will be well wet and there will be grain about so probably will be well lubricated
Thats all for now

[Simon_]

What do you make of the 'mini bar drink lid' that's meant to sit on top of the overflow pipe during mashing. I read about it previously and thought it was something that resembled a mini bar drink lid. But it really is exactly that.

It's the only blight I can see on what looks like a really well engineered machine

[Will_D]

Next point:

Filled with 17 L of water and set the STC to 75C (a mash-in temp)

On switching on the pump it didn't pump! A bit of sucking and blowing sorted it out! Its now pumping fine. This is probably coz its new and not even had the (recommended) first cleaning cycle. But when you first run the pump make sure its not running dry.

[beanstalk]

I love the tap fittings! But I did think, upon assembly, that the silicone connection for inserting the pump pipe and sealed with a hose clip was strange. I wasn't sure how far to push the pipe down, and when I pushed on it to tighten the screw the connection now sits kinda weird.

Other than that, a beautiful machine. So shiny and looks pretty durable too!

[Simon_]

A bit of sucking and blowing sorted it out!

[Will_D]

I love the tap fittings! But I did think, upon assembly, that the silicone connection for inserting the pump pipe and sealed with a hose clip was strange. I wasn't sure how far to push the pipe down, and when I pushed on it to tighten the screw the connection now sits kinda weird.

It needs to go all the way down so that the two pieces that the screw(26) fixes together are in fact together. Now when I first assembled the pipe the valve handle was facing away from me - the valve was slack on the pipe and just needed a half tun or so to be nearer the control box (I call this facing me).

On a more worrying note there is no mention of how to clean the pump if its ever needed!

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Will - hopefully we won't have too.

I had a play with it last night, ran the cleaner then Starsan through it.
Very happy with it so far and looking forward to getting my first brew on. 
Found it a fiddly when cleaning - the removing and reattaching of the chiller then the arm to run the cleaner then Starsan through was the only small issue I found,it's more my laziness than anything else though 

[arse..biscuits]

Got mine today. A friend asked me earlier about "the delivery" I said yeah great, can't wait to get brewing. Then I realised he was talking about my son who was born on Tuesday. 

[Simon_]

So I turned it on for the first time last night and did a cleaning run with it.

I was being quite careful not to let the pump run dry so as soon as it started sucking air I turned it off. Problems with this is that quite alot of wort is going to be left in the counter chiller. Also the Grainfather has quite alot of deadspace. Is shutting off the pump the second it appear to be sucking air the right thing to do? Do I just have to live with the amount of wort lost to the deadspace and CF chiller?

Also when I disconnect the recirculation arm or CFC a fair bit of liquid dribbles out. That's going to be messy when it's sticky wort. Is this the same for everyone?

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Did you take a measurement of what's left in dead space?

Watch the videos, he shows how the wort will syphon back into the boiler.