Grainfather

[Simon_]

Ah true. Had seen that but forgotten about it. It's explained here

[Will_D]

Make sure that the plastic pipe is in free air, then when you switch off the pump the liquid should syphon back.

As the pump rotor is wet from the wort and is probably sucking a little liquid as well as a lot of air its not really running dry. Also tilting the GF will allow more liquid to be pumped out.

This aspect of the hop filter (relatively small area but quite high off the bottom) is not the best part of the design. On the forum there are a number of reports of the filter clogging from hop leaves. A T shaped 1/2 bazooka type ss woven tube coiled round the bottom would be a lot better. Most people on the web use Hop socks or SS hop balls. (Have already ordered 2 from GBrewed)

When it comes to cleaning the chiller they have got it wrong. They say to just let the cleaner syphon out of the tube. Well imho they have the coil upside down! Yes its correct for chiller but not for back syphoning the liquid from the coils. All those gurgles means there's a lot of CF left in the coils. Not a good idea.

So my solution is:

1. Coil upside down so the inlet connected to the pump is at the bottom - this allows natural drainage - not sucking.
2. Recirc. as suggested.
3. At end of cycle have 5 litres of clean water ready.

4. Now the juggling act:
Switch off the pump, and as soon as the liquid in the outflow pipe starts to sysphon back, allow a 6" air bubble in the pipe then into the clean water, syphon say one liter, allow bubble to form and repeat until all clean water has run through the chiller. The reason for the biblle is to try to clean the walls of the tube. Its what I do when I clean my lines. Also when you see the first bubble at the other end you know that all of fluid A is replaced by fluid B. Useful when they are the same colour

You should now have a flushed empty chiller.

Ok you have diluted you CF but so what.

Also they say to clean coil first for x mins, drain it, and then recirc for y mins?

Why not just recirc through coil for x+y?

Anyways hope this helps

[Acott]

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?

Once you turn off the pump, the wort within the CFC should be pulled back down in to the GF. I read online that they account for the dead space loss when you use their calculator (or was it the Beersmith profile, I can't remember exactly).

Have you joined the FB group, tons of information/hacks/recipes/talk it's worth checking out!

[Simon_]

Yeah I'm on the FB group. It's worthwhile.

Have ye experienced the dribbly recirc pipe / CFC connection? quite a bit of cleaning solution went on the floor and down the pipe. When that is wort it's going to be messy.

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

A question raised at last nights GCB meet was "are you going to check/calibrate the thermometer to make sure temp readings are correct"
Have you guys thought of this?

[Will_D]

I checked my STC-200 reading and it is spot on at 76C!

Note the -200 only goes up t0 90C so boiling water is not an option. Plus calibrating at zero in ice/water is probably not worth doingt!

Calibrate against a known reference thermometer at say 40C and 75C

[Acott]

Yeah I'm on the FB group. It's worthwhile.

Have ye experienced the dribbly recirc pipe / CFC connection? quite a bit of cleaning solution went on the floor and down the pipe. When that is wort it's going to be messy.

I've had no dribbles! Is it coming out when you disconnect, or is it leaking while running? Suppose having some kitchen towel around it when disconnecting might do the job, it's not ideal but will save any spills.

I also read that you should retighten the screws on the CFC as a couple of people have had the pipes pop off when cooling

First brew day tomorrow! My 20l urn arrived just in time, I'll chuck up a photo to let you know the craic with it

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Good luck with the brew!
I'm aiming to do one too this weekend

[Simon_]

Is it coming out when you disconnect, or is it leaking while running?

Just when disconnecting. I reckon I just need to give it longer to drain.

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Has anybody got a Grainfather Profile for use with Beersmith?

[armedcor]

There's already one. Go to add ons in beersmith and click the + sign. You'll find a grainfather profile.

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Great! I was looking around on my iPhone app but couldnt find anything. I'll try that on the laptop later so, cheers.


How's todays brews going? If any?

[armedcor]

If you create a recipe using the grainfather profile on your PC then save it to the cloud you can save the profile on the phone app.

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Nice one, I'll try that too

[Andrew]

Put mine together this morning. Just some added addendums to the step-by-step instructions:

Assembling Discharge Pipe: Attach the hose clamp/jubilee clip before inserting the pipe into the silicone tube.

Assembling The Boiler #4: The best way to insert the bottom perforated plate is to slide it in vertically and rotate it at the bottom of the inner basket. Watch the silicone seal does not come off the plate.