Brewing with the new controller

[Pilgrim]

Having done 30 brews on my Grainfather with the old controller, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the new Connect Controller. Picked one up yesterday and brewed with it today. As the Android App is not ready yet (I’m hoping for a Beta test version as I was a programmer and software tester before I retired) I had to brew using the manual functions. I’ve got to say that I was really impressed. The main points of my days brew were:

1. Delayed Start – I set this up last night and when I went out to the brewery at 6:35am today, the Grainfather was already up to temperature. I was all doughed in by mash start time 6:45am
2. Steady Mash Temperature – The old controller used to vary by a degree or so but the new one with the PID power control was rock steady on 65C for the whole hour
3. Easy timing – I hardly looked at my watch all morning except to see when it was morning tea time
4. Slightly longer to ramp up to mash-out temperature as the PID power control slowed things down as it reached temperature so it didn’t overshoot. Only a minute or two difference
5.  Steady boiling temperature – no annoying beeps if the temperature fell momentarily to 99C. Even the immersion chiller (yes I don’t use the counter-flow chiller) dropping it to 96C for a few minutes didn’t cause it to go into manic beeping
6. Easy to remove for cleaning – a removable power cable made this easier
7. Just the timer can be used without heating for e.g. chilling or post whirlpool settling
8. I’ve now got the original controller that I can use on my sparge water boiler. I’ve ordered a cable from Jaycar (cat. No.PS4100) so that I can plug this boiler straight into the controller. Just got to make a suitable bracket for it now.

All in all I was very impressed and was able to finish my brew day in record time. Can’t wait to get my hands on the App but even without that I reckon it’s worth the price of admission.

Pete.

[Taubin]

I'll have to get one, I was waiting to hear peoples thoughts on them before pulling the trigger. I might wait until the android app is completed though.