Home-Built System vs Grainfather

[Crusader-Rob]

this is a questions for anyone out there who had their own home-built system, whether it be BIAb or 3V systems, as a home brewery, which do you prefer?
I was building my system, and I'm beginningto get a bit depressed with the costs involved. now I have been thinking for the past week or so, if buying a grainfather is:

I'm looking at the benefits of a grainfather over a homebuilt system.
So far, its brewery foot print.
Currently, I've noticed those grainfather brewers have pretty good efficiency.

so guys, what are the best benefits to having a grainfather?
and what do you see as the downsides to these types of system??

[Pilgrim]

I built a 50 litre gravity system and it worked well, however I found at my advanced age it was getting increasingly difficult to carry a 56 litre mash tun full of wet grain outside to clean it and also if a beer was not the best then it was a lot to stomach/throw out (life's too short to drink bad beer).

So I sold my system and bought a Grainfather. I'm very pleased with it and have now done 13 brews with it. Efficiencies have been very high and the beers very consistent. The only drawback as I see it is brewing a very high gravity beer. For my RIS I used to brew 23l on my 50l plant, in the GF I'd have to brew a 10l batch. The literature says a maximum of 9Kg of grain, I'd like to see someone do that. At 7Kg it is getting pretty full with a pretty stiff mash.

One thing I had to do was open up my grain mill which used to be set at 45thou". At this setting it was taking me 2 hours to lauter. I now have it set to 65thou" and it lauters well and the efficiency is still impressive (over 80%).

As for benefits, smaller footprint, easy to clean (with an IC), great efficiency.

As for being a one pot system however, it definitely is not as you will need a second vessel to heat sparge water in. I bought a still off TradeMe which has a double wall and worked out cheaper than the iMake boiler.

Knowing what I do now I would have bought a GF without the CF chiller which at the time was $750 as opposed to $1,000 with. My immersion chiller is just as efficient at cooling and much easier to clean. The CF is a pain. I now have two CF chillers sitting on the shelf, the second (replacement one) has never been used and is unlikely to ever be used.

Hope this helps.

[Ron R]

Hi 

I had a 3 vessel system too but struggled with temperature control during the mashing process.

With my GF setup there is none of that it is great. The quality and consistency of my beer is so much better too.

I have also bought the water heater too(which I am yet to try).

One thing I would say is it doesn't give any option for bigger batches, but this is no biggy.

Also if you want a big fancy looking system maybe a 3V system is better.

I would definitely recommend the Grainfather  and keep some of your old system for heating your sparge water.

Good luck 

Ron

[Dene McDonald]

I started as a BIABer and built up to my 3v double batch system. I did two brews on it before I got sick of it and switched to the Grainfather. I was an early adopter and got one of the first 100. I've now done about 25-30 brews on mine. I love it and can get a brew out in 4 hours. I'd never go back, As Pilgrim says it's not really a 1 vessel system as you need something for sparging. I'd also call the mash basket a mash tun as it effectively does the job of a mash tun. You can get double batches out of it by brewing a higher gravity and watering it down but are limited to about 4.5% for a double batch.

The following is off the top of my head

Pros

• Easy to clean
• Quick brew day
• High efficiency
• Low footprint
• Can take up to 9kg of grain (I've used 7.7 and looked like 8.5 kg would push it)
• Easy sparge - never had a stuck sparge
• Clarity is great
• You can mod if you want, but it's great as is
• A fixed cost
• Comes with a warranty so if it breaks they fix it
• Purpose built and well thought out so it does it's job well
• You can step mash easily
• Consistent mash temp
• A large community for support
• The product is well tested
• It's a New Zealand Product!
• Works on a standard plug and you can brew indoors
• Consistency, consistency, consistency
• Did I say consistency
• Can convert into an alembic still

Cons

• Used the chiller once and I hate it. I use my immersion chiller and can chill and whirlpool in the GF unit
• You need hop bags or else your filter can block up
• Like BIAB you get a fair bit of trub
• It's too easy to brew and you run out of places to put beer!
• Price - at $990 I thought they were good value, and while V3 is a lot better I can't see $150 extra value in it (look for a deal - eg I am still doing the $990 price - not that I'm saying buy from me, there are others doing that price too)
• Version 1, the recirc pipe is a pain. The new version has fixed this so be aware of this if buying second hand. Also the recirc pipe can break off in V1

I'd never go back and I have no regrets... Except for some of the things I do when I have consumed too much of the beer made on my grainfather. 

[Crusader-Rob]

Haha, we all regret some things in life.

Double batches aren't an issue, I dont do them, but if I did I'd probably just get the grainbrother (some of you may have seen it on TM, or just borrow one of the many chch brewers who have them.

what sort of mods can you do to them? I'd prefer to keep my immersion chiller as it work well, and I've got hoses setup to run out to behind my house, meaning no annoying puddles (i brew in my shed, with power)

I notice you suggested only 9kg, what sort of gravity with the efficiencies of this can you get?

Second, not normally a fan of hop bags even though they help with clean up, what is the maximum hops amount to use before it gets clogged or you see some excess hop trub in the FV

[Dene McDonald]

Mash efficiency is over 85% and brewhouse efficiency is over 75%. So a 9% grain bill would get you 10%ish. Or 40 litres of about 4.5-5ish.

You can mod them with the upgraded STC2000 and have it step-mash for you . Most people that have modded do the recirc pipe but have the older models. Someone has even put in massive hop filters.

I used hops bags everytime or else I siphon from the top. I've used 100 grams and had a blockage.

Are you a member of the Facebook Grainfather Users Group? Heaps of information there along with photos of mods.

[Crusader-Rob]

Do you mean 9kg? so i can easily get around 1070-80 if required?

Definitely erring on the side of buying one at this stage. i thought this thread was in the group? Its an open group, so I assume they appear in the main thread line.

I think theyneed to develop/offer an extension kit, which makes it 30-35litres, that way you can add some additional grains/waterto make larger beers. thats what I'd do.

[Dene McDonald]

Yeah I mean 9 kg.

There's this group too: https://www.facebook.com/groups/grainfather/