That's really impressive, I was close to building/buying a 3V system for the ability to brew larger batches or higher gravity batches. From what I've been reading an 18lb grain bill is about the largest the Grainfather can support for a 5.5/6 gallon batch. So far I've been impressed, hit 85-88% mash efficiency in my first three brews. Can't wait to taste them.
My 3 vessel system is rednecked together. Some day I need to build a sculpture for it. 200k BTU burners made a huge difference in heating and boiling times and using a pre-chiller on my immersion chiller cut that time to almost a 1/3. It's really just another immersion setup that lives in a bucket of ice/salt water to chill down the cooling water before it enters the immersion chiller in the pot. I originally built that to get lagers down to fermentation temps but now use it all the time.
You can boil as long as you want. Since it's 120V it does take a while to get up to a boil. I turn the switch to boil when I lift the grain basket up to start sparging, by the time I'm done sparging it's usually close. The only thing it doesn't do is heat your sparge water, I have a separate electric kettle for that.
This.
Racking two of the batches into kegs on Saturday. Once they're carbed I'll take a pic.
In my opinion you don't save any money brewing your own beer. It's a fun hobby just like cars where you keep buying new equipment and accessories. It's an awesome feeling to brew great beer and share it with your friends. It's fun trying to brew new styles and nail them. The Grainfather is around $800 and my kegging setup cost around $800. I have plenty more in fermenters, fermentation control, ph meter, hydrometers, tubing, air locks, etc. Grain, yeast, hops & minerals cost around $40 for 5 gallons, and I usually brew 7-8% abv IPA's or stouts. You can buy equipment a lot cheaper and piece it together, but I don't have that much free time anymore. I've already run 4 batches through the Grainfather and I'd highly recommend it. If you want to get started I'd recommend a propane burner, large kettle, and extract kits.
Do you use the 5 gallon corny kegs? I've been tapping some samples with a picnic tap and the dip tube keeps clogging. I used a nylon bag for my dry hopping in the primary, I didn't dry hop in the keg. I'm wondering if I can cut a 1/2 in off the dip tube.
I use 3 gallon and 5 gallon corny kegs - ball lock. If you cut 1/2" off the bottom of the tube, you will leave 1/2" of beer in the bottom which isn't the end of the world. The tubes aren't difficult to remove if you wanted to change it back.
Exactly, especially counting your time. If you drink Coors/Miller/Bud you won't save any money at all. If you have a microbrew habit where 6 packs run $8-10 each, you might come out a little bit ahead on ingredients vs. finished product but it would take forever for it to return your investment. It's definitely not something you do to save money on beer.
Just did that, there was hop gunk in the plunger spring. Everything's flowing well now.
Thanks!! The Pliny was 2 weeks in primary, 1 in secondary dry hopping. Probably 10 days after FG stopped dropping. The Pale Ale was 14 days total in the primary, last 5 were dry hopped. I think I have everything running smoothly now.
