Homebrewers - Whats Fermenting?
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From what I have seen and heard the Grainfather is a sweet piece of equipment. The only negative I have heard is that due to the small size, high abv beers are not an option.
Ive been brewing on Braumeister systems, which are also electric single kettle systems, for almost 3 years now. The main drawback is grain capacity limits which Ive learned to approach in two ways. First, recipes need to be designed with the total capacity in mind. This doesn't only apply to just big beers but also session beers with more complex grain bills too. Ive had to simplify recipes just to be able to keep them all grain, granted at the cost of complexity. This isn't all that hard but you'll see you can't always get what you want and have to make some compromises.
The other approach is swapping some of the base malt for extract. This is something I was reluctant to do but Ive been really impressed with the results. By just swapping a little extract in it frees you up to add more complexity back into the grain bill or go for big beers again. We recently brewed an 8% Belgian Golden Strong using a hefty dose of extract and you can't tell its not an AG beer.
Other than the grain limit electric single kettle systems are a real treat. Unless Im enjoying a cigar I spend most of my brewday soaking in AC on the couch lol.
This is the description here:
The Grainfather features:
The second bullet is where I got that from. Maybe I am wrong but at least that is what they are advertising.
The Grainfather features:
- 304 grade stainless steel superior body, with 8 US Gal (30 L) capacity
- Expandable grain basket to suit grain bills up to 19.8 lbs (9kg)
- A robust magnetic drive pump (6 watt, 1800 RPM) and wort recirculation pipe with insulated handle, ensuring consistent temperatures throughout the mash and maximising efficiencies
- Pump filter to keep hops and stray grain in the boiler, and your wort clear and bright
- Counterflow Wort Chiller with copper inner coil, cooling your wort to <68°F within 20mins
- Toughened plastic control box and display screen, giving you total temperature and pump control. Dial in the exact temperature for your mash, allowing both step mashing and single temperature mashing with very fast ramp up between steps
- Dual heating element (1600 watt and 600 watt elements) allowing you to switch between heating quickly to a vigorous boil and maintaining a stable temperature
- Tempered glass lid for maximum durability, heating efficiencies and visibility during your brewday
- Top and bottom mesh screens for your grain basket, allowing even distribution of your sparge water and ensuring no grain enters the boiler
- Dimensions: 29" H x 19.1" L x 17.2" W
The second bullet is where I got that from. Maybe I am wrong but at least that is what they are advertising.
Sounds legit and it comes with a counterflow chiller too which is cool. Interesting that they reference top and bottom mesh screens, Ive noticed with Braumeisters it seems to work better if I put both mesh screens on the bottom of the malt pipe.
Pellicle already formed on the gallon of blonde I pulled off the last batch. Much faster than I expected
Brewing up an Arnold Palmer style Berliner today and scratching another off the 'to brew' list. Im killing about 4 birds with one stone on this one, gotta love it 
1) Im trying a heavier wheat to barley(70/30) ratio today to see which proportions I like best
2) Using strictly vienna in place of Pilsner for the barley
3) Dry hopping with lemon peel and tea
4) Using a portion of this batch as a starter for a batch of Watermelon berliner at the brewery some time next week.
Heres what it looks like. As usual no hops or boil....
OG - 1.032
FG - 1.0006
IBU - 0
ABV - 3.4%
Yeast/Bugs - Notty, OYL 605 lacto blend
5# White Wheat
2# Vienna
1) Im trying a heavier wheat to barley(70/30) ratio today to see which proportions I like best
2) Using strictly vienna in place of Pilsner for the barley
3) Dry hopping with lemon peel and tea
4) Using a portion of this batch as a starter for a batch of Watermelon berliner at the brewery some time next week.
Heres what it looks like. As usual no hops or boil....
OG - 1.032
FG - 1.0006
IBU - 0
ABV - 3.4%
Yeast/Bugs - Notty, OYL 605 lacto blend
5# White Wheat
2# Vienna
I really like how this recipe looks. I'm a sucker for Vienna ever since my first all grain batch which was a Vienna/Northern Brewer SMaSH. Basically it was a German pale ale and it's still a beer I brew a few times a year. Curious on your thoughts on the Vienna in a Weiss.Brewing up an Arnold Palmer style Berliner today and scratching another off the 'to brew' list. Im killing about 4 birds with one stone on this one, gotta love it
1) Im trying a heavier wheat to barley(70/30) ratio today to see which proportions I like best
2) Using strictly vienna in place of Pilsner for the barley
3) Dry hopping with lemon peel and tea
4) Using a portion of this batch as a starter for a batch of Watermelon berliner at the brewery some time next week.
Heres what it looks like. As usual no hops or boil....
OG - 1.032
FG - 1.0006
IBU - 0
ABV - 3.4%
Yeast/Bugs - Notty, OYL 605 lacto blend
5# White Wheat
2# Vienna
I'll definitely post back with some tasting notes. I'm hoping this will amp up the dough notes and bring a little more bready maltiness to balance the dryness. Its odd but I couldn't find any references of people brewing BW with vienna even though its in tons of weisse beers. What I did find though was some interesting notes on the differences of red wheat vs white wheat per Briess. I think most assume little to no difference between the two for whatever reason, which I myself had, but this Briess graph shows that white wheat is a lot heavier on the bread, dough, grain notes.
http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Assets/PDFs/Briess_PISB_WheatMaltWhite.pdf
http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Assets/PDFs/Briess_PISB_WheatMaltRed.pdf
I have only used white wheat and it does have a great doughy/bread flavor, especially in Weiss beers. I need more time to brew... So many experiments and so little time...
Next weekend brewday was moved up to tomorrow for scheduling reasons. Been wanting to brew a smores Porter for some time now and tomorrow I will brew up 10gal. Gonna throw a bunch of graham crackers in the mash and then add a bunch of marshmallows I will toast with my propane torch and some cocoa powder to the end of the boil. This is either going to suck ass or be epic, I really don't see there being an in between on this one.
Gotta love those beers. You know going in its either going to be gold or getting dumped lol. Ive learned that a lot of breweries dump way more stuff than people probably know. I used to think these guys were so talented they just nailed all this stuff but in reality a lot goes down the drain coming up with these wild beers.
Mash tun is pre-heating. Gonna add both boxes of graham crackers to the mash, will add 2oz of the chips to the kettle as I sparge as well as 2tbsp of powder at the same time and the marshmallows will get toasted with the torch and tossed in at the end of the boil. I can't even explain how excited I am for this beer
I can't help but ask... are you sure you want to add the chips that early? I'd be concerned with scorching during the boil though I've never used chips so I don't know if it'll make a difference.Mash tun is pre-heating. Gonna add both boxes of graham crackers to the mash, will add 2oz of the chips to the kettle as I sparge as well as 2tbsp of powder at the same time and the marshmallows will get toasted with the torch and tossed in at the end of the boil. I can't even explain how excited I am for this beer
My research tells me that I need to add them early so that the fat and oils can boil off so the head retention isn't fucked. It's my first time using chips as well so we will see how it goes.
This mash smells INSANE. I wish this had smellovision
Ready to sparge. Stirred up a little to break up the soggy pieces right after this pic. Damn does it smell good
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