FAQ

Grainfather is part of Bevie Craft Limited and we're doing everything we can to minimise the impact of COVID-19 on our customers. At present, we are fulfilling orders as normal in the US, UK and Austrailia. As New Zealand has recently moved to alert level 4, we are following the advice from the government and are no longer accepting online orders in this region until further notice.

While the impact of COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe, the Austrailian government is also increasing work and travel restrictions on a daily basis. These are impacting freight (TIG) and their ability to meet some of their service commitments. Please bear with us and them during these difficult times. 

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It should take 40-60 minutes from sparging. 

A tip is to switch the G70 to 99°C while you are doing the sparge to speed up the time it takes to get to the boil. By the time you finish the sparge the G70 should be close to temperature.

This depends a lot on your grain bill, grain crush and recipe. Our overall testing has yielded efficiencies between 75-85%. 

The Android App runs an independent, background program to increase the reliability of the Bluetooth and WiFi reconnection, and the saved data between the controller and the app is maintained. The result is a slightly slower connection time of up to 30 seconds.

The rolled edge and the high precision of the grain plates eliminate the need for silicon seals to form a tight, secure fit between the grain plates and the grain basket

This G70 system is designed for brewing larger batches. The 70L maximum preboil volume and 17kg maximum grain bill allows you to make enough wort or beer of any style as a pilot test batch or to share with your friends/homebrew club. With the standard pipework, a minimum batch size volume of 40L and a 8kg grain bill is required to ensure the overflow pipework is engaged during mashing which allows for the most accurate and stable mash temperature management. With the micro pipework, a minimum batch size of 30L and 5.5kg grain bill is required for optimum function. For batches smaller than these, our G30 Brewing System is the perfect size for batches up to 28L.

Water conservation is a serious concern for us at Grainfather and this is one of the primary reason that counterflow chillers come standard with our brewing systems. To further our efforts in conservation, we elected to use copper rather than stainless steel. Copper can have up to 20 times greater thermal conductivity than stainless steel, allowing our counter flow chiller to use less water over shorter transfer times. Copper has a long history in brewing and is relatively inert in wort and beer. 

Depending upon your grain crush, we typically see mash efficiencies of between 72-82%. The efficiency on the equipment profile is pre-set to 80%, however, as expected with any brewing system if you are brewing at the upper limit of the grain bill you can expect the mash efficiency to drop a couple of points. At the minimum ranges of the grain bill a slight increase in mash efficiency can be observed due to the increased surface area exposure of the grains in the grain basket. 

By holding down the heat button on the controller, the delayed heating function can be activated. You can also set up delayed heating on the G70 through the Grainfather Community App when you directly connect your device to the G70 wirelessly. You can also set your brew session in the planning stage to start at a particular time which will automatically set up delayed heating with your G70. 

The boil off rate for the G70 is 3.5L per hour. The loss from the G70 unit is 3L and a further 2L loss can be expected if you don’t reclaim any wort from the counterflow chiller.  

The maximum safe flow rate for the water and wort are 6 and 3L per minute respectively. However, your ground water temperature is the rate determining factor. We recommend setting the water to between 4 and 6L per min and start reducing the wort flow from 3L per minute until the desired wort out temperature is reached.  

Yes, the unit can be cleaned in place using the lower tap and the cleaning filter.

Wipe down with a damp cloth. 

The conical shape of the bottom of the boiler and the sizeable conical heating element provide more significant heat transfer and distribution to the wort during the boil. However, as a result, when hot wort is drawn over the element as it goes to the pump it retains heat and boils in the tube leading to the pump. This can cause an air cavity in the pump, resulting in the pump not starting. However, this only occurs while the wort is boiling and the heating element is on. Turning off the element and restarting the pump will get the pump going again.

For the above reason, when sanitising the counterflow chiller, we recommend you do so at the end of the boil without active heat from the boiler. Temperatures above 85C are considered to sanitise surfaces. Therefore, running the pump for a minute or two, post-boil will achieve the same result as during the boil.

The post boil cleaning filter should be used when debris becomes an issue during CIP cleaning or when whole cone hops are used. In this case the post cleaning filter will protect the pump against the small hop cones. 

A minimum of 8kg (17 lbs) with the standard pipework.

We would advise against going lower than 8kg (17 lbs) of grain. The overflow pipework only reaches a certain depth and the top plate is designed to fit into the overflow inlet which sits on the overflow pipework. This means the top plate only goes down as far as the overflow pipework does. As a result, with a smaller amount of grain (less than 8kg (17 lbs)) the top plate will sit a bit higher than the grain bed. You will need to add more water until you see the water reach the top plate. Be sure to record this extra water amount and change your calculation accordingly as you will need to reduce your sparge volume by this amount.

Alternatively, you can use the micro pipework available which is explicitly designed for small grain bills. It would be best if you used the standard calculations when using this pipework.

For the G70, the boil-off rate is 4L/hour. 

We have designed the G70 and the filter so that you do not need to use hop socks or hop spiders and can use as many hops as you like. Please note, you should only be concerned if your recirculation actually stops – not if it slows.

Yes, the lifting handle is designed to support the use of a winch system to lift the grain basket. Ensure the winch selected can handle a minimum of 80kg and is secured to an overhead beam or appropriate frame.

Early Edition (Non-LED Touch Panel)

It is highly unlikely that the chiller is leaking glycol. The contents of the puddle is likely to be condensate water which can form on the internal components of the chiller. The base of the chiller has small holes for this condensate water to exit so it does not build up within the unit. In high temperature and/or humidity environments there may be a large amount of condensation which results in a puddle under the chiller. This can easily be dealt with using a towel or mop. if the liquid is glycol it will smell sweet and be slick to the touch.

Touch Panel Edition

• The Conical Fermenter Digital Temperature Controller can be set to 'heat only', 'cool only' & programmed to default to the 'heat and cool' setting. Make sure your controller is set to either 'cool' or 'heat and 'cool' by following the Conical Fermenter's instruction booklet.

• Make sure the fermenter number selected on the Glycol Chiller corresponds to the connection port that your Conical Fermenter is connected to.

• Make sure the Conical Fermenter Digital Temperature Controller's connection pins are clean and free of debris/dust at all times. A 'dirty' connection may cause the controller to either lose power or misread and display an incorrect temperature on the display.

No. These products are for completely different purposes and can not be used interchangeably and may permanently damage the Glycol Chiller if used in this way.

Yes. The SG of the recommended glycol mixture (33% propylene glycol, 67% water) is approximately 1.030 when measured using a hydrometer at 20ºC (68ºF). At this temperature, if your SG reading is greater than 1.030, your mixture consists of more than 33% propylene glycol and vice versa. Please note that refractometers may not yield accurate SG readings. We recommend using a hydrometer for glycol mixtures.

To limit the impact of this, try the following:
•When attaching a new fermenter, keep the glycol port corresponding to the first fermenter (already at low temperature) closed, by pressing the number that corresponds to this fermenter. Wait until the Glycol Chiller temperature drops to below the first fermenter’s target temperature before starting to the cool it again.

•Cool the second fermenter in stages. For example; programme the new fermenters target temperature 3ºC below its current temperature and then every 2 hours decrease it by an additional 3ºC until you reach your desired temperature. This will limit the amount the glycol will rise in temperature, so it will not affect the first fermenter. This also aids in stopping air getting into the fermenter through the air lock due to rapid cooling of the beer.

Yes, this is normal. The highest temperature the glycol reaches will depend on the initial fermenter temperature and the target temperature on the conical fermenter. The greater the difference between these temperatures, the higher the temperature the glycol can reach. Over time the glycol temperature should slowly decrease again.

It is likely that the Glycol Chiller touch panel is locked. To lock or unlock, press and hold the power button for 6 seconds. If you wish, you can lock the touch panel to avoid accidentally changing the settings. 

Early Edition (Non-LED Touch Panel)

There are number of reasons why this may happen:  
 

• Please check you haven’t turned on your pump without any liquid inside the reservoir. If so, this has possibly damaged your unit.

• Ensure that your Glycol Chiller is receiving a cooling signal from your fermenter, by identifying that the correct number button is pressed and that it has lit up blue. If the button has not lit up blue, check the following:  

• The Conical Fermenter Digital Temperature Controller status shows “cooling.”  

• The M12 power cord has been firmly connected between the fermenter and the glycol chiller.  

• If you just topped up with glycol mixture, then there could be some air bubbles trapped in the pump preventing it from working. Turn the chiller off and wait up to an hour and try again. When topping up the tank in the future, consider pouring more slowly to minimise the amount of air that can get trapped. 
 
• If this is the first time using the Glycol Chiller and you forgot to prime the pump and topped up the tank with glycol mixture instead, there could be a significant amount of trapped air preventing the pump from working. Turn the chiller off. Open the cap on the top of the chiller, then using a siphon, remove as much of the glycol-water mixture as possible from the tank. You can now prime your pump as per the steps found in the Glycol Chiller instructional manual.

There are number of reasons why this may happen:  

Touch Panel Edition

• Please check you haven’t turned on your pump without any liquid inside the reservoir. If so, this has possibly damaged your unit.  

• Ensure that your Glycol Chiller is receiving a cooling signal from your fermenter, by identifying that the correct number button is used and that it has a flashing blue light. If the blue light is not flashing, check the following:  

• The Conical Fermenter Digital Temperature Controller status shows “cooling.”  

• The M12 power cord has been firmly connected between the fermenter and the glycol chiller.  

• If you just topped up with glycol mixture, then there could be some air bubbles trapped in the pump preventing it from working. Turn the chiller off and wait up to an hour and try again. When topping up the tank in the future, consider pouring more slowly to minimise the amount of air that can get trapped.  

• If this is the first time using the Glycol Chiller and you forgot to prime the pump and topped up the tank with glycol mixture instead, there could be a significant amount of trapped air preventing the pump from working. Turn the chiller off. Open the cap on the top of the chiller, then using a siphon, remove as much of the glycol-water mixture as possible from the tank. You can now prime your pump as per the steps found in the Glycol Chiller instructional manual. 

The Power Cord, Control Box and Boiler Body included are all designed to be used together with the 220V unit that they were purchased with. Using any of these components with another product (including the G30 110V) may result in hazards and equipment damage and therefore, also void your warranty.

• When cleaning under the support ring
• When distilling

Always ensure the support ring retainer is installed correctly before brewing

In the Conical Fermenter, cold liquid sinks and warm liquid floats. Because the conical takes the reading halfway up the cone, this reading will be colder than on the Tilt as it floats at the top of the fermenter with the warmer liquid. While there is convection occurring in the fermenter due to fermentation and also the convection of cold and warm liquid moving around the fermenter, eventually the temperature should even out across the fermenter. However, it's never a perfect system where the temperature is exactly the same throughout the whole fermenter. So, the fermenter is designed to take this into account with the placement of the temperature probe which gives the best average across the system. 

The White Teflon Washers for the Conical Fermenter go inbetween the male self-sealing disconnect and the body of the fermenter as shown in the image below. 

• The Conical Fermenter Digital Temperature Controller can be set to 'heat only', 'cool only' & programmed to default to the 'heat and cool' setting. Make sure your controller is set to either 'cool' or 'heat and 'cool' by following the Conical Fermenter's instruction booklet.

• Make sure the fermenter number selected on the Glycol Chiller corresponds to the connection port that your Conical Fermenter is connected to.

• Make sure the Conical Fermenter Digital Temperature Controller's connection pins are clean and free of debris/dust at all times. A 'dirty' connection may cause the controller to either lose power or misread and display an incorrect temperature on the display.

Yes. The SG of the recommended glycol mixture (33% propylene glycol, 67% water) is approximately 1.030 when measured using a hydrometer at 20ºC (68ºF). At this temperature, if your SG reading is greater than 1.030, your mixture consists of more than 33% propylene glycol and vice versa. Please note that refractometers may not yield accurate SG readings. We recommend using a hydrometer for glycol mixtures.

To limit the impact of this, try the following:
•When attaching a new fermenter, keep the glycol port corresponding to the first fermenter (already at low temperature) closed, by pressing the number that corresponds to this fermenter. Wait until the Glycol Chiller temperature drops to below the first fermenter’s target temperature before starting to the cool it again.

•Cool the second fermenter in stages. For example; programme the new fermenters target temperature 3ºC below its current temperature and then every 2 hours decrease it by an additional 3ºC until you reach your desired temperature. This will limit the amount the glycol will rise in temperature, so it will not affect the first fermenter. This also aids in stopping air getting into the fermenter through the air lock due to rapid cooling of the beer.

Yes, however individual results will vary depending on the ambient conditions, target temperatures, and the number of fermenters connected. It may take an extended amount of time for each fermenter to reach their target temperature.

To be able to cool you need the Grainfather Glycol Chiller which is sold separately. In between the two stainless steel walls of the fermenter sits a cooling sleeve (also made of stainless steel). This cooling sleeve is welded onto the inner wall of the fermenter. The cooling sleeve has two holes on each side. The lower one is the entry for the cooling liquid. The upper hole is where the cooling liquid exits/returns to the Glycol Chiller. As the cooling liquid travels through this sleeve, it cools the stainless steel which in turn cools the wort/beer in the fermenter. This cooling sleeve never comes into contact with the wort/beer and is never seen by the user. This means that it is not something that needs to be cleaned or sanitised.

In the Conical Fermenter, cold liquid sinks and warm liquid floats. Because the conical takes the reading halfway up the cone, this reading will be colder than on the Tilt as it floats at the top of the fermenter with the warmer liquid. While there is convection occurring in the fermenter due to fermentation and also the convection of cold and warm liquid moving around the fermenter, eventually the temperature should even out across the fermenter. However, it's never a perfect system where the temperature is exactly the same throughout the whole fermenter. So, the fermenter is designed to take this into account with the placement of the temperature probe which gives the best average across the system.