Grainfather Brewday
The Grainfather on a small homemade wheeled cart
The Grainfather is clean but I give it a quick rinse
I am aiming for a quick christmas brew with a 6.2kg grainbill. This requires 19.7L of mash water
The Grainfather has both a Gallon and a Liter scale inside
Set the mash temperature on the control unit
And toggle the switch to "Mash"
Time to prepare and insert the grainpipe
The steel plug prevents grains entering the overflow pipe
Heating up water for sparging
While the machines do their thing
Time for a research break
SKÅL
The water has reached mash temperature, so now I add the grains
The top perforated plate goes on top of the grains
And the steel plug is replaced with the overflow inlet
The recirculation pipe is attached to the pump
And the pump switched on
After an hour of mashing
The temperature is raised to 75C for mashout
And the heating element switched to "Normal" (2000W)
Mashing done and the grainpipe is raised
Push down the top perforated plate onto the grain bed
Time for sparging
Sparging done and the grainpipe is removed
A little under 28 liters of wort
Switch to "Boil" on the control unit
Get some wort for measuring preboil gravity
Cooling the wort to 20C before measuring
And while waiting for that, there is time to clean the grainpipe
The wort that collects in the bucket is put back into the boil
Preparing the hops. EKG in the boil for 60 minutes
Almost at boiling point
It is best to be ready with the paddle here
The alarm is useful but annoying
It can be stopped by pressing the power button
Pretty soon the foam settles and reveal a nice rolling boil
60 minute boil
East Kent Golding hops boiling for 60 minutes
And the wort used for measuring goes back in the boil of course
Time for another research break
Some christmas for the christmas brew
Sweet orange peel and spices - (Saaz hops has been added 15 minutes before end of boil)
Muscovado sugar
Remember to scrape the bottom heating plate while stirring
This is to avoid anything sticking to the heating element
The boil is complete
Sorry about the slow hop extraction here - one handed operation
Measuring OG
Turn of the heat - time to cool
The counterflow chiller is hooked up to cold water
NOTE: I am making a slight mistake here. Usually you want to recirculate the hot wort through the chiller a few minutes BEFORE turning on the cold water
I hope my cleaning has been ok
The pump is started and the wort circulates through the chiller
Getting the fermentation bucket ready
I use a small pump to aerate the wort
The outflow hose with chilled wort is moved to the fermentation bucket
The counterflow chiller is very efficient and cools the wort to about 20C immediately
Close to 23 Liters in the fermenter
OG is 1,060
Bubble
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