In subsequent batches where I heated only the mash volume of water, it took approximately 45 minutes to reach strike temperatures. This worked out really well, though it took about 90 minutes for the water to reach my 175˚F/79˚C target, not terrible but definitely longer than a powerful burner. The nice thing about this is that it works wherever you can plug it into a standard outlet, but it’s not as beefy as the unit sold in other countries, meaning slightly longer heating times.įor my first brew with the Grainfather, I thought it’d be smart to start off by heating my entire water volume of 8.2 gallons/31 liters then transferring the sparge portion to an insulated water cooler for later use. While international users have access to the powerful 220v model, US customers are currently limited to the 110v version equipped with dual 600w and 1600w elements for mashing and boiling, respectively. The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and a concerted effort was made to approach the review from an unbiased perspective.Įlectric brewing setups are growing in popularity and Grainfather is leading the charge when it comes to all-in-one electric rigs. The product reviewed for this article was provided by the manufacturer in exchange for an honest review no other compensation was provided. During our chat, I was informed the unit I’d be reviewing happened to be the demo they had on display at their booth. Soon after agreeing to the review, I had the pleasure of meeting some of the members of the Grainfather crew at GABF 2017, all of whom were obviously passionate about both their product and homebrewing. I wasn’t prepared to part ways with my cumbersome 3-tier system, for reasons of both financial investment and pride, so when the folks at Grainfather asked if I would be willing to give their new Grainfather Connect a fair shake, I was quick to take them up on the offer.
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However, I realized over time that the trade-off of such a cool looking system is that it comes with a bunch of moving parts that can hinder a relaxing brew day, plus constantly refilling propane tanks is a hassle and got to be expensive quick.Įventually, I started looking into all-in-one electric brewing systems and, perhaps due to its existing international and growing US popularity, naturally spent a lot of time researching The Grainfather, a plug-and-play setup that offers users the ability to brew standard 5 gallon/21 liter batches of beer in a way that still feels like brewing.
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I was immediately in love with my miniature version of a professional brewery and ended up making some really good beer with it. Over a year ago, I undertook the task of redoing my brewing setup and opted for a 3 vessel propane system with 2 pumps and a gas controller for better temperature management.