Beer?

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rich p said:
Blimey!
Hey DP, I showed the butcher lad who brews a bit, your reviews of your own stuff and he started checking out brewing kits. He mentioned the Grainfather; what was the one you bought and would you recommend it?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's the one I bought and it's perfect for what I wanted which was a compact, electric, more-or-less automated solution.

When the GF came on the market it was the first to challenge Speidel. There was no way I could justify the cost of a Speidel, so it was an easy choice. It's not as well made or bomb proof as the Speidel (according to my brewing chum who has used both), but I can live with that. It makes 23 L batches as standard, so if you want to make bigger amounts, you'll need another solution.

Now there are some other alternatives at around the same price or cheaper than the GF - I haven't investigated these and some might be just as good.

I still think that GF is a good bet though as I reckon they're likely further ahead in the development cycle than competitors, already have a good range of accessories and I suspect will have new versions soon - for example, the controller will I guess be updated to PID (although you could do that hack yourself) and perhaps a smaller malt pipe will be made available so you can more easily make a smaller batch. Also, the GF has now been launched in NZ/AU, Europe and US and there's a really active community of people using it and a lot of experience you can easily plug into. There's one guy in Australia who I think has used it daily for over a year now, so I'm reasonably convinced of its robustness.

The only operational criticism I have is that with the amount of hops I use, the filter always gets blocked, so using hops socks is essential. That's OK, but a bit tedious if you want to do several additions. I intend either to make or buy a hop spider.

All in all, for me it's been great and I'd recommend it. The problem is that, like cycling, there's always some other piece of essential kit you need!
 
ianrauk

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Had a pint of each.. in my local boozer last night

Buff.jpg


Must admit. Each was a fine tipple...
 
rich p

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
Delftse Post said:
Yes, it's the one I bought and it's perfect for what I wanted which was a compact, electric, more-or-less automated solution.

When the GF came on the market it was the first to challenge Speidel. There was no way I could justify the cost of a Speidel, so it was an easy choice. It's not as well made or bomb proof as the Speidel (according to my brewing chum who has used both), but I can live with that. It makes 23 L batches as standard, so if you want to make bigger amounts, you'll need another solution.

Now there are some other alternatives at around the same price or cheaper than the GF - I haven't investigated these and some might be just as good.

I still think that GF is a good bet though as I reckon they're likely further ahead in the development cycle than competitors, already have a good range of accessories and I suspect will have new versions soon - for example, the controller will I guess be updated to PID (although you could do that hack yourself) and perhaps a smaller malt pipe will be made available so you can more easily make a smaller batch. Also, the GF has now been launched in NZ/AU, Europe and US and there's a really active community of people using it and a lot of experience you can easily plug into. There's one guy in Australia who I think has used it daily for over a year now, so I'm reasonably convinced of its robustness.

The only operational criticism I have is that with the amount of hops I use, the filter always gets blocked, so using hops socks is essential. That's OK, but a bit tedious if you want to do several additions. I intend either to make or buy a hop spider.

All in all, for me it's been great and I'd recommend it. The problem is that, like cycling, there's always some other piece of essential kit you need!
Click to expand...
Excellent advice. I shall pass it on to the lad.
 
rich p

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
A pint of Harveys Old - sweet and gluggable but not a session ale
A pint of Gun's Milk Stout - nicely balanced but one pint is enough. Milk stout still makes me think of Ena Sharples and hairnets in the snug of The Rovers Return.
Then 2 pints of the still magnificent Harveys best bitter. That's a session ale.!
The stout...
20151209_211805.jpg
 
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