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Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:30 am
by darciandjenn
So the wife and I got sick of brewing out in the cold so we bit the bullet and bought a Grainfather during Nobel Grape's boxing day sale. 3 brews in and we are very happy with our purchase.

However, I do find it's a long brew day, even if it's a significantly warmer and easier one.

I'm wondering if there are any time savings to be had in switching from the recommended fly-sparge to maybe a batch sparge (i.e. dunk the grain basket in a bucket of sparge water) or even eliminating the sparge altogether and just living with the loss in efficiency. Right now we are doing a cold fly-sparge and our efficiency has been fantastic but it takes forever!

What is every body else doing?

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:33 am
by danlatimer
I heat up the sparge water on the stove, the fly usually takes 20 minutes or so. How long is your sparge taking with cold water?

Another trick is to get the grain father heating up to a boild during the sparge. You need to wait for it to come to a boil anyway.

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:34 am
by mdentremont
We tend to use the hot water from the tap and a second pot on the stove to speed up hearing the mash water. We do this for the other brews as well, saves almost 20 minutes each on the mash and sparge steps.

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:20 pm
by PMackie
I actually found the fly sparging with cold water perfectly fine and my efficiency is quite high since I slowed it down. I use to just pour water on top and let it drain threw but I found it drained too fast and didn't properly rinse the grains. As mentioned above I turn my machine up to boil temp and let it start heating up while I sparge, this is a huge time saver.

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:43 pm
by Swine
My last 2 sparges have been SLOW. Grain crush was smaller than it had been before. So lesson learned there. However I have the next 3-4 batches already milled, so I am stuck with SLOW sparge going forward.
When I lift the basket of the ROBOBREW to drain the mash, I start adding sparge water in at a slow pace to kind of keep the water on top of the mash the same as it was when lifted.
Also, as someone mentioned, once you lift the mash backset, I turn both elements on and set for boil.

I heat my sparge water. I made an electric kettle using an 8gal pot I had, 1500W, 120V element from Dave installed. I made it automated using an STC1000 and a relay for the element (STC1000 can't handle the current the 1500W element draws). So this is all heating right next to the ROBOBREW while the mash is going.

My last brew day was about 4.5hr from time starting to heat sparge water to final clean up. If I mill at a larger setting, I think I can speed this up by 20-30 minutes.

Not sure what your procedure is, but the above is mine. The others have some good procedures as well. I've heard of the cold water sparge as well working well as Paul mentioned.
Good luck speeding it up!

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 1:41 pm
by KB1138
I'm not sure about the Grainfather but with my robo I've found taking out the finer mesh screen from the bottom of the pipe really speeds up the sparge. Haven't had issues with grain getting through into the boil either.

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 2:04 pm
by saosborne
I've got an induction burner and 5g pot that I use, heating during the mash. once the mash is finished turn on the burners and sparge away. sparge is always finished before it comes to a boil.

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 7:38 am
by elreplica
Grainfather sparge vessel or pot with a hotrod...eitherworks well but the Gf HLT works great. In for a penny out for a pound...

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 8:37 am
by darciandjenn
Thanks for the replies, everyone! I honestly haven't timed the fly sparge but it seemed to take a lot longer than I anticipated. That said, we keep forgetting to turn on the burner to ramp up to the boil during the sparge so that's probably compounding the problem. Next brew day, we'll be sure to do that. We're also going to collect our water the day before so it's at least at room temperature when we start the brew day (we are filtering from an outdoor tap).
Cheers!

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 5:16 pm
by LeafMan66_67
I use my Anova sous vide stick to heat my sparge water during the mash. Does a great job. With respect to a slow fly sparge, try some rice hulls in the mash next time. For me, any time I use my pils malt I need the rice hulls to keep everything flowing.

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 6:27 pm
by Brewhaha!
There is lots of research out there that shows you do not actually need to heat your sparge water at all... Doing so decreases your brew day slightly because it takes less time to get to a boil if you're using hot waterl, but does nothing for actual efficiency.

I personally just use hot tap water with my Grainfather, and as soon as I lift the grain basket, I up the temp to 100c...

Fyi, best thing you can buy is a plug in submersion heating coil to augment the Grainfather heating element... Speeds things up massively.

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Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2019 4:13 pm
by danlatimer
Brewhaha! wrote:
Tue Jan 29, 2019 6:27 pm
Fyi, best thing you can buy is a plug in submission heating coil to augment the Grainfather heating element... Speeds things up massively.
Do you have a link to show which one you picked up. I googled it and saw a few on amazon

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 8:46 am
by elreplica
I purchased this one online from TSC...they were $31 in the US stores and $69 in Canadian stores. They’re only as Far East as Ontario and I picked one up while visiting friends. Ukal on Amazon.ca has the same one...

https://www.tscstores.com/1000W-CS-PAIL ... 11097.aspx

https://www.ukalcanada.com/en/winter-ac ... M4EALw_wcB

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 7:02 pm
by danlatimer
Nice! Thanks, I'll probably pick one up at some point :D

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Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 9:54 pm
by Brewhaha!
danlatimer wrote:Nice! Thanks, I'll probably pick one up at some point :D

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Just make sure you plug it into a seperate dedicated circuit or you'll blow a fuse. ;)

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Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 3:16 pm
by danlatimer
lol! good point :D

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:00 pm
by DocksideBrewing
I'm planning on picking up one to the new Robobrew V3.1's from Everwood once they come in stock. How simple is it to build a recipe for on BeerSmith3? I guess my main concern is what type of mash profile do you set it up as? With my current set up on the stove, I have all my recipes set up for Single Infusion with a Batch Sparge. Will Robobrew be the same?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:18 pm
by darciandjenn
There is a RIMS/HERMS mash profile in BeerSmith 3 that is recommended for the Grainfather & Robobrew... I had to tweak that and the equipment profile slightly (I don't have the details with me here but I believe it was based on another post in the forum). After a few brews, I had it dialed in and I generally hit my targets bang on.

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:45 pm
by DocksideBrewing
darciandjenn wrote:
Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:18 pm
There is a RIMS/HERMS mash profile in BeerSmith 3 that is recommended for the Grainfather & Robobrew... I had to tweak that and the equipment profile slightly (I don't have the details with me here but I believe it was based on another post in the forum). After a few brews, I had it dialed in and I generally hit my targets bang on.
Okay I just saw that in my beersmith app, so I'll make sure to use that. I'll have to do some research on what it means so I understand this moving forward.

Thanks again!

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:58 pm
by Naboo
DocksideBrewing wrote:
Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:00 pm
I'm planning on picking up one to the new Robobrew V3.1's from Everwood once they come in stock. How simple is it to build a recipe for on BeerSmith3? I guess my main concern is what type of mash profile do you set it up as? With my current set up on the stove, I have all my recipes set up for Single Infusion with a Batch Sparge. Will Robobrew be the same?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Using the Add-ons in Beersmith you can add Robobrew equipment and mash profiles. I'm still learning myself but struggled with an early batch on my Robobrew because I had the wrong mash profile.

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 4:07 pm
by DocksideBrewing
Naboo wrote:
Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:58 pm
Using the Add-ons in Beersmith you can add Robobrew equipment and mash profiles. I'm still learning myself but struggled with an early batch on my Robobrew because I had the wrong mash profile.
Perfect, I did already have the Robobrew equipment add on, but not the mash profiles. I just added it and will take a look. I want to try to have a good understanding of what to do, for when I actually get my system. Just waiting for Everwood to get their order in. They said it's supposed to be in first couple of weeks in March!

Thanks!

Re: Grainfather / robobrew sparging

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:01 am
by elreplica
And...on my second APA with the DH hack tip RB false bottom in my GF...it’s working fantastically. My last whirlpool with the GF aerator and a slew of hops glued to it...no worries about the original filter flying off and not a crumb of crap on it...