Grainbrother

[supergreenmini]

Hi All, First post on here

I have owned the brilliant grainfather for 6 months now and since then i have done about 15 brews. What i am starting to find is that i have got into a routine of brewing twice a week but i am still looking to increase my output. I don't want to brew more than twice a week so i have been looking to get a bigger system. Something around the 100ltr mark.

However, i watched the following youtube video last night https://youtu.be/_DJP1ZUkwRU?t=8m16s

and it got me thinking that i don't necessarily need bigger vessels but i could expand using more grainfathers.

On that note, has anyone purchased a grainbrother? Why did you do it?

What are peoples thoughts on whether to increase capacity by replacing my grainfather with bigger brewery equipment or a grainbrother?

[Redbloke]

If I can say on behalf of the admins, welcome to a great forum.

A double brew twice a week is a lot of beer, I suppose it depends how much you can get through. I normally do a brew once a fortnight, this is because I like to control fermentation in my brew fridge (2 weeks), although I must admit one brew every two weeks only just about lasts.
By the way, my fantastically lovely wife has bought me a Grainfather for xmas, but I'm not allowed to use it yet

Cheers

[supergreenmini]

The Grainfather has been my way into AG brewing and i have loved every minute of it. I have the capacity to temp control 5 FV and I also ferment for 2 weeks. I have acquired another 4 FVs so i am planning on incorporating these into my setup.

I brew frequently because i have interested parties (friends and family) who helped me raise the funds for the grainfather and half of my beer goes to them and of course my sampling of my new brews seems to hit the supply hard. I want to increase my output but not the number of days i brew.

Mark

[f00b4r]

I am pretty sure they do a no quibble refund on the Grainbrother if you are not happy with it.

EDITED: was meant to read Grainbrother and not Grainfather!

[Kyle_T]

Have you not considered liqour back brewing?

[supergreenmini]

Only as a 3rd option so far. I've so far concentrated on hitting my target gravities to a normal brew length. I'll have to do some more research on the forums on how to achieve my desired beer (watering down)when brewing a higher gravity beer. Assuming i have understood the basics of liqour back brewing? Thanks for the prompt.

[D4nny74]

I Have considered another grainfather too , or a 50l BM, another grainfather would be my cheapest option , but running two machines at the same time , seems a pain

[Kyle_T]

I Have considered another grainfather too , or a 50l BM, another grainfather would be my cheapest option , but running two machines at the same time , seems a pain

A friend and I will be using both our BM's to do a particle brew busing one load of grain. That way we get a strong beer and a weak beer, it's another alternative.

[D4nny74]

are you mashing the same grain twice ?, whats difference in strength ?

[Kyle_T]

Yes we are, one should have a OG of approx 1050° and the small beer should be 1034° approx.

[D4nny74]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but do you sparge the first mash ?

Cheers

[Normski]

Another option instead of two grainfathers.
Mash in grainfather, and transfer the wort to a boiler and continue batch 1 there.
Start batch 2 in the grainfather as normal.
That way you only need to purchase a boiler, which is far less money than a second grainfather.

[Haydnexport]

hmm, that gives me an idea, instead of buying bigger gear again, i could just get another boiler and do 2 batches per brew day? Or will that be a lot of work? Apologies for the hijack

[f00b4r]

Another option instead of two grainfathers.
Mash in grainfather, and transfer the wort to a boiler and continue batch 1 there.
Start batch 2 in the grainfather as normal.
That way you only need to purchase a boiler, which is far less money than a second grainfather.

Nice idea although the Grainbrother is a slightly different approach and gives you all the advantages of another Grainfather system for a reduced cost (not sure if people are mixing up buying a Grainfather with a Grainbrother).

[supergreenmini]

I do have a boiler which i use as my HLT for sparging so i am annoyed i had not thought of that one. I'll need to add a hop filter (of any solution) but that would be a lot cheaper and i would need a pump to pump through the counterflow chiller. hhhmmmmmm. thoughts thoughts thought. Thanks for all your suggestions.

I'm thinking of trying the brewing a higherOG beer and then blending back. This way i do not have to purchase any extra kit but i am aware it may affect the flavours of my beer in getting the hop scaled.

The beauty of the grainbrother is it repeats my current processes and includes the pump.