Begin Brewing!

I've been brewing now for at least 7 years. Over that time, I've brewed well over 100 batches and used several different configurations of equipment. Most of the batches were brewed with iMake's The Grainfather all-in-one system. Many were brewed with PicoBrew's Zymatic.  For the last 8 months, I've brewed exclusively with the Brewie+.  For home brewers considering purchasing a Grainfather, Zymatic, or Brewie+, I thought it might be worthwhile to share some thoughts and experiences since I've been fortunate enough to use all three. Let's start with a quick comparison of high-level features: iMake's The Grainfather: Uses 110 volt (for the US model) electrical outlets Brews up 8 gallons in a single batch Has a grain bill limit of X pounds Provides good temperature control through the mash With the "Connect" controller, you can control temperature and pump activation remotely with their app, provided you are in Bluetooth range Handle...

Today I received The Grainfather, a brewing system I backed on Kickstarter some time ago.  Tonight, I'm going to share my initial impressions based on unboxing and assembling the the unit.  When I've had time to clean it and actually use it, I'll share more. The Grainfather arrives in a large box.  The box filled most of the passenger seat in my 2002 Mustang.  I had to slide the seat back as far as it would go and tilt the back of the seat down as far as it would go to hold it there. Our cat Londo checking out the box.  The cheek rub indicates approval. The box took a little minor damage in shipping, but was otherwise intact.  Inside, I found another box. The inner white box containing The Grainfather Inside that, the good stuff was finally revealed... My Early Adopter T-Shirt, the instruction manual, and the glass lid The instruction manual Glass lid Underneath the spacer was the Grainfather unit itself, wrapped in lots of plas...

Yesterday I received my first copy of Brew Your Own magazine.  In it I saw an ad for something called The Grainfather .  Currently listed on Kickstarter to obtain crowdfunding for a U.S. launch of the product, The Grainfather (pictured at the left) is an all-in-one system for home brewing. I read some reviews of the product and found a copy of its instruction manual online.  It looks like it makes all-grain brewing a lot simpler and easier. In the device, you can mash your grain bill, sparge it, boil the wort, chill it to yeast pitching temperature with the counterflow chiller pictured next to it (looks like a big hose), and pump it into your fermenter.  The only thing not included is the fermenter and a place to hold/heat your sparge water... but if you have an existing brew kettle you can use The Grainfather to boil a batch of sparge water and use the built-in pumps to pump it into a kettle or stainless steel fermenter to cool down to sparge temperature...