As I've mentioned several times on the blog, I acquired iMake's The Grainfather RIMS brewing system in August 2015 through their Kickstarter campaign that began in March of that year. The system and its excellent counter flow wort chiller is pictured at the left. When I first got The Grainfather, I was frustrated with it. In part, this was because I had based my expectations on reviews of the non-US version of the device, which has a lot more wattage and voltage flowing through its heating element. It could heat mash water a lot faster than mine and get the wort to a much more rolling boil a lot more quickly. In experience to date, the US version of The Grainfather takes about a minute to heat a five-gallon load of water or wort 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit. So heating mash water from my current (January 2016) tap water temperature of 57F to a typical mash temperature of 151F (a 94F change) takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 90 minutes. If you compa...