If you’re running the system on 120V, it takes about 1.5 hours to heat water from 55 F to 150F. It’s about half that on 240. I like to get things ready before brewday (weighing grain, mineral additions, etc.) so brew day all I need to do is mash in. If you do all your prep while your water is heating up, then that might not be such a big deal for you. Keep in mind that the delay feature counts down to when the system will start heating, so if it’s 9:30 PM and want to brew at 8 AM the next day you need to set the delay to 9 hours (start heating water at 6:30 AM @ 120V for 1.5 hours).
This feature alone is worth the price of admission on the Anvil. I can prep my water the night before, set the timer, and be ready to mash in before I start making my son’s breakfast. That extra hour of sleep is priceless
The anvil foundry coupled with no chill brewing has made my brew days such a breeze and even more enjoyable, and I didn’t think I could get more enjoyment out of making my own beer!!!
Im not fmiliar with “No Chill Brewing”. I can look up the details but generally, how does that work? Is there a noticeable difference in the taste or quality of the beer?
When Drew and I were in Australia it was rare to find a homebrewer who didn’t do no chill. The usual vessel is an HDPE jerry can. Tne beers were uniformly excellent and if you hadn’t been told you’d never know they were no chill. Even major homebrew stores produce ready to pitch wort which is hot packed. Certainly turned our heads around.
The No Chill method is something I want to try, but I guess I need to find a vessel for the initial storage that can take hot wort without fear of leeching plastics - is HDPE the same as a regular brewing bucket? What about using a stainless fermenter and purging with CO2 and covering with plastic wrap overnight? That “Ready to Pitch” containers of wort are interesting - I wonder how well those are received by competitions? I guess fermentation regulation, yeast selection and dry hopping would be the homebrewer’s contribution to the final product.
Cornies I have! As to the competitions, I guess you are right - it is little different from an extract brew made by a homebrewer and entered into competition as one’ own. At some point along the continuum, we all rely on the craftsmanship of another person in our beers (unless one is growing and malting his/her own grains and hops and harvesting wild yeast for culturing).
Is the Grainfather your primary system these days? Do you mash and boil in it? Do you sparge? Have you made any modifications or do have any tips/tricks?
It’s not only my primary system, I have 2 of them! A G30 and a G70. The old cooler and propane burner went into storage a few months ago. No modifications, both totally stock. I do a kind of combo fly/batch sparge most of the time, although I have done no sparge on the G30. I use an induction plate to heat sparge water. I did a 6 gal. batch on the G70 yesterday, 3.75 hours from start to finish including cleanup.
3.75 hours is a bit quicker than my quickest batch - just a hair under 4 hours, including cleanup. Lately I have been mashing a little longer - 75 minutes to get some extra stirring of the mash (I don’t recirc much anymore on my 5 gallon batches.) The 240V option with my Anvil Foundry makes getting to a boil from mash temps a breeze.
I look forward to eventually going to 240 with my Anvil but am pleased that I still am able to do 4 hour brew days with 120. Today I mashed in at 7:55 and finished cleanup before 11:30 with a 70 minute mash and holding at 180 for a 30 minute whirlpool. A couple weeks ago with a simpler procedure I finished a batch milling to cleanup in about exactas 4 hours.
Love waking up to hot strike water.
