If you remove the “con” that the Grainfather is not scalable compared to some other systems, when it comes to "pure’ quality of the wort being put into the fermenter, is the Grainfather at par with other systems? if not, why not? thanks
Sure…can’t think why it wouldn’t be. I have a Grainfather, a Zymatic, a Pico, and 3 cooler systems. All make great beer.
I’ve only done BIAB prior to buying my GF, but I’m very happy with the results.
Guys that I know who have the Grainfather love it. The only issue I have heard is the long-ish time it takes to heat to boil and the lower boil rate (more of a simmer). Wrapping the device with an insulating jacket solves the issue I am told. Wort quality is not an issue - I know one guy won medals brewing beers with the GF.
Mine is a UK model, so is much quicker to get to temp/boil, if I was in the US, I’d definitely look at getting a heat stick to fix that.
I’ve had it for a couple years and had very little go wrong. I will say that doing big beers on this kit is difficult without adding DME. 5-7% beers are fine 8-10% are challenging for me but I rarely brew that big.
When I brew big beers, I tend to brew smaller batches (15L), and have had no issues fitting it in the GF.
Yes it’s not up scaleable but it is very good doing smaller batches with the added micro pipework. I like to use it when I’m brewing by myself but I don’t like take it on the road and I like my propane BIAB setup for outside with friends. The other reason I like GF is with the new controller I can tightly control temp and do a step mash with ease that I would have trouble doing in a BIAB rig.