The Grainfather - All in One, All Grain Brewing System

Anyone ever heard of the Grainfather? It’s supposedly an all in one system currently sold in New Zealand & Australia. I stumbled across this on Kickstarter where they’re trying to raise cash to bring it to the US.  I don’t have the space to go all grain, but this looks like a really compact system that could make it possible for me to go all grain.  Thoughts? Thanks

The Kickstarter page:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/884310658/the-grainfather-all-in-one-all-grain-brewing-syste?ref=nav_search]https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/884310658/the-grainfather-all-in-one-all-grain-brewing-syste?ref=nav_search

Looks like a bigger version of the Picobrew Zymatic.

I’m very eagerly awaiting a bit more detail, but this appears to do what the Braumeister and Picobrew do (all electric, ability to step mash) at a much lower cost.  Doesn’t have quite as many bells and whistles as either of the options I just mentioned, but at half the cost it’s a fair trade-off IMO.

I showed this to some friends and everyone was worried on how this thing can keep a decent boil running on only a 1,600 watt element.  The Grainfather folks said they will post a video in the next few days showing that it can boil vigorously enough.  There are videos all over YouTube of the AU/NZ/UK 2000w version, and it definitely has a nice rolling boil, so we’ll see once that gets released.  They’ve stated it carries a 7% boil-off/hour rate for the US version, but I’m guessing if you wrapped it in reflective insulation, you could push that up a few more %, which I for one would be more comfortable with.  7%/hour might be fine, but that’s getting into the gray area where there is some debate about whether you are boiling off enough.

8 gals is much better than 2.5 gal of the pico. and half the price…interested to see how it all shakes out with performance.

Few guys I know on a different brew board have the Aus/Nz version and really like it. Have used it for a few brews and have had no real issues with it

Reddit AMA going on now with the designer until 9pm tonight.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2x0sxs/i_am_imker_swanepoel_industrial_designer_for_the/