Grainfather G40 All Grain Brewing System - 40L/11G (220V)

I have had the G40 now for a year... I have never brewed so much beer! I was using a cooler for mash, and a kettle for boil, old school set up. This was a huge upgrade. I am hitting my numbers consistently using this, mash efficiency is a solid 75-80% depending on the crush of the grain.

Set up is easy and cleaning is super easy. The app. makes the brew day super simple. I think the only downside is my brew days are more hands-off now that I don't have to keep messing with making sure I hit water temperatures etc.

This is an amazing piece of kit. I've been brewing exclusively on Grainfather machines since 2018. I started with the G30 and this is a HUGE step up. A few things I absolutely love about this machine:

• Only 3 pieces of stainless to clean after mashing. No fiddly rubber gaskets to clean or deal with.
• The stainless plate at the bottom is extremely clever. Get a whirlpool going after the boil with a big spoon and all the trub/hops settle on this plate that is easily lifted up by hand and dumped after pumping the wort to the fermenter. I have yet to have a clog when pumping to fermenter either.
• Cleaning is a breeze after boiling, due to the drain out at the bottom (buy yourself a stainless ball valve).
• The controller has one cable going to it, far less fiddling to clean the outside of the rig than the G30.
• Comes to a boil in ~10-15 minutes after mashout. Very fast.
• Chilling is the same as the G30, works great.

Overall, this is a great machine and I see myself using this for many years to come. It has simplified my brew day even more than the G30 already had. Other than some minor calculation items (below), the engineering and quality of the equipment itself is bar-none for the price. I can really tell they took lessons-learned in engineering the G30 and applied fixes here.

Tips:
• The crush of your malt is EXTREMELY important. It has to be fine enough so that when you lift the grain basket when fly sparging as to not just rush past the grains, but also not too fine to have a slow/stuck grainbed and have the water flow through the holes in the side of the basket.
• Making sure your water level during the mash is 1" above the grainbed is also EXTREMELY important. If it is too high or not above the grainbed, your efficiency will suffer (I would hit 50-60% on occasion before I knew how important this was).
• The formula Grainfather uses in their recipe calculator for water volume can get you into trouble with super hoppy beers. It does not account for water absorption in hops in your initial water requirements, so you can end up WAY short (I was short 3 quarts once due to this). If you are brewing a hoppy beer with leaf hops. I recommend using your own math to add more water or use different software (I use Brewers Friend, which accounts for water absorption due to hops). *I have submitted a ticket to Grainfather and they did not seem interested in addressing this.