Anyone buy a Guten?

[ben 10]

1 hour ago, Beerlust said:

I've just realized

You can't spell.

[Beerlust]

8 minutes ago, Ben 10 said:

I'm not experienced in your product BUT I used milk crates under my urn.. Perhaps a shitty chopping board will be enough?

My fold out table is made of harder plastic than milk crates. I'm guessing your crates didn't melt?

5 minutes ago, Ben 10 said:

You can't spell.

Apparently I can. I'm multilingual. 

Lusty.

[Hairy]

I don’t know how the Guten compares to the Grainfather but the base of the GF wouldn’t get hot enough to melt plastic.

I sit mine on a wooden trolley thingy so a chopping board on the table might be a good idea.

[Dozer71]

2 hours ago, Beerlust said:

The base of these units where the element is housed, how well insulated are they? How much heat do they put out underneath & are they safe to sit on all surfaces? I have a long hard plastic fold-out table I plan to use on brew days that I would like to sit the unit on if it is safe to do so.

I would appreciate some experienced input on this one.

Lusty.

The base and underside of the Guten 40L is hard plastic where the power cord can be kept out of the way for the storage. So heat through the base with the 40L isn't a problem. Only guessing the 50L is similar,

[Norris!]

Something low so you can lift the malt pipe out. I set mine on a wooden chair, it hasn't started on fire and I haven't noticed it getting hot. The base has concrete in it so it is a good insulator to heat on the base.

Practice running the programs for the brewday, it makes it smoother and being able to pause the system mid step and restart it at the step, basically using the pause button. Be prepared to go to manual mode if you get flustered.

Set a program or two before brewday. There is a video or two on youtube about this, as you know, Daft Cat has a video and there is another one from a guy who shows you how to set it, super short. This helps to have a program as the system sits low and can be a pain to adjust settings in manual, so that is why I suggest having a program set and ready  before you fill it with water and grains and you can just go with the pre-set schedule of the program.

I recommend a practice play. Boil some water, time the boil and ramp to mash. Check the interior and exterior water level markings. Mine is about a liter off in some markings but spot on above 25l. Weird. But depends on how attention to detail you are, not that it matters on some brewday and situations.

Where you going to sit the malt pipe and grain after the sparge or no sparge to catch the remaining wort? Even if you don't use it, you can check the gravity of the runnings for an idea about the sparge effectiveness and adjust the process in that area if needed and I hate to see wort go to waste, it can be used for starters also. The spent grain makes good bread, I use a cup in just a normal bread recipe and it comes out like a nice loaf.  I haven't came up with a good use for the rest yet...

Super stoked for you Lusty. The biggest difference for me has been the consistency of the batches and the reduced costs.

My first batch I did none of this and I hit my OG but missed my volume by 4 liters.

[iBooz2]

On 7/22/2020 at 6:19 PM, Beerlust said:

Yup. Already checked my fuse box & 15 amp circuits already in place. 

Nearly all modern household GPO's run off a 16 amp fuse or circuit breaker so all fuses or circuit breakers in your fuse box would be 16 amp I am guessing.  Up to 10 x 10 amp GPO's are wired up to the one 16 amp fuse or circuit breaker generally except for kitchens which usually have their own 16 amp circuit for a few 10 amp GPO's

The only reason a separate 15 amp GPO outlet or circuit is installed is generally for an air-con (old box type that plugs in). welder and the like.  Not many households or garages have a true 15 amp outlet i.e 1 x 16 amp fuse/breaker = 1 x 15 amp outlet.

Also running an extension cord causes voltage drop in the cord wiring x length and depends on mm2 of wiring core. and amps drawn  Thin mm2 in the extension cord x long length = higher voltage drop in the copper.  Therefore get a good extension lead with big fat mm2 copper wire inside it.  Consult a sparkie for best options / opinions.

Cheers - AL

[iBooz2]

4 hours ago, Beerlust said:

As much as I'd like to just dive straight in & do a brew, I've spent a pretty penny on this Blichmann chiller so need to test it with the water re-circulation system

Very interested in this chiller so will be watching this space when you report @Beerlust  Almost have one on order, just waiting and watching until my 70 Litre AG system comes back into stock with the supplier.

Cheers - Al

[Aussiekraut]

11 hours ago, Beerlust said:

Hi guys.

I do have a serious question actually...

The base of these units where the element is housed, how well insulated are they? How much heat do they put out underneath & are they safe to sit on all surfaces? I have a long hard plastic fold-out table I plan to use on brew days that I would like to sit the unit on if it is safe to do so.

I would appreciate some experienced input on this one.

Lusty.

You should be fine. I never "felt it up" as such but every now and then you touch the base and never noticed excess heat. I have mine sitting on a wooden storage box from K-mart and it has no scorch marks, so it should be fine to handle hard plastic. As long as the table can handle the weight, you should be fine. Make sure it's not sitting too high, as you need to be able to lift the malt pipe out. Mine is just far enough off the ground to fit a Coopers FV under the tap.

 

[Beerlust]

Hi iBooz.

12 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

Nearly all modern household GPO's run off a 16 amp fuse or circuit breaker so all fuses or circuit breakers in your fuse box would be 16 amp I am guessing.  Up to 10 x 10 amp GPO's are wired up to the one 16 amp fuse or circuit breaker generally except for kitchens which usually have their own 16 amp circuit for a few 10 amp GPO's

The only reason a separate 15 amp GPO outlet or circuit is installed is generally for an air-con (old box type that plugs in). welder and the like.  Not many households or garages have a true 15 amp outlet i.e 1 x 16 amp fuse/breaker = 1 x 15 amp outlet.

Also running an extension cord causes voltage drop in the cord wiring x length and depends on mm2 of wiring core. and amps drawn  Thin mm2 in the extension cord x long length = higher voltage drop in the copper.  Therefore get a good extension lead with big fat mm2 copper wire inside it.  Consult a sparkie for best options / opinions.

Cheers - AL

Your knowledge of my fuse box layout is spooky as it is pretty much identical to what I have. You must be a sparky.  My aircon is on a separate circuit, & I have 4 x 16 amp circuits & 1 x 10 amp circuit.

I assume as long as I don't overload the circuit I've got the Guten plugged into (by using another high power drawing device on it at the same time), I shouldn't have any problems?

BTW, even though the unit can utilise 3000 watts, from the demo videos I've watched if you program the brew segments well, it'll rarely be needed to run at that level.

P.S. @Norris! @Aussiekraut Thanks for reminding me on placing the unit at a suitable height, as I may have to re-think this to get the malt pipe out comfortably.

Cheers all,

Lusty.

 

[iBooz2]

Unfortunately my choice of AG kit delivery has been pushed back yet again.  First they said early July so held off until then.  late July was informed it will now be early August.  Now early August but pushed back yet again, it seems now it will not be until late August or early September.

Hence re-looking at the Guten 70 L system as the plan is to do double batches to try to make it more efficient "AG workload" wise.

Not to worry as I have now bottled up or kegged 30 + Coopers kits since January this year so stocks are all good here.

The other worry with AG is if supplies of grain can still be readily acquired and delivered during this stage 4 lock down and what sort of base grains I should order to start me off.  Thinking of buying the 25 kg bags of base grains.  Main brews are pale ales, lagers pilsners ATM.

Cheers - AL

[Beerlust]

1 hour ago, iBooz2 said:

Unfortunately my choice of AG kit delivery has been pushed back yet again.  First they said early July so held off until then.  late July was informed it will now be early August.  Now early August but pushed back yet again, it seems now it will not be until late August or early September.

Yep same thing happened to me. It just kept getting pushed back further & further. So I went up a size larger than I had originally planned. Sorta glad I did now as it allows me to no-sparge so don't need a second HLT or use of a large pot on the stove etc. At 50L I can do double batches if I wish to sparge. So pretty versatile. Only thing I found a little awkward was placing the top grain screen on as you have to position it blindly down through a lot more liquid/wort on a single batch size brew. No biggy though, & I'll get better at it.

1 hour ago, iBooz2 said:

...Hence re-looking at the Guten 70 L system as the plan is to do double batches to try to make it more efficient "AG workload" wise.

I hope you have a pulley system planned as lifting 10kgs+ of wet grain out of the unit manually would take some effort.

All the best with it. 

Lusty.

[ben 10]

1 hour ago, iBooz2 said:

Thinking of buying the 25 kg bags of base grains.

I have pale / ale - a few and singles of wheat, rye, munich.
Depends what you brew.

[Beerlust]

Hi guys.

I'm second brew in with the Guten 50L.

Am having some real problems with the unit holding mash temp. It is fluctuating quite a lot during the mash phase according to the inbuilt temp probe/gauge.

I tried lowering the wattage to very low & also to quite high in an effort to minimise the temp shift, but seemingly to no avail. 

Anyone else had similar problems?

Lusty.

[Titan]

I use a Gfather but i would expect they function somewhat the same. Check your recirc flow and crank it up if your overshooting set point. For next brew concider some rice hull to keep your recirc running smooth. These will also help with sparge if you do one.

[Hairy]

Sorry Lusty, I can’t help. I use the higher wattage to get it to mash temp, add the grain and start the pump. I leave it on high for a few minutes and then drop it down to the lower wattage for rest of the mash until mash out. 

It goes up and down about 1-2° at first until it stabilises and then remains fairly stable after that.

 

[Beerlust]

Hi Hairy & Titan. 

1 hour ago, Hairy said:

Sorry Lusty, I can’t help. I use the higher wattage to get it to mash temp, add the grain and start the pump. I leave it on high for a few minutes and then drop it down to the lower wattage for rest of the mash until mash out. 

It goes up and down about 1-2° at first until it stabilises and then remains fairly stable after that.

I had my strike temp much better this time when adding the grain, & then shortly after the unit fired up & pushed the temp a good 2°C+ past the mash temp I programmed. It then bounced between approx 1.5° & 2°C either side of that for quite sometime.

What is the "lower wattage" on the Grainfather Hairy?

3 hours ago, Titan said:

...Check your recirc flow and crank it up if your overshooting set point. For next brew concider some rice hull to keep your recirc running smooth. These will also help with sparge if you do one.

I reckon you've hit the nail right on the head. 

During the mash I couldn't run the recirc at full speed this time as when I did try, too much wort was accumulating above the top screen over the grain bed to the point it likely would have pushed over the top of the overflow tube had I not reduced the speed. I didn't have this problem with my first brew.

Once I removed the malt pipe before the beginning of the boil, I inspected the grain bed & it was noticeably more compacted, & not like I inspected with my first brew. I was concerned when I did my first brew, that I may have not pushed the top screen down far enough, so made more of an effort this time around to push it further down. I believe that was a mistake on my part, as I've likely compressed the grain bed & restricted flow as a result.

Luckily it doesn't appear to have affected extraction & efficiency. I'm still learning.

Thank you both for your insights & help. 

Lusty.

[Hairy]

Lusty

High is 2,000 watts and low is 500 watts. Don’t be concerned if it jumps around for a few minutes but you do want it to stabilise after that.

I only push down the top plate until it lightly sits on the grain bed, don’t push it down hard.

Also, when I first start the pump the wort builds up and some starts going down the overflow pipe. Not a big deal. It usually sorts itself out after a few minutes starts recirculating through the mash a little faster.

Perhaps you are Guten intolerant 

Sorry, I have waited ages to use that one.

[iBooz2]

On 8/8/2020 at 6:13 PM, Beerlust said:

Yep same thing happened to me. It just kept getting pushed back further & further. So I went up a size larger than I had originally planned

I hope you have a pulley system planned as lifting 10kgs+ of wet grain out of the unit manually would take some effort.

All the best with it. 

Lusty.

Yep I went up a couple of sizes too (even a 90-95 L) in the hope of getting my kit order filled but still no luck so circled back onto the Guten 70L which was still in stock.

No worries with a pulley as I have one of those cheap boat winches that you mount on a boat trailer fitted to one side wall of my brew shed and a pulley system fixed to the roof beam, just so I can lift the odd heavy item.

One question to everyone who uses these 1 V jobs.  Do you use these outside or inside on brew day?

I am concerned that if I use it where I want to use it, (with low ceiling in brew shed at 2.4 metres) the condensation may have an effect on the ceiling paint and or cause dripping of crap back into the boiler.  Not long re-painted the ceiling so don't want to stain it or otherwise make me have to paint it again.  And certainly do not want drips getting into the wort.

Have big 20 litre pot which has often boiled up about 8 - 10 litres max for partials and it has not been a problem that I have noticed so far.  But 60 or 70 litre boil may be pushing the point a bit.

What do you all think?

Cheers - AL

Edited August 19, 2020 by iBooz2

[iBooz2]

On 8/8/2020 at 6:24 PM, Ben 10 said:

I have pale / ale - a few and singles of wheat, rye, munich.
Depends what you brew.

Thanks Ben, yes I know it will depend on my batches.  Going to order a few as per some recipes I like and sure to make some mistakes with quantities and types of grains for the first few.  Just did not want to have bags sitting around of the wrong grains if I can help it and waste too much money.  Its another learning curve for me as planning on doing double batches hence twice the error risk or bad beer I may be forced to drink.

Cheers - AL

[Hairy]

9 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

One question to everyone who uses these 1 V jobs.  Do you use these outside or inside on brew day?

I brew inside; in the laundry.

I open the back door during the boil stage and set up a fan to blow the steam outside. It seems to work.

[Aussiekraut]

10 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

One question to everyone who uses these 1 V jobs.  Do you use these outside or inside on brew day?

I use it outside. There is no room in the laundry, so I brew on the patio right next to the tap. 

[Shamus O'Sean]

10 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

One question to everyone who uses these 1 V jobs.  Do you use these outside or inside on brew day?

I brew in the garage, but my garage has no ceiling.  I never have condensation drips.

[Fergy1987]

About to do my first brew on the Guten 40L. Been out of the brewing game for a bit so after some advice for the Guten.

Can any owners tell me what wattage I should mash at and what wattage to boil.

I've also got 5.25kg of grain and brewfather says to mash in 20.7L and add another 14 to sparge, does this sound about right to start with? I don't really know how to setup a good profile on there so I just used the one available on the app.

Any other beginner tips would be appreciated. Will be my first all grain, so doing the usual over thinking.

[Aussiekraut]

9 hours ago, Fergy1987 said:

About to do my first brew on the Guten 40L. Been out of the brewing game for a bit so after some advice for the Guten.

Can any owners tell me what wattage I should mash at and what wattage to boil.

I've also got 5.25kg of grain and brewfather says to mash in 20.7L and add another 14 to sparge, does this sound about right to start with? I don't really know how to setup a good profile on there so I just used the one available on the app.

Any other beginner tips would be appreciated. Will be my first all grain, so doing the usual over thinking.

I use 2300W for everything. 2400 is pushing the limits of the 10A circuit and I don't want to risk tripping the circuit breaker. I have seen people use a higher wattage to heat up, then drop it for the process. TBH, I'm not sure what the advantages of varying the wattage is but I'm sure there are people here who can explain.

As for the mash and sparge, I usually do a 25l mash and 8l sparge for 60 minute boils and 25/10 for 90 minute boils. That works fine for me and I usually hit the numbers BeerSmith suggests and efficiency is around 75%.

I don't use the timers for the hop schedule, simply because by the time the boil is underway the music is on and at a volume where I cannot hear the alarms anyway  

I seem to have issues storing and retrieving profiles, so I do it all manually. It's faster than figuring out how to get the settings I want. It takes 2 minutes to get the wattage, timers and temperatures set, so no drama. Make sure the bottom screen in the mash tube sits right The buggers warp a fair bit over time and after I had one mishap where the bottom screen fell out as I lifted the mash tube out of the kettle, I pay extra attention to ensure it really foes sit right. The incident cost me 2 hours and 5kg of grain at the time.

 

[Fergy1987]

Well things are not going exactly to plann. I think I've got the wrong length overflow pipe, My silicon hose is not long enough. I tried to move the pump hose and liquid went everywhere lol.....fun times. But I've currently got 24 mins of mash left, hops are measured out, sparge water is ready. We are slowly getting there.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Fergy1987