Grainfather Connect Complete All In One Home Beer Brewing System, 8 gallons

Love it! I bought this because I moved into an apartment on the top floor. Can’t use a propane burner on the patio above someone else’s patio for sure. And no hose or any space for a mash tun. Or hot liquor tank for that matter. So for that reason alone this thing is amazing. I can brew right in the kitchen.This little electric brew system is very well made. I’ve had no problems with it at all. No leaks no stuck pump or stopped up filter. Made 5 beers on it now and the improvement in clarity from the recirculating mash is fantastic. I’ll be adding that to my big brew setup if I ever go back for sure. It’s easy to use (aside from the occasional battle with the gaskets when trying to put the mash tun back together every brew day. Sometimes it goes in like a charm sometimes it takes 10-20 tries and beer break.) Heats water efficiently enough for me. Brew day with 2-3 mash steps and room temp water start takes me about 4 hours start to finish which ain’t bad at all. (60 min boil.) the counter flow chiller works great. No leaks, quick and efficient. And comes with the adapter to use your sink faucet which is a huge bonus. Apartment brewer remember? I had to make one last time I was in an apartment.Cleaning is the only hassle. It’s a little difficult to lift this thing into the sink to wash because of the way it’s built and weighted. The bottom is a lot heavier than the walls of the kettle so holding it by the handle to tip into the sink doesn’t work very well. But it’s doable and worth the trouble for the rest of it.I can’t say I’ll never switch back to using a kettle and mash tun setup but if I do it won’t be because of anything my grainfather did.

The system is easy to use. I greatly enjoyed using the Grainfather as well. I have been brewing for nearly 10 years and this unit is awesome ^_^ At least you can make recipes on their website and keep referring to your phone while brewing. I will also recommend watching the YouTube channel "David Heath Homebrew" to see if the Grainfather is for you. There are some tips and tricks to making your first brew day as simple as possible. I can see the integrated pump being a point of failure, even though mine worked perfectly, and I recommend the "Hop Spider with Adjustable Hook 6" x 14" sold here on Amazon. The hook fits perfectly onto your Grainfather and it catches nearly all the trub from the hop pellets clearing your beer and putting less strain on your pump. All and all, I am beyond satisfied with my Grainfather.Caveat: The app is almost complete garbage.

I had switched to All-Grain years ago and have had a variety of home-made systems, mash tuns, gravity systems.... I made the plunge almost two years ago and the Grainfather offers more precise control over brewing parameters, my efficiency has gone up, the footprint is smaller, the cleanup is easier, and I no longer worry about 3 propane burners firing with heavy water-filled pots 8 feet in the air while my daughters are running around. I also have 2 Grainfather conical fermenters and I love all of them. In addition to awesome design and functionality Grainfather customer service is top notch. My pump conked out and after a few questions and some photos of the pump, Grainfather sent a replacement ASAP, no charge.

After putting it together, water poured out of the bottom where the pump connects. No info on website for how to fix it, so back it goes.Update:Received 2nd unit. I really, really wanted to like this, but:(1) could not connect the unit to my phone(2) Trying to get the silicon trim to stay on the metal filter is almost impossible (why do they not permanently attach this?).(3) Counter-flow chiller started leaking (water, not wort) halfway through cool down. Hopefully the lid prevented it from getting into the wort, but either way it made a huge mess in my garage.Since my current set-up is a 10-gallon cooler for the mash gravity fed into my propane heated brew kettle, this seemed like a much easier way to brew, with the benefits of recirculating during mash and using electric instead of propane (additional con--the electric element takes much, much longer to heat liquids, and never really gets you to a rolling boil. Plus side I guess is that boil over isn't really a concern). However, with all the problems I've experienced, it seems vastly over-priced for what turns out to be a fairly unreliable RIMS unit.

I love my Grainfather, but I had to upgrade it. I changed the recirculation arm connection to a camlock (conversion kit from Williams brewing), got a false bottom to solve the clogging issue (Robobrew false bottom from Williams Brewing), got a lid with handles (also from the Robobrew. Slightly too tight of a fit, but priceless to have actual handles), purchased the brew jacked for heat retention, and got rid of the counterflow chiller and went back to using an immersion chiller (Jaded Brewing Hydra chiller. Absolutely worth every penny. Chills a 5 gallon batch to pitching temp in under five minutes! Seriously an incredible product.)With all those changes I love the Grainfather. Its easy to use, easy to clean, and takes up very little space unlike my old brewing system. I brew way more than I use to because its so easy. I enjoy brewing more than I ever have thanks to the Grainfather. But, I completely recognize it comes with built in flaws and very little support now that the company is no longer owned or run by the original creators. Hopefully they'll address the flaws eventually, but I think right now, the owner is tasked with doing it themselves.I'm happy with my purchase, but it wasn't the magical all in one system that I had hoped for.