Brand New To Brewing | Initial Setup - Thoughts?

Ummmm. Your kit is extract but grainfather is really meant for all grain.

that’s a lot of money to spend and you almost certainly could get better prices and similiar results with cheaper options. You should prolly take a brewing class and get the basics down before investing so heavily in equipment that has to be honed in.

 

1. Yes.
2. My suggestions depend on your answers to some questions below.
3. Can't help you there, I'm not a kegger.
4. There are a number of supply items that you'll need. Everything that you list, but the biggie that you didn't mention is a hydrometer.
5. See #3.
6. My first recommendation is to read HowToBrew.com which is the online 1st edition and is free to read online, or purchase the latest edition (4th) so that you have something to highlight, take notes, etc. There is a good section on equipment and supplies.

At this point all you've given us is that you want to begin to homebrew and to keg your beers. Some things that you need to figure out would be whether you want 10 gallons of one beer without getting bored with it before its gone, 5 gallons of two beers in your kegerator, or if you want to experiment with multiple small-batch beers so that you have a new beer every weekend, etc. Figuring out those questions will decide whether you get equipment for 10-gallon batches, 5-gallons, or smaller. You should fit your equipment to your goals.

Your brewing space can affect your equipment choice too. Are you going to brew on your kitchen range (which likely cannot handle batches over 3 gallons without some McGyvering), or are you able to get outdoors and brew over a LP gas set-up?

Your equipment purchases will also depend on whether you will brew strictly with malt extract or if you want to brew all-grain recipes or a brew-in-a-bag arrangement.

What you don't want to do as a beginner is to jump right in and brew 10 gallons and it turns out to be a beer that you don't like. It's expensive to pour beer down the drain.

My suggestion above to read How To Brew can help you figure out your priorities and goals. It can also help you figure out which questions to ask after your goals are better identified. We can help you a lot here, but we don't want to decide your goals for you. It's a great hobby, but you need to jump in right to avoid potential frustration.

P.S. Welcome to the BA site and to the Homebrewing forum, and to this great hobby.

 

I’d make my own kegerator out of a full size fridge. It ain’t pretty but it sits in my garage and I fit 4 kegs in there.

I’d go with something cheaper then the grainfather like the robobrew or brewzilla.

I’d prolly get a regular immersion chiller.

you need some sort of way to control fermentation temps. Much more important then fermenting in stainless at room temp.

 

@mrbillstunes

#1 you can’t ferment and pour beer at the same temps. Fermentation chambers try to keep your beer to whatever you set but usually between 45(lagers) to 90(saisons) while beer is typically served around 35f to 40F. You would need a way to control the temps of your fermenter either by a secondary chamber or some other device.

#2 yes it’s similiar but thats how all of brewing is. You really need to brew with a very basic set up first to see what your goals and wishes in brewing are. Buying all the best equipment from the start doesn’t guarantee success and could make you end up buying stuff you don’t need.

 

So if you find put you dont like brewing beer you're out thousands 9f dollars? Insanity. For a cook hundred I picked up a kit that had two fermenters, a bottle ca9 installer, hydrometer. I picked up a never been used Turkey fryer set up for fifty bucks and was off to the races. I would immerse my boil kettle into a half barrel of ice water and stir to chill. I would then dump the entire thing, trub and all, into the fermenter. Those were extract batches. Following that I started mini mashing in a Dutch oven from the kitchen. No added costs. I won my only gold medal on that set up. I have moved to all grain at this point and have modified my old equipment to keep up with the evolution. The one piece i have truly retired is my old kettle. It have it for crawfish boils still, but it just wasn't large enough. The equipment i spent the most money on are hardware pieces. I have a bunch 9f stuff i really dont use, but those were mostly flash in the pan gadgets given to me for fathers day and what not. Big mouth bubbler comes to mind. Cheap shit. But the speidel instead.

 

If you are even the least bit of a DYI-type, you can make a kegerator or keezer for less that will hold multiple kegs. Lots of online information. Note: I AM NOT a DYI-type, but I managed to pull this one off. It is not difficult to build something that you would feel proud of. If you DIY it you'll be able to keep multiple beers on tap. Assumes you have the space for something bigger. Anyhow, I'd think long before I bought that keg fridge.

If you go this route, you will want to get some corny kegs for your beers. SInce you do not seem averse to expense, you can buy them new. Or used.

Check with wherever you will get CO2 about whether they exchange vs. fill CO2 tanks. If they exchange, you will lose that shiny new tank for whatever they have available. May not be worth buying this.

 

Gotta crawl before you walk. Get a feel for it and see if you like it before diving in. You gotta figure the cost in time on all this stuff as well. A lot of people figure this out the hard way, which is why you'll find so much homebrew equipment on craigslist or brewclub bulletin boards.

Do you know anyone who homebrews? If so, see if you can tag along on a brew day, keep in contact throughout fermentation so they can tell you what's going on, and, probably most importantly, show up for packaging, especially if they're bottling (the least glamorous part of homebrewing). Definitely pitch in with all the cleaning. Offer to pay for the ingredients and split the batch. A good way to get a feel for the process without a big upfront outlay of funds.

 

Ditto on reading How To Brew.

If going all-grain, consider a grain mill. Although grain can be purchased milled/crushed from a LHBS or an online supplier, it’s best to crush shortly before mashing.

Unless I misunderstand the whole GrainFather concept, you’ll need a heat source to get the sparge water to temperature, often ~170°F. I’ve read about using an all-in-one brewing unit to heat the sparge water to boiling, transfer it to another 'holding' vessel, and then use the heated water from the holding vessel to sparge (after it’s cooled to the correct temp). Seems like a lot of work and might be tricky to have your sparge water at the correct temp exactly when you need it. If you're a gadget-type, maybe a sous vide would interest you.

You’re talking about using the kegerator as a fermentation chamber. That won’t work for the reason mentioned by @Prep8611
Fermentation temp control is for decreasing, increasing, or maintaining the temp to create an environment for the yeast to either produce a desirable result, or not produce an undesirable result. That's where a fermentation chamber is useful.
An immersion chiller is typically a coil of copper or SS tubing (25’, 50’, 75’). It’s placed in the boil kettle (or other boil vessel) toward the end of the boil to sanitize, then cold water is run through the coil to drop the temp of the boiled wort to near pitching temp as quickly as possible. (it’s another item that can be DIY or purchased pre-made). The GrainFather you linked comes with a counter-flow chiller, which does the same job as an immersion chiller but with a different technique.

 

Yeah, the Grainfather would solve that. I didn't realize that you're exclusively looking at such a system.

I looked at the reviews from the link that you provided and noted one very valid comment/complaint about the system being only a 110 volt system. That will take a while to bring 5-6 gallons to a boil, so you need to have some patience. Another comment in one of the reviews involved a balky pump and inefficient wort chiller, but no real specifics given.

@riptorn mentioned above that the chiller is a counter-flow style and I think there has been issues with sanitation with those, so some research may be needed about that. Browse the threads that apply to chillers, not stir plates: https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...=counterflow&o=date&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=8

I have some concern about the grainfather's claim that it can reduce 5 gallons of wort to less than 68 degrees in 20 minutes. Your water source has to be pretty cold coming from the tap and a lot of ice to do that.

There is a consumer market for these self-contained complete brewing systems, but these devices are not widely used by BA members who frequent this forum, thus a lack of good intel for you. Here is a link to a search that I did on the word grainfather, so some reading beyond the 9 reviews on the site might be enlightening. If you're going to spend $1,000 you need to know as much as you can. https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/search/118767044/?q=grainfather&t=post&o=date&g=1&c[node]=8

 

You can also heat sparge water on a kitchen stovetop.

You mentioned that you are really into cooking. Would you prefer to pop a frozen lasagna into the oven or to make a lasagna from scratch? It's that sort of thing.

Do you want a cookie cutter process, or one that provides more flexibility to experiment with alternative processes?

You could call it bravado or hubris, I guess, but in my experience the grainfather/picobrew/robobrew/etc. users tend, on average, to be folks that don't really understand (care?) what's going on in their brewhouse. There are exceptions of course, and some of them are members of this forum.

 

My local homebrew shops sell an introductory gear package. Watch craigslist, people are always selling homebrew gear.